ComplaintsforDave B. Howell LLC

• Initial Complaint

  06/28/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I signed a contract with the company on August 2,2022 have paid in full in payment installment as per the contract but the company has not responded to me yet as to when they will complete the work and gives me the run around. I have called, text and sent a certified letter.

• Initial Complaint

  03/07/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I signed a contract with ***** Howell on 3/17/23 to remodel the interior of my single family home and build an addition off the back. I pad deposits of $15,000 and later paid an additional $12,500 for $27,500 in total. In 11 months he hasn't even secured a permit to begin the work. He is in blatant violation of FS ******* and Florida Building Code 105.3.2 for gross negligence in failure to secure a permit in timely manner. By law, his actions constitute abandonment of the project and I'm entitled t request a full refund. However, he refuses to return any funds.

  Customer response

  03/27/2024

  **** Howell seems to just be creating new BBB profiles to avoid bad reviews and ratings. He has so many "F" rated companies, I couldn't even capture them in one screenshot. He seems to have created a new entity in order to have one rate "A+" but this is the same conartists **** Howell that has all the other F ratings. This man should not have an A rated profile. He's a ***** with 23 complaints filed against his license with DBPR *********************** and Professional Regulation). I would like to move my complaint to the new, A+ rated **** Howell profile. It currently says he has no complaints which is joke when you look at all the other BBB complaints against him on all his other profiles and all the complaints filed with the ****************. Thus, please association my complaint #******** with/against ********** Howell LLC's A+ rated profile. Can you move my complaint to his A+ rated profile? Or should I file a new/separate complaint against that profile?
  
  Also, would like to change the wording of my public facing comments to reflect additional information I learned about him. Can you please ammend my complaint to read:
  
  "WARNING: **** Howell JUNIOR is NOT LICENSED. He goes around pretending to be Howell SENIOR (who is licensed). Do not be fooled by this man! Howell Junior is in his late 30's. If you're dealing with a man in his late 30's/early 40's, he is NOT A LICENSED CONTRACTOR! He lied to me and 4 other victims I've found so far claiming that he is licensed when he's not. Illegal, unlicensed activity aside, I wouldn't work with either **** Howell Senior or Junior because they abandon projects and run off with deposits. Read the other reviews and do your due diligence. These two clowns have ripped off customer after customer after customer. 
  I signed a contract with ***** Howell on 3/17/23 to remodel the interior of my single family home and build an addition off the back. I pad deposits of $15,000 and later paid an additional $12,500 for $27,500 in total. In 11 months he hasn't even secured a permit to begin the work. He is in blatant violation of FS ******* and ******* Building Code 105.3.2 for gross negligence in failure to secure a permit in timely manner. By law, his actions constitute abandonment of the project and I'm entitled t request a full refund. However, he refuses to return any funds.

• Initial Complaint

  02/22/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I began a contract with Dave B. H***** in September 2022 for a remodel at my house and complete an in-closement onto the house. The contract stated it would be broke down into three different phases and that the whole project would be completed by Dec 17, 2022. The first phase included the roof and pulling the permits for that part phase. He did not start with the roof until Nov 2022 and did not have the employees to complete the roof, which left the roof exposed to the weather for weeks before he started at the end of Nov 2022. There was a major tropical storm in the middle of this time period as well. From the beginning of the job he would leave the house wide open and just leave it that way until the neighbors called me and let me the know the house was open and he never returned for the day. I brought a key and provided it to the worker on the site, because he was never on site unless I called him and told him to meet me there. I was told by the workers on the project that he just picked them up that day, like day worker/from the streets/wherever, and would let them in the house to do work unsupervised. I confronted him about it. All my personal items were in the house and since he couldn’t do certain parts of the first phase he started to do the second phase, without asking. I addressed the personal belongings not being in the house when he completes the house and he said that he would do that phase, certain rooms at a time, so there was no need to get a storage unit. Since he started the phase without finishing phase one and having different strangers on the project daily, it was not communicated to me. The neighbors wanted to call code enforcement due to the derbies, trash, etc being just thrown any and everywhere, I had to ask them to let me address it first before calling code enforcement. I paid him for phase one as a down payment of 20,000 in September 2022, and then provided him phase two payment of 30,000 the week before Christmas, and he assured me the phase one and phase two would be completed by 2 weeks and I told gave him 3 weeks, so first week of Jan 2023 it should have been completed. I asked him to not start phase three at all numerous times. In Jan 2023 when he didn’t complete the phases and I began asking questions and telling him I need my house, he assured me by first week in Feb he would be completely done with those phases. Here we are at the end of February and phase one still is not completely finished, phase two is not even close to being half finished, and he started phase three after I asked him not to do this phase. Back in September 2022 I went ahead and bought/paid for a lot of the big supplies (flooring, granite, etc) which have been housed at the companies since then, and agreed on the rest of the materials needed all were supplied as part of contract but I paid for the supplies already ordered. He did not buy what we discussed and bought cheaper materials (closet doors made out of cardboard, etc). I have had materials, sub-contractors, go to the job and not be able to complete their part because he was not done with what need to be done so they could install the materials. I went by the house recently to find yet a different worker in the house, he stated that Dave H***** asked him to leave a doctor’s appointment and go to the house so it looks like we are working on the project, this happened to be phase three (this is the phase I have asked numerous times to not start). The worker he was subbing the work to did not feel comfortable doing things that were asked and stated them to me. So I asked that Dave H***** not return to my project, I changed the locks and asked him to get all of his things off my property, nothing was in the house. I have hired somebody to fix what is not done correctly, document everything that has to be fixed and the materials needed, everything that was not completed, and everything that was ruined during the process before anybody else begins on the project.

• Initial Complaint

  11/09/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  This project started on June 22 ***** The project is not still done because Mr. **** refuses to show up to work to bring the materials to pay the expensive but he is very responsible on coming over to ask for more money in order for him to continue two weeks ago the county did not approve the little job done And he still haven't show up yet to fox the situation. Mr. **** when you get to him about why he's not complying with part of the contract why he's not doing his job he gets aggressive and treats that he's not scare. He continues to say that he would finish the job but action speaks louder. Then words and two months ago I had to call the police on him because he left the trailer abandoned in front of my house with trash materials. I had paid already $ ****** for this ************** now there's trash all over the front house. Open garden that made my grass damage. And garden. Because he won't come to fix the problem.the person working in the project is refusing to come over to do anything because of mr. **** lack of payment and materials I need This job To be asp. 5 months is enough. I believe this is the way he runs he's business I'm not the first customer that complains about the same situation. due to the reviews. . Thank you

  Customer response

  11/26/2022

  Mr. **** continues not to show up for
  Work he haven't fixed anything. But he continues to say the same thing that he would get it done. But as nov,26,2022 no communication he's refusing to finish the job. He won't answer you txt or email. Mr. **** had left trash all over the front patio and also the worker had inform that he had not
  Show up for
  Work
  Because he haven't paid him. And that's why he is not
  Coming.

• Initial Complaint

  08/03/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On February 10th we hired Dave B. Howell LLC to prepare plans for an Addition we made at my home. I explained that I had attended to two code enforcement meeting and had until May 17th 2022 to comply and obtain 5 permits in total the charge was $5k. Mr. Howell informed that the plans would be ready in 2 weeks, yet it was not until March 31st - 50 days later that he presented us the drawings. Apparently there was a misunderstanding when we signed the contract, he indicated the $5k was only for the plans. At this point I felt it was best to continue working with him and signed a second contract to pull permits for: an Addition, a Re-Roof, a Fence, a Shed and Cement Slabs. Our main concern was that these be processed by May 17th date or the $500/day fine would be assessed on the property. He indicated it would/could be done so I again trusted him to pull the permits the charge was $6.5K. The second contract was signed March 31st and as of today none of the permits have been issued by him. As of today our home has a lien from Orange County and an accrued fee of $39,000.00. Not one permit has been issued and the last email I sent was on June 30, 2022 asking for a $5K refund which is the amount already paid to obtain the 5 permits and that is obvious will not be done. No respond was received either written or a phone call. The last email reply obtained from him to a June 19th follow up email was received June 20th, 2022 and read: I'll get back to you shortly. I am still waiting to hear back from him. At this point I have found someone else to help me get the permits, already obtained a Fence permit and is now working on the Shed permit. All I need to get is a full refund of the $5,000.00 I paid Dave B. Howell LLC to pull the permits since he has not done anything to get the job done.

  Business response

  09/16/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/08/05) */ The permits for this project was applied for and some corrections was needed to be made on the plans. However, due to the complexity of what is needed, the engineer working on the plans was delayed in making the corrections. I spoke to him today and he informed me that he will have the corrections to the plans ready by next week. I spoke to Ms. ******* and she agreed to give the time necessary to obtain the permits. If there are any further questions, please feel free to contact me at 407-902-7154 or email me at [email protected]. Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2022/08/18) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Since the second contract was signed on 3/31/22 I have been following up consistently to get the permits. The permit to which Mr. Howell is referencing here was opened 4/1/22 and the last phone call we had was 5/4, last email reply to my follow up was on 6/20 and read "I'll get back to you shortly" yet he did not. My last email was sent on 6/30/22 and did not get a reply at all. He called 8/5/22 due to claim submitted with BBB and since he has started working on the permit yet during the phone call I inquired on another permit and he indicated would get status but again I had to request status on 8/12/22 since he did not get back to me. That very day he sent someone to reconfirm measurements and I have not yet seen anything on the FastTrack site (last verified before submitting this response) nor have I received a reply to the most recent follow up request sent yesterday. At this point if it's an option I want to keep the claim open. I want to clarify that during the phone conversation with Mr. Howell there was no mention of the amount of time he needs to finalize this procedure. It's been over 4 months since we signed the contract, I was led to believe that everything could and would be done by May 17th and I had another person obtain one of the permits for which Mr. Howell was paid and it was done in less than two weeks. The process once I uploaded/provided the document took me 4 days to finalize and obtain the Fence permit approval. I understand he can be busy, I am of course willing to let him finish the job yet I need a date by which it will be done and permits issued. He is aware that I am being fined $500/ day that goes by and even though he indicated the city will adjust and charge a small fee, I should not have come to this point. All I want is to get this over with, to get the permits, remove the lien from my home and settle the fine situation. Business Response /* (4000, 11, 2022/09/01) */ A response to this case number was submitted already. The customer acknowledged that she would give the time necessary to get the permits approved. I have been working diligently since with the architect to have the plans issues resolved so the permits can be approved.

• Initial Complaint

  03/14/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  We entered into a contract on about 10/23/20 and 12/21/20 for Mr. Howell to perform certain work on our property. The work performed by Mr. Howell for contract dated 10/23/20 (work in front of the house) and for which paid $2,300 was completed. However, I notified him of defects of the job and he has failed and refused to complete the repairs. In addition, concerning the contract dated 12/21/20 for the amount of $13,000. Mr. Howell agreed to perform all the work concerning patio work. I paid $3,000 upon signing the contract and $4,000 on 6/3/21 for a total of $7,000. Mr. Howell failed an refused to complete as set forth our contract. He have abandoned the work on the house by failing to perform the agreed construction on the property for twenty one consecutive days. Mr. Howell has ignored my telephone calls and mail.

• Initial Complaint

  12/27/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  - Unresponsive and didn't complete the job in the contracted time. - Sent a worker to take down the cabinets but asked the homeowner for help taking them down. Worker left a mess in the kitchen and front lawn, leaving behind demo items and supplies on top of food in the kitchen. - Sent a worker to replace floors in the kitchen and the work was not done properly, leaving gaps throughout the flooring. Homeowner had to buy a whole new set of flooring so it could be done properly. Contractor wanted to charge the homeowner twice after ruining the first set of flooring. - flooring supplies were left all over the lawn once again. - Contractor told homeowner that the wall partition was loadbearing and charged more for the job. Homeowner later found out that the wall was not load-bearing and the contractor never checked the blueprints as the homeowner request. - Contractor has not given any amount of refund as the homeowner paid a 2,500.00 deposit prior to work being started. - After the flooring was replaced no other work was completed. - Please see contract for details on work that was supposed to be done.

  Business response

  03/09/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 12, 2022/02/08) */ ***Document Attached*** This letter is in response to the above referenced case number. The wall Ms.****** referred to was not a load bearing wall however, per the City of Orlando which is permitting jurisdiction requires a permit once you are removing and replacing dry wall because it is classified as an alteration to the existing structure.

• Initial Complaint

  12/21/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  On April 24, 2021 we went into contract with Dave B Howell LLC for $31,100 to renovate our home. We had a formal change order to add some additional scope to the project on 6/5/21. After that, the total amount of the project became $61,600. After informal changes, the total amount of the project became $57,000. As of now, we have paid $44,000 combining direct payments and financing. After the formal change order, the owner of the business stated verbally the work would be done by the end of June, including all permits and inspections. As of now, the project has taken 4 times the duration that was originally promised. Since then: -The business owner did not communicate with us to give us any reasons for the delay. -We have had a hard time getting straight answers from the business owner in terms of a plan to finish the project. -We had multiple days of being told someone was coming, when we adjusted our work and personal schedules to accommodate for that and nobody came. - We had loss of income due to a rental unit that can't be rented due to construction noise and debris without proper notice or plan being communicated to us. The construction debris would take a long time to be removed from the property, compromising the aesthetics of the rental unit. - We had loss of work productivity due to not having an optimal work environment for 6 months beyond the promised finish date. -We also had increased expenses and compromised physical health due to having no functioning kitchen, therefore having to order takeout for 6 months beyond the promised finish date. - We had personal stressors due to loss of privacy, and not being able to host family and friends during holidays and special occasions for 6 months beyond the promised finish date.

  Business response

  03/18/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 12, 2022/02/08) */ ***Document Attached*** Dave H***** *** have been in continued communication with Miss ******** about the progress of her job. The project took longer than schedule to be completed because of the high turnover of workers which we are working to resolve and have the project completed as soon as possible. Consumer Response /* (3000, 14, 2022/02/15) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I have not gone on vacation, my wife who was home everyday went. Mr. H***** did have access to our home while my wife was on vacation. For that period there is written communication that I would be available, specifically that "when someone is coming to the house I will need to know a few hours ahead of time to be able to leave work and get home in time. The earlier I know the plan, the better I can try to plan around it." During that time, at least twice there was notice that workers were coming at a certain date/time, which made me leave work to make sure I would be available at the house, and nobody showed up. I missed work for nothing. I also have written communication of that. Mr H***** mentioned change orders to the project increased the completion time. The promised end date for end of June was made after the change order to add items. All other changes made were to remove items, which should shorten the time of completion. Mr H***** mentioned all debris were removed from the property. Note the debris on the attached pictures, taken in the morning after I was notified of his response, providing proof that his statement was not truthful. He was notified on 12/26/21 that there were debris on the property that needed to be removed (written communication) and did not pick them up.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩