On October 24, 2018, Jeff and his Architect were instructed to proceed with the submission drawings via email. We did not receive any written response from him or his Architect. On November 12, 2018, after almost 3 weeks, we emailed him and his Architect regarding the above, to inquire about the status. Jeff responded by asking for more money and claiming that this is extra work. On November 13, 2018, we reminded him that these drawings do not constitute extra work as they have to obviously be drawn for submission to the city as original work requested. Jeff responded stating that, "I am to provide drawings and building permits as agreed." On November 14, 2018 we emailed him and his Architect clearly highlighting his contractual agreement and reiterating for him to proceed as instructed, with a deadline as of November 20, 2018. November 21, 2018, we received no written response from him, which is past the November 20, 2018 deadline. Jeff have been paid two deposits totalling $11,300 in August and September 2018. Jeff have been given ample time but he failed to carry out your contractual obligation. As Jeff is always asking for more money even though no works have started at our house, we see ourselves as victims of contractor fraud. Jeff is in full breach of your agreement. We demanded the return of our deposit of $11,300.00 within 7 days, which is November 27, 2018. Jeff totally ignoring all our emails from November 13, 2018 onwards, which clearly confirmation that he is a dishonest person.
Reply to Jeff January 18, 2019
Jeff of Bloor West Construction was informed by us right at the beginning that our GFA was maxed out during our initial meeting and discussion. Jeff assured us that he sees no issues in doing what we wanted. This is the main reason we engaged Bloor West Construction, Jeff and for him to get an architect to provide drawings and permits for our 3 deck enclosures and a front porch roof with a new concrete pad. He also boasted that he uses the Architect, Simon from HGTV who could help us through this process.
Upon signing his contract for the above stated work totaling $72,263.50, which includes the architect's fee of $5,650.00 for submission drawings of the above requirements. Jeff requested payment for $5,650, which we paid. 5 days later after this cheque was cleared, Jeff requested another $5,650, which I was hesitant to issue, until he told us that we would not pay any more until we get all the permits approved and after the commencement of the physical work. A total of $11,300 was paid, which is more than 10% of the overall project costs.
After getting these 2 cheques cleared, Bloor West Construction hired 6IX Design Inc, Frank, the Architect at 7191 Yinge St UNIT 808, Thornhill, On.and not Simon, the architect from HGTV.
We had a meeting with Frank and Jeff, Frank suggested submitting only the flat roofing for our existing 2 decks on the second floor. He was very confident that this part of the project would be approved. He also mentioned that we should only do a very preliminary zoning submission instead of submitting for a permit, a process which was faster and cost much less before we proceed any further which will save us time and money.
To make the job easier and expedite the process, we gave Frank our own set of drawings from the previous owner of our house, which included a survey drawing, site plan, floor plans and elevations. It would be easy to simply scan our set of drawings to include the 2 flat roofs for the 2 existing decks on the new plan for the preliminary zoning submission.
We agreed to his Architect's proposal and later requested Jeff for a revised contract as the work would now be only for 2 deck roofing with no enclosures.
When the City responded with a Zoning deficiency, we questioned the architect and he told us that it was difficult to interpret it in the same way with the City Examiner. We were disappointed. We found out, on our own, that there was a frontage limit of 12m from the City Zoning bylaw for the City of York on the internet. We questioned Frank that there was an oversight as our lot frontage was more than 12m, so it could not be approved as it is. We also asked Frank for his fees at this point. He told us to consult Jeff. Jeff also ignored this question and never provided us with a revised contract. We estimated Frank's fees for copying our drawings and inserting 2 flat roofs on our second floor decks to be about $1000 and $350 for the meeting as mentioned by Jeff. (This amount estimated is based on Jeff's email about 'extra' costs which we rejected)
We decided to get Jeff to proceed and for his architect to submit all our initial plan to the City. We made this request on October 24, 2018. After 3 weeks, we wrote to Jeff again as he did not reply to our email. On November 12, 2018 we checked on the status of our request, only to get a reply from Jeff asking for more money and claiming that this was extra work. I decided not to give in to Jeff's demand and highlighted his own contract to get things going. He totally ignored all further correspondence. As he was in breach of his own contract, I demanded full return of the $11,300 paid to him. I tried to be diplomatic by working things out with Jeff in our email correspondence, but he was not willing to even negotiate on the money to be returned. Jeff claimed that all $11,300 has been used and refused to refund us a single cent.
Once he had taken our money, Jeff became very impatient, rude and abusive and even threatened us on the phone when we made inquiries about the project. Even up this point, our response have been clear and diplomatic as we will not succumb to his disrespectful and uncivilized manners. We decided to correspond only through email with Jeff as he is also not true to his word. We have received from him, expletive-filled emails in incoherent broken 'sentences', almost indecipherable, that consisted of false accusations and threats. He also arrogantly scoffed and mocked us in his email that he could simply suspend and not get our review published when we sent out our negative review on Trusted Pros.
To make things clear, firstly, the GFA that was maxed out was clearly told to Jeff which he now uses against us.
Secondly, only one set of preliminary drawings which were scanned from our set of drawings was sent for Zoning submission to the City. Jeff's claimed that 3 sets of drawings were submitted to the city. He had again twisted facts. In the beginning, Jeff had informed us that he would use the architect's drawings for the construction which is included in our fees. How could he take $11,300 when only a preliminary Zoning submission was done and he had not touched a dust in our house?
Thirdly, when we questioned Jeff as to why his written estimate is much higher than his verbal quote for the project, he added that it was to cater for other things and on top of that, there is also a $5000 contingency should anything come up.
Fourthly, because we are both aware that the GFA was maxed out, he assured us that he would give us a new estimate and our money back if some of the things cannot be done based on the architects advice.
Fifthly, we informed him and the architect during the only meeting we had that should we need to proceed with the Committee of Adjustment, we will represent ourselves as we had experienced it before when converting our garage.
The above are facts.
Beware of Jeff. He is unprofessional. He wants to profit with very little or no work - just preliminary work and he abandons the project and has no integrity to complete it when he has taken your money. He twists facts, make false accusations and threatens clients. He uses the worst profanities in his emails to clients who wants their money returned, which speaks volumes of the kind of character he is, most unsuitable for serving clients in any sector.
Clients - would you keep on paying to a contractor that bullies and demands payment when it is not due?
Contractors - how would you react to another that tarnishes the contractors' profession?
Without Prejudice, I now make a last appeal for Jeff to refund us $10,000. This offer stands for 7 days or by January 31, 2019.
