ComplaintsforRemodelWerks, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  12/28/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This is a case of bait and switch. We needed our basement finished. Joe, Remodelwerks (RW) owner, did an on-site visit in July to go over details, ask questions and describe the project, take measurements. On 7/13/22 RW provides an initial estimate of $135-145k.- This is where things get tricky: Joe asks us to sign a document acting as retainer, where we will be charged $9K for a "Design Phase". This involves selections, 3D rendering, and then a revised estimate will be provided before remodel starts. We are slightly worried, and ask explicitly what happens if after paying this, the estimate suddenly goes up (a lot)? Joe tells us it never goes higher than the upper range, they've done this forever and are very experienced. Unless customers were to ask unexpected features/additions. But they could work with us to keep it in budget.- The design process has 2 in person meetings for selections, and RW develops 3D drawings based on input. - On 09/27/22, Joe meets and shares a revised estimate of $186K (for features agreed upon) + $13.5K (extra features). this never came up till then. W/out extras: $46K or 33% above initial estimate. RW is unable to provide a clear answer as to what lead to the large change.- We try to work with RMW, but counterproposals only partially lower the cost or requires drastically cutting agreed-upon design features. - In an effort to find a solution, we offered RW to split the "Design Fee" 50-50%. Joe refused and plans to retain the full $9K. This would be fine if we were contracting design services, and were not mislead with a completely unrealistic estimate. It was always clear our goal was to contract remodeling services. RW set us back several months on the project, did not come through on a reasonable estimate, refuses to even a partial/split refund of the $9K fee, and their design agreement further states drawings are not usable by other parties/contractors. Sadly, RW refuses to own any responsibility in their mistakes.

  Business response

  01/12/2023

          RemodelWerks has a proven design build process that we bring clients through to get them to a fixed price before going into the build phase.  Our industry does not have a process, so we created one that helps us provide a better experience with better results than our industry wants to do.  The entire process was built with a hundred changes over the years and even client feedback has been used over the years.   
  
         The remodeling industry does not evolve or get better. Unfortunately, is gets worse each year and the costs of materials and labor go up monthly with sometimes no notice or reason.  I have tried for 25 years to make our industry better with it being extremely hard and at times feels unfixable.  
           But I will not stop trying to improve our process, our company, and our industry.  We have 30 families within our team including my own that depend on constant and never-ending improvement.  I do my best every day and our team is unmatched.  Some, not all architecture firms charge twice as much to design projects with no budgets or care if a project goes into build.  I get plans sent to me weekly that are designed with no budget discussion at all.  The budget is double what a client wants to spend, and they already spent money on plans that are unbuildable. Unfortunately, at times these plans are thrown away and we start from scratch.
   
            We are sorry this client did not have a great experience as there are two sides to every story.  This client added a lot of work to the final design that was not budgeted from the beginning.  RemodelWerks made multiple revisions to the design and budgets to give ideas on what can be done to reduce costs but the client did not want to make all the changes or take the suggestions.  To give you an example this was a basement renovation.  They added so much cabinetry to the final design that the cabinetry budget we equal to the amount of cabinetry in a full kitchen remodel.  Yes its going to be over budget. During the first part of the process we are the designer for the project and at no time is a client forced into building anything that is over budget.  This process has a 9 page design agreement that is signed and talks about the process in great detail.   The contract that was signed does not say anything about guaranteeing the final budget will be the same due to materials and labor costs increasing monthly if not daily in our industry. It does say the following to make sure client understand what  they are signing.

  -The design payments are non-refundable and will not be refunded if project is not built with RW.
  -Design retainer is used to cover the resources, overhead and time to complete the design phase
  -Design investment will be applied to construction agreement at time of signing project into production
  -Design retainer can only be applied to project designed in this document
  -Starting budget was created prior to design and selections being made
  -Budget will increase if cost of selections is over what was budgeted
  -Budget will increase if additional work is added to the final construction agreement scope
  -Additional added work can be removed to reduce final project cost
  -Customer understands the process and amount of work that goes into the design phase  

  Everything listed above was in the final contract that this client fully signed. This client was given many ideas on how to reduce budgets from both our design team and build teams.  Unfortunately this clients complaint is full of untrue statements and could be removed.  They have a full detailed design package that included full sets of plans that are permit ready.  They also have stated that they have been set back months on this project but missed meetings or went 2 to 3 weeks with no communication during the process.  If time was so important why did it take them 6 months to go through our process when the design agreement signed said we would be completed in our process in 7 to 8 weeks? Time creates materials and labor to continue to rise. Every email from this client demanded money back and tried to down play our process to take it seem like not a lot of work was done.  We completed the designs and plans and they have the package.  Our work is completed and did everything with-in the signed contract. We did not build a project for this client so there is no credit to give.  As an example if you hire an architect to design a house and then decide to purchase a used house instead, you can not ask the architect for your money back because you changed your mind.  Please fully understand what you are signing prior to using a companies full staff for weeks on a project.  

  Thank you, Joe K******  Owner of RemodelWerks 
  

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