Although Martin claims to have more than 30-years experience in leveling all types of houses, he proved to have little or none. I contracted him to raise and level a small three room house in Youngsport, Texas. He was to raise the house three-feet above the ground on the front side and level it. The agreement was that I would pay him a total of $11,000.00 for the job by paying him $5,000.00 up front (because he needed to purchase supplies) and pay him the $6,000.00 balance upon satisfactory completion.
He had the job begun by four unsupervised young men who could not speak English. They began by placing jacks under the front beam only. They then broke the house into because they had no equal jacking around the rest of the perimeter of the house. When notified of the problem, Martin came and attempted to push the house back together with his truck. I had to go out of town on a job. Martin said that he may complete the job before I returned. We agreed that we would inspect his job when I returned and pay him the balance if it was done according to the contract.
While I was still away, I got a call from my wife that martin said that he was done with the job and that I had told him that she would pay him the balance. She also related to me that it did not look as thought the house was level and he had not removed the residue as he was supposed to do. I told her to remind Martin that when I returned on the week-end, we were to agree that the house had been leveled IAW the contract; upon which Martin became angry and verbally abused my wife. Upon my arrival home, my wife and I went to loook at the house.
Seeing that it was not level and that it had been pulled apart again, I checked the level with a plumb and level. The house was off-level 33-degrees from front to rear and 12-degrees from the left side to the right side. I took pictures of the plumb and level results and the breaks in the foundation. I called Martin with the results and he said that he would correct the deviations and repair the broken foundation. I had to go out on a job the next week so I was unable to observe the work being done.
This time Martin called me insisting that my wife pay the $5,000.00. I again reminded him that he and I would inspect and agree that the contract had been fulfilled before he would be paid the balance. (There was no way he would be paid without my having seen and approved the job. Especially after his consistant failure to complete the job per the contract.) Upon my return this time, his crew had let the house all the way down on the ground at the front; where it was supposed to be 3-feet off the ground. I called Martin who did not know that this was the situation. Martin again promised to rectify the situation.
The end result was that Martin never did finish the job and he did not get paid the balance. Besides the afore mentioned problems, Martin did not provide a "Potty" for his men so they relieved themselves all around the property, leaving fecal matter and toilet paper under piles off wood and dirt. They also broke my fence down with their trailer. I found another real house leveing company who did a satisfactory job. Lessons learned? Always get references, never pay up-front, and never fall for "I'll do a good job because I am a Reverend Line."
0 comments