BUYER BEWARE! Do not hire this company.
We hired Planit Builders in May 2015 to complete a legal basement suit in our home. The contract we signed with them stated that our suite was to be completed as of the end of October to allow for November renters. We realized very quickly we had made a huge mistake in hiring this company and that our basement would definitely not be completed in time. From day one we had nothing but problems with the Edmonton team. They came to do our site measure and when they presented us with a floor plan it had a wet bar, not a kitchen like a legal suite would have. We had to correct them on this and seemed like just a small miscommunication. We were told our plans would go into permitting with the city as soon as possible. A couple weeks later we were called and told they needed to come back to do more measurements of our house. The city had apparently changed the rules and they now needed to have the full measurements of our upper floor and our property with all buildings on it (house garage etc.). Multiple times we were told our job had been submitted for permitting only to hear from someone else that it had not.
We had signed a contract stating what our price for the basement would be and before they even began working on site they were already coming up with additional charges. Things such as pulling out the old electrical. The basement was gutted when they came to do the original pricing and measure so they could see what electrical we had and what needed to be taken out. They also realized they hadn’t allowed for enough money in their contract to do all the concrete breaking. We were assured MULTIPLE times that they allowed for more than enough concrete breaking in the contract and not to worry.
1 week before our basement was scheduled to be finished we had our FIRST meeting with the site supervisor. They found a few problems with our floor plan that they were able to adjust. Things such as where light switches were located, and flush mount lights under bulk heads. They chalked this up to having a new designer who was still “green” (new out of school, or where ever they found him).
We let them start working against our better judgement and when they started the framing we realized we had a big problem. The MINIMAL framing that was started was off compared to the blue prints, we lost 2 feet in our kitchen (not a big deal, thats only a fridge). They also had doors opening INTO bulk heads, which would not allow the door to open at all. Lastly the entire kitchen and bathroom were planned to be in an area with 6.5’ ceilings due to bulk heads. That would make the flush mount lights to be at face level for an Average height person and the shower head to be around chest height. I’ll admit these are things I should have noticed more before going ahead with the plans, but this is the first basement I have done and I am NOT a professional, hence why I was paying PRIEMIUM price for “professionals”. I was told I would be walked through the planning process with the designer which I was looking forward to. I have still Never met the “designer”. My wife met him once. The communication from day one was unacceptable from any standards. Never knowing what is going on and never having phone calls returned.
We decided to fire planit builders and break our contract with them because they had already broken contract by not starting our job on time let alone finishing it. Trying to fire them was as hard as working with them. No one could give us answers and they claimed we owed them more money, despite the fact we had over 10,000 invested already and nothing but minimal framing started which was wrong. We spoke to two different owners of Planit Builders and not one of them would even come see the work that had been done. We told them if they could come and show us where the money was spent then we would pay but they couldn’t be bothered to show up. What little framing they had completed all had to be ripped down due to being wrong. I was at the point of driving down to Calgary and back in the same day to sit at their main office until an Owner would meet with me. Luckily I finally got a hold of the other owner and he was more willing to get things closed and part ways.
Approximately 4 months after firing Planit Builders and getting signed papers that they would not come after us for money (as I had read in other reviews had been a past problem) we received a phone call. The Edmonton Project Manager called us asking about the windows they had dropped at the house. He stated we hadn’t paid for them and he was wondering about picking them up. We let him know they were now installed in our new basement suite and about our written agreement with Planit Builders. He said he was going to look into it and we haven’t heard from him since. I was shocked at the lack of professionalism from every aspect of this company.
Please save yourself the stress and look into other options. If you are looking for a Legal basement suite, find a company that specializes in that specifically.
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