On March 24, I entered into a contract with Vladimir Vujic/CGC Enterpirses for $20,000 for a basement project which included framing, electrical, plumbing, drywall, trim, painting, insulation, windows, doors, etc. The project was to begin between between April 10 and April 15 and be completed within 3-6 weeks.
As of April 26, I paid Vladimir Vujic/CGC Enterpirses $16,000 of the $20,000 contract price. However, despite being paid $16,000, Vladimir Vujic/CGC Enterpirses ONLY completed the framing portion of the project. Furthermore, since April 26, Vladimir Vujic/CGC Enterpirses only performed about 5 hours of work and told me that he/it did not have the funds to perform any more work on my project (this despite me paying Vladimir Vujic/CGC Enterpirses $16,000!!!). Vladimir Vujic/CGC Enterpirses repeatedly told me that I would get my money returned to me. However, I did not receive even one penny of my money back.
As such, on June 10, over $400 had to be paid for court fees to file a lawsuit against Vladimir Vujic/CGC Enterpirses in the Circuit Court of Dupage County, Illinois (case no. 2011ar001435). Since the lawsuit was filed, Vladimir Vujic/CGC Enterpirses again repeatedly promised to pay me back my $16,000 and the money for the court fees. An agreement was reached in which Vladimir Vujic/CGC Enterpirses agreed to pay me four monthly payments. However, Vladimir Vujic/CGC Enterpirses failed to even pay me the first monthly payment.in fact, as of October 2, I still have not even received one penny of my money back from Vladimir Vujic/CGC Enterpirses. He claims that he does not have any money but he yet he is somehow able to offer free 55inch TVs on his website for people that enter into contracts with CGC Enterpirses and also offer 10% discounts.
Do not make the same mistake that I made. Before hiring any contractor, the prudent steps to take would be1) Check the Illinois court websites (for free) for lawsuits involving the contractor. If I had done this, I would have learned that I am not the first person to have to sue Vladimir Vujic for breach of contract (see cookcountyclerkofcourt.org, case number 2006M2001836 and see dupagecase.com, case number 2006SC002202). 2) run a background check on the contractor. There are numerous websites that will perform this task, and the average cost is $40. THAT COULD BE THE BEST $40 YOU WILL EVER SPEND! 3) Run a BBB (www.bbb.org) search on the contractor and his company. Its free. 4) Be very cognizant of the way the payment schedule is structured. Do not put more than 5% or 10% down, and make sure you are only paying for the work as it is being completed. 5) Dont be fooled by a fancy website or think you are getting a best-in-class contractor simply because when you google finished basements Naperville their site is one of the first ones returned. They are paying for this. Check references instead and make sure you have a large sample size.
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