TERRIBLE OUTCOME! Do yourelf a favor and move on from Newfore Inc!
We hired Seif of Newfore Inc. to turn two bedrooms on main floor into one master bedroom and to remove a load-bearing wall between the kitchen and living room. That wall would require engineered drawings and a permit to complete the work. Step one was to pay the $2500+HST for the drawings which we did right away. Our timing with our project was to start Aug 8 and complete the work by end of Aug- in time for our move in date.
The engineer drawings took weeks to complete and, after a second visit to the house, they were finally in the process to complete. At this point, we were advised it would be one wk for the drawings to be completed and then take them to the city and it would take 2-3 wks for the drawings and permit to be approved. Doing the math, we realized that the work would NOT be completed prior to the 28th of August (our move in date). Furthermore, to our complete shock, Seif would NOT start the bedroom project first to accommodate us in completing that part of the project prior to the 28th. Seif advised that he wouldn't split up the project and that we would have to wait until the permit and approval was back from the city to do the complete project and both walls!!
Newfore did NOT deliver on the work nor timing of our request to tear down a bedroom wall and a living room wall. We had a one month gap and between homes to do the work we needed to in our new home. Here we were, 8 days before moving in and the project was at least two weeks away from starting. If Seif had had any sense of urgency to moving the project along AND completed our bedroom wall dismantle prior to the kitchen wall coming down at a later date, we would have been fine. Instead, he stuck to his very non-accomodating plan of doing all the work AFTER we move in. Funny part is he said "we will cover up all the furniture because there will ba a lot of dust". Imagine your bedroom furniture covered with demolition and sanding occuring all around it for days on end! Where do we sleep during this process?
On August 20th, Seif cancelled our contract. Our family was in awe. We were left hanging after spending extra money taking a bridge loan from the bank to have the work completed prior to moving in and to be hit with that?? The most shocking part to this is that Seif then turned to us advising that the engineer drawings were actually $4700+HST and not the originally quoted and contracted price of $2500+HST. Why? Because he said the lower price was based on Newfore doing the entire project. He's the one that pulled the contract so why would I pay more at this point? This was absolutely absurd! He was demanding the payment variance ASAP. At no time did we sign off on this added amount nor did we agree to it.
On Aug 22, Seif wrote in an email: "If we do not receive payment by EOD today, the drawings will be considered invalid tomorrow morning at 8:30AM and the city will not be processing your building permit application. The drawings will be revalidated once payment is made."
Under the advisement of our lawyer, we are taking this to the Better Business Bureau. This is a greasy move and one that is disrespectful and uncalled for. We paid for those drawings and for him to say that he has a lot of pull with the city and was going to use it to get them to NOT accept them for us to continue our project? There are no words to describe how we are feeling right now. We have a call into the city to discuss this.
We are now out of pocket for costs incurred: change of moving date fee and lawyer's fees.
As per Seif, we no longer have valid engineered drawings. We are supposed to move in next week! Our family is at a loss over what has transpired and, what should be a happy time moving into our new home, has been a very disturbing experience for us.
SAVE YOURSELF THE TIME, TROUBLE AND MONEY and find yourself a RELIABLE, TRUST-WORTHY AND PROFESSIONAL contractor.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $2,850.00
- Company Response
Hi Elizabeth,
We are sorry to hear of your disappointment. We were originally hired to complete engineering work and construction of a load bearing wall removal. When we were awarded the work, we scheduled our engineers to visit the property and document existing conditions. During this first visit, the engineer explained the scope of work in detail and you decided to cancel the project as you were worried the project would go over-budget. The engineer was then asked to leave and did not finish collecting the necessary information. After some further assurance, you decided to resume the project. A second site visit was necessitated, which you scheduled for 3 weeks later but expected the construction dates to remain unchanged. We did not charge for the additional site visit at the time, as we made the decision to absorb that cost as part of the larger project.
With the project resuming, we would still need 2 weeks to produce engineering drawings and the city would need 3 weeks to review the drawings. Only after we explained this revised schedule, you asked us to split the project into multiple smaller projects that had not been accounted for in the original scope of work.
Further to this, you asked that the construction scope be removed from our contract while retaining only the engineering scope. However, the construction scope accounted for almost 90% of our work. We explained that the cost of the engineering drawings would change if we were descoped because we would now have to charge for the additional site visit. In addition, the unit rates we originally used for the project would no longer apply because of the revised smaller size of project. Since our expectations were not aligned, we did not move forward with the construction as you initially suggested and offered you the option of continuing only with the engineering work for a new cost.
You agreed and arranged for the drawings to be picked up and we released the drawings in good faith. Once you received the drawings you sent an email explaining you would not pay the outstanding balance. Presently, your drawings are with the city and the building permit is being processed while we remain unpaid for our service. We would like to highlight that our engineering work was delivered within our 2-week timeline from the date of our site visit.
We have attempted to contact you to offer reasonable arbitration with no response. Your account is being forwarded to a collections agency who will rightfully determine whether payment is due.
Thanks,
The Newfore team