Starting in August of 2023, my 80-year-old grandmother (Tomi) with diabetes and mobility issues, as well as my parents who live with her because she needs assistance, noticed things that needed work. We were recommended to a general contractor through a family friend. We reached out to have him come take a look and estimate the costs. He quoted the below at first:

Foundation work: $13,850

New back deck: $8,500

Paint paneling: $1,800

Replace sliding door: $2,400 with a door and a window

Put vinyl plank floor in living/kitchen/hall: $9,450

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Total: $42,000

This has been my grandmother’s home since the '90s and was owned by my grandfather since the '70s, who passed away in the early 2000s. It was paid off, but they took a reverse mortgage out to afford the work. Once work started, he had his guys do everything instead of the companies that quoted the above costs. They then found that the rear wall of the house needed to be replaced, and that along with the deck, paint, sliding door, and flooring got completed.

The foundation is where things went sideways. Again, he had his guys doing this, and they admitted later they didn’t know what they were doing. Once they started, new problems began arising. Later, we found it was mostly due to his negligence. Part of the front driveway collapsed, the walkway to the front door cracked, and the brick on the front of the house began falling. Eventually, all the brick fell. A chunk of the front driveway was jack-hammered up and removed as well. They built a makeshift bridge to be able to get in and out of the front door. Over the next three months, his guys came to do concrete work, but there was little to no work done during this time. After this, they stopped showing up, and the GC stopped answering phone calls altogether, leaving all the above issues unresolved as well as more we are still finding.

The GC only got one permit for all the work being done at our house. It was for the concrete that was never done. He also gave our city an insurance policy that they required, but come to find out that was a fraudulent policy, never valid.

It was recommended we contact an attorney; we did in July of 2024. He has had inspections done by an independent adjuster and engineers. The work that was done was bad and needed to be redone. The wheels of justice turn slow, and from what we can find, he has no insurance and no money. Not sure we can get anything from him to fix the damage he has created. Everything he did is a mess. The floor has separated and is coming up, the paint is coming off or not done well. The walls have all cracked, and we have broken windows that were not broken before. It was also found that the sewer side of the plumbing has been dumping water into the foundation of the house due to damage he caused while “fixing” the foundation and then improperly repaired. This needs to be repaired, but we do not have a cost for this.

It is now May of 2025, and we have just paid $19,500 for the foundation to be done correctly, and we are now out of money.

We are in need of assistance as a family to make sure this home is livable for my parents and grandmother as the more this lingers, the worse the house gets.