ComplaintsforJP Electrical, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  02/14/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  In ************* Electric performed work on my house as a sub contractor for Remodel Masters. Their work was fine and even had them perform some extra work while here and I paid them directly as a customer. They failed to collect over $8,000 from Remodel Masters and subsequently filed a lien against my home in accordance with **** law in September 2021. They were never able to collect from Remodel even though Mat ****** (who has lost his license) was paid by me in full. I paid the remaining balance after a legal letter was sent to my home in January 2022 stating that my home would be foreclosed and placed for sale if the amount plus almost $2k in fees wasn't collected. JP never, I repeat NEVER, made any attempt to communicate with me about the past due debt from Remodel in spite of the fact I was a paying customer directly to them. They had my email, phone number, and home address. It was their choice to drag this into court and their failure to communicate with me directly was abysmal. My only hope of collecting the money is to take the contractor into small claims court. I'm requesting JP Electric to cover half of what I paid to them since I was the only one who had to bear the financial burden of their inability to collect from their immediate customer. If they can't collect money in a reasonable way, I wouldn't trust their ability to handle other problems as they arise. They also caused a buzz in my theater room by running the high voltage and low voltage lines together that I had to pay to be redone.

  

  Business response

  03/10/2022

  If there is anything we dislike is filing a lien and then involving attorneys.  As a company with 25 years of experience, our focus is to work things out before any major action occurs.  Our challenge is that we have to deal with the customer that hired us.  Which regretfully was Remodel Masters.  Everything was done as standard process and they seemed to be a decent GC.  All owners are to do their due diligence on contractors also.  The problem is we don't realize their is a problem until 30 - 60 days later when we are trying to collect.  We were promised countless times that we would receive payment and we are limited to the time frame of lien rights.   Once we are close to losing our lien rights we have to take action.  Our focus is to get paid from the contractor that hired us and follow state lien laws and practices.  The pre lien that we submit, attaches to a home owner or business address and we have thousands of customers entered into our system.   Our focus is to force the contractor to pay and I had several texts promising payment.  We finally had to submit it to the attorney and they take it from there.  We incurred thousands of dollars of fees but did not pass those on.  State law rolls to the homeowner if the contractor defaults which is out of our control.  I agree there should be another way and I understand why the homeowner is not happy with this.  I wouldn't be either.  However, Owners choose the contractor and assumes that risk.  I believe that is why the state has written the law the way it is.  We feel we did an exceptional job and always strive for customer satisfaction.  We lose tens of thousands of dollars each year due to projects failing and contractors/owners choosing not to pay us so we are forced to follow that state guidelines that are currently enforced.  My hope is that in future review of this law and process, that there is a different or better way to collect than link it to an innocent homeowner or business owner.  This is very unfortunate and we will continue to make every effort to resolve situations like this in a better way moving forward.  As long as there are inexperienced and dishonest contractors out there, unfortunately, this will continue to happen.  Hopefully the state can address these issues that can hold the contractor responsible for a better resolution.  

  Customer response

  03/11/2022

   
  Complaint: 16693929
  
  I am rejecting this response because: they did not address why they never contacted me prior to putting a lien on my house. The work they did on my house was fine, and perhaps they feel like surprising a paying customer with legal letters from an attorney is the right way to conduct business. Ill repeat. They had my information because I had paid them for extra work. Because they chose the legal route, I had to come back from vacation early in order to get a cashiers check to a law firm. To summarize, their work on the home was fine. Their communication and collection process is broken. The only people who won were the lawyers. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *****************

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