Posted on 07/31/2006 7:16:23 AM PDT by Fighting Irish
Hurricane Wilma damaged their roof and like so many victims of the storm, one South Florida couple had trouble finding a roofer because of a shortage of materials and workers.
John and Kathleen Jurewicz finally did get contractor, but it has been anything but smooth sailing.
The couple hired McClung contractors to do the work.
With their insurance money, the couple paid the company nearly $14,000 for the roofing materials which was suppose to be turned over to ABC supply company.
Four months later the supplies still sit in their driveway and the work on the roof was never completed.
ABC supply put a lien on their house and then this past week the company began foreclosure proceedings saying they weren't paid.
The couple has been ordered to pay more than $22,000 to ABC supply or face losing their home.
Checks with the Better Business Bureau show both ABC supply and McClung Contractors have no complaints against them.
I've heard of so many crooked contractors that if I was having a major job done I would have a hard time giving them money for materials and letting them pay (or not pay as they choose) as opposed to buying the materials myself from the supplier and paying for labor separately.
They paid way too much up front. What incentive does the contractor have to finish the job?
While I am sorry for their loss and problems - there is a basic lesson here that the couple overlooked - and one that should have been shared with them by their own insurance company.
That is - if / when a contractor demands upfront money for materials, the homeowner needs to go directly to the agreed supplier and arrange personal payment for that they know the materials are their's, (at the agreed price) even if the contractor refuses to do the actually installation.
btw, my daughter and many others are still awating roof work.
This story baffled me as well ... which is why I posted it. Why the couple didn't obtain a line of credit from a company like Home Depot is beyond me.
They could have set up an account with the Home Deport Pro Desk in which their contractor could have ordered (and had delivered) on a as-needed basis. Why their insurance company didn't help them is just nuts.
Which brings me to point #2 ..... what gives insurance companies the right to drop clients or jack up premiums to such a degree when this is the type of service you get?
Me thinks the entire industry should be gutted, investigated and made to yield to the policy holders. I hate governmental intervention as much as the next guy .... but these insurance companies are like dealing with the Mafia sometimes. Sounds like a RICO investigation to me.
Paid a deposit then approx $9,000 additional for higher quality roofing, then more once the worked started.
The contractor subcontracted the roofing to a bunch of misfits protected by a hopefully soon to be dead lawyer (we are still allowed to wish for things like this in our country are we not). They misaligned the rows of roofing so that one row died out in the middle of the peak of the roof. 2 shingles fell off and there were ZERO nail holes in them. How many more are not nailed? They started the work when the temp was 13 degrees below zero even though the mfg states a minimum of 40 degrees F.
Nails are popping up, more tabs off shingles have fallen off. The sub was not a certified installer for the shingles so we have no warranty.
So now with all the quality issues(many more just as serious but way too long to include) we are withholding the last $6,000 of a $32,000 roofing job. The general contractor did not pay the sub because of the poor quality so the sub sued us and started foreclosure proceedings.
We of course had to get a lawyer and thanks to more hopefully soon to be dead lawyers we have to pay for our lawyer as there is no loser pays in our legal system.
So you can be completely in the right and still have the scum of the earth lawyers use all their slimy tricks to extort more money from you.
You know at least slimy worm type things morph into butterflies but lawyers morph into politicians and make more laws tailored so they can make more money. If someday you read that 3 lawyers were killed over a roofing job, see if I am still posting (just that recurring wish again).
In New Hampshire, private contractors are not required to be licensed. I had two sets of personal friends who lost tens of thousands to shady contractors in the last few years.
Not many people have any training in home repair/maintanence.
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