I am writing to file a formal complaint against one Robert Hodges of Gator House Movers from Ascension Parish. His phone number is 225-279-0569. It is my hope that I can save others from the grief that I have been through since beginning to do buisness with this man, and possible to get some advice on how to go about settling our outstanding contract. I apologize for the length of this letter but I feel like the situation should be explained in its entirety.
In early July I signed a contract purchasing a
home located in Ascension from Robert Hodges and agreeing to have this home moved to to my land and I paid him a deposit of $4000. The total agreed upon price was $37,000 dollars;14,000 for the house, $21,000 for the move, and a $2000 storage fee. The storage fee was because he told me that he would have to move the house to a storage lot, remove his trailers for other houses, block the house, reload the house, and then move it to my property.in fact he moved it and never pulled his trailers (he waived $1000 of the storage fee 1 bonus point for Mr. Hodges). After paying the deposit he cut the house in half (as was agreed) and told me he would place tarps over exposed sheet rock and broken windows, he didn't. So, I called he said he sent someone the day before it should be done now, I checked again... Nope. So we repeated this two more times and then I did it myself. On 07/27 I finalized payment for the house with a $10000 dollar cashiers check. Here is where everything went to hell in a hand basket.
Prior to the house payoff Mr. Hodges would return calls almost immediately, following the payoff I began having to call daily for weeks to receive a return call even when attempting to pay the next amount due. The real problem came when it was time to move the house, he
delayed between one and two months after the originally agreed upon date (verbal of course) for moving the house onto my property. He always had an excuse, good ones too. When he finally moved the house it was days
after a heavy rainfall (we had two months of drought) after he had repeatedly told me that he was waiting for dry weather. He destroyed my lot which had been smoothed and graded left 12" deep ruts that hold water under my house sunk his truck on my neighbors property (I don't know if the will require me to repair the damage to his land). And the house arrived with utility room ripped off of the house rafters above the utility room were broken the breaker box (which he told me they cut out and saved) was twisted and cracked. He removed the room because he said it wasn't possible to move the house with it (he had already moved it approx. Ten miles with it) He offered me $1500 dollars, a fair price for the wood, but I didn't consider electrical, plumbing, and time I shouldn't have been a push over but I did agree to that. He also ripped out two of the houses main sill plates that I had to replace he didn't bother to tell me about that damage I had to find it on my own. That wasn't work that was part of the deal. He acted like it was no big deal to completely alter the house I purchased.
Then we had further delays and problems with the foundation setup he would give me a date, he would have an excuse, he would give me another date, he would have another excuse. Finally he began the setup and told
me that I was shy on the number of piers that was needed to finish leveling the house (he was right this was due to a mistake on my part) but if I ordered and paid for them they would pick them up and finish the job. He picked up a few of them and partially completed the
leveling (I spent two weekends fixing his "leveling" job picking up the rest of the piers and installing them). He still needed to finish the garage setup and deliver my AC compressor before his final payment was due but he told me he really needed the money he had bills to pay and he would come out the following Monday (once again I'm a sucker I trust people for no good reason) and take care of everything that was over two months ago and he has never returned a single phone call since then.
His trash is still on my property and I had to complete the rest of his work, but that is just the beginning.
So I went to apply for my renovation permits and was told I couldn't pull any permits yet because he never pulled foundation permits or moving permits to pull the house through Livingston parish. So I began trying to call him for weeks finally I threatened a lawyer through his voice mail, the next day he took care of the permits. Now to the problems with the house that I have noticed after the initial move. I noticed before he disappeared that they knocked two major walls apart
and brought it to his attention he "repaired" it by beating it with a hammer so it looked fixed but did nothing to rejoin the corner so it was still floating free, I fixed it. He broke the ridge beam in my roof and
didn't bother to tell me about it he did do a poor patch job that has already failed and left my roof sagging, I fixed it. He destroyed large portions of a very new roof that I hadn't planned on repairing, he tore of one of the attic vents and left the wires creating a direct short in my attic then he screwed the vent through the shingles without flashing it now I have to replace ceiling sheet rock and insulation because of the leak he could have just told me about. The water heater that was
with the house when I bought it didn't arrive with it I was going to upgrade if money allowed but I did buy it. The natural gas lines that were intact when I bought the house were mangled and in need of replacement. All of the sewer lines were destroyed and broken in such a
manner that they destroyed subfloors wall studs and sheet rock. The water lines were bent cracked and missing The electrical service entrance was missing. Telephone and cable lines were destroyed. The AC
supply lines were bent and ripped from the AC evaporator. And once again he has never delivered my AC condenser, completed the foundation/garage setup, or picked up his trash he left behind. Maybe I should have expected some of this damage from a house move but when I asked him what to expect damage wise he told me some cracking in the sheet rock that was all not even major sheetrock damage (half sheets fell off the wall; nothing about the rest of the work he added to my plate. Now I am over budget (and I am not doing this because I'm made of money I'm trying to save it) at least $5500 of which can be directly attributed to his damage so far (not including extra loan and apartment payments and my time) and I'm not done with it yet, over schedule (more money now I'm paying another 3 month of apartment lease and interest only payments on my loan) by about the three months which just happens to be how long he delayed me. For the record this probably means I would have finished early if not for the extra work he caused me. And I just found out that my wife and I are having a baby we
could have been painting a nursery now instead of just catching up from the mess he left me.
Avoid this man and his many "gator" buisnesses he is a true crook who isn't the least bit afraid to steal from you.
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