ComplaintsforPR Builders, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  07/12/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My husband and I hired PR Builders to finish our basement. We received a quote for the project and paid this company a 30k deposit. The owner of PR builders is a General contractor and a licensed septic professional. As a General contractor and licensed septic professional the owner performed unpermitted work based on the plans to add two bedrooms and 2 bathrooms in the basement and failed to verify septic capacity therefore the county would not approve the permit and now we have a basement framed in for a project we are unable to finish. PR Builder's with his knowledge and experience as a GC and licensed septic professional never discussed concerns with septic capacity until he was unable to get the building permit in which at that time the entire basement was already framed in based on the plans his company did for us. I have tried to resolve this with PR builders but they fail to respond or return my phone calls. We have not received our deposit back. We have disputed invoices they sent us because the invoice for the work performed was double the amount we were quoted. I sent an email informing PR Builders the following concerns and at this point may have to proceed with an attorney to get our money back. PR Builder's has not accepted any responsibility for their mistakes and they are in direct violation of their own contract. • PR Builders performed unpermitted work which resulted in unfavorable scenarios to the client and a clear breach of contract. • As a result of unpermitted work, client is subject to increased permittng costs, risk that unpermitted work fails to pass local code inspection. Client is at risk of incurring additional expenses to tear out renovations completed and redo it to bring it up to code. • Scope of Work and estimated cost is inconsistent with actual cost for this project resulting in unfavorable circumstances to the client. • PR Builders continued to bill for services and rental equipment left on site even after client asked to have this removed and the project was on hold due to failure to get building permit. • PR Builders failed to provide a detailed invoice for services claimed to be complete. Client verbally requested a detailed explanation for all services on 5/18/2023 for past invoices to verify claimed work performed was complete. Client disputed Invoices remains unresolved. • As a licensed septic professional and general contractor, PR builders failed to verify septic capacity prior to approving unpermitted work which has resulted in unnecessary expenses to client. Attempts to contact PR builders to resolve this has been unsuccessful up to this point. We are requesting a full refund of the 30k deposit since the work his company performed was not permitted and we are unable to get a permit due to septic tank capacity will not support the plans. All the work in the basement performed by PR builders including building supplies will need to be removed or a 50k septic tank will need to be installed to get approved for a building permit. If PR Builder's obtained a building permit prior to starting this project, all of this could have been avoided.

  Business response

  08/01/2023

  We have admitted our mistake of not verifying the septic field size several times throughout your project and presented several paths forward to solving this issue. Although you had met with several other contractors and had received bids for your projects from them, none of those contractors had brought up the septic tank size as an issue either. This isn't an excuse for our oversight, but in a complex project managing challenging design choices and engineering sometimes details like these are overlooked in our permit preparation.

  We have met with you several times in good faith to resolve this issue but you reject every one of our solutions. It is untrue that we were unresponsive about issues that arose but met with you and your husband several times to resolve these. We became unresponsive via text and phone call when it became very apparent that you were not interested in solving the issue, and told us you were no longer going to use us to finish the project.
  
  Justin and yourself explicitly approved the plans for work to be completed after several meetings. Justin pushed and gave direct approval to start this project before we had the permit in hand to expediate the process.
  
  As relating to the cost of the project, the scope of the project changed weekly in the manner of tens of thousands of dollars. We could never get a clear answer from you on the final direction that you wanted to take. During this time period, several add-ons were communicated to our subcontractors and project managers that we performed. Since we are a cost plus contractor, we simply completed those tasks at that time and billed you accordingly. This is a large part why some of the trades came in more expensive than what was originally budgeted. Also, we were promised many times that selections were to be made so we could firm up the budget. However, these were never completed and we received the blame for you picking out selections that were much higher than the allotted amount.
  
  If I remember correctly as well, you were the one to personally tell the dumpster driver to not pick up the dumpster but to wait until a later date.
  We have also provided all copies of invoices for all trades and vendors involved in this project as well and explained all of them in detail to you as well. It is untrue that we have not provided those to you.

  We worked through a multitude of issues that you raised all the way up through framing. My project manager and myself spent several late nights on your projects trying to help you through issues that were raised. Almost every time that we presented a solution, it was met with more roadblocks and an unwillingness to work with us to solve any issues. We offered many different resources to help throughout the process yet they were never used.

  We approached this situation in the best way we could think of.

  Business response

  08/01/2023

  This email was sent to the clients on 7/14 to resolve the issue of deposit however we never received a response from the Marcheses.

  Good Afternoon:
  
  Per our contract:
  “In the event that this Agreement is terminated by the client prior to completion of the Services but where the Services have been partially performed, the Contractor will be entitled to pro rata payment of the Compensation to the date of termination provided that there has no breach of contract on par of the Contractor.”
  
  I have broken down the deposits that you have used so far:
  
  Deposit used:
  Invoice #1642 - $520
  Invoice #1647 - $900
  Invoice #1668 - $600
  Invoice #1700 - $1,200
  
  Unpaid Invoice #1680 - $6,919.44
  Unpaid Invoice #1773 - $5,068.75
  Unpaid Invoice #1818 - $875.00
  Unpaid Invoice #1863 - $281.25
  
  Initial Deposit - $30,000
  Deposit Used - $16,364.44
  Deposit Remaining - $13,635.56
  
  All Invoices are attached for your review once again.
  
  Per our contract I can write a check of $13,635.56 and issue you a lien waiver.

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