I can’t stress enough that honest contractors rarely exist and the dishonest ones that I present on these pages represent most of the crooks who front as contractors and skilled trade-workers.
It takes long time to get over the anger of getting cheated by home contractors because everyday you live with the mess they left. The Town Carpenter incident changed my health for the worst: my blood pressure increased so much that I had to undergo extensive and expensive cardiac examinations. The stress of everyday trying to cook meals in the mess left by Andy Luke caused another rage every day. In addition, his wife would call me, to say how sorry she felt and that she really needed some help finding a place to live. This family represents crappy-ness in abundance.
Once I finished paying another kitchen contractor, who repaired Andy’s crappy work, I filed a civil law suit with the Dekalb County clerks office on both parties: The Town Carpenter and Mr. Andy Luke. The Atlanta Better Business Bureau does not have any power to mediate complaints between customers and businesses. If they did, then our State legislator would enact stronger laws with criminal penalties for contractor scams. The BBB receives a very short complaint, the Business has 30 days to write a response. The BBB sends the business response to complainant and then for then on it become an email debate, between customer and business. I would guess that the BBB receives at least 300,000 complaints against contractors each year.
Every time I write a BBB complaint, I also mail a complaint to the Secretary of State’s office. Homeowners across America please use grass roots efforts to pressure our elected official to legislate criminal laws for contractor negligence and fraud. Let’s put these Crappies in Jail where they belong!!!
I seriously believe contractor dishonesty and negligence must become a State and Federal crime with at least five years in jail plus thousands of dollars in damages. I advocate for criminal prosecution because now, homeowners are defenseless against these crappy contractors. Our homes are ruined as well as our health, we must bear the costs of getting bad work corrected which often doubles the original cost, we may even suffer the loss of our homes, belongings and pets. In addition we pay a lot of money to attorney’s who basically seek big retainer fees plus one-third of the recovery costs. Insurance companies will fight against the homeowners for years in order to pressure you to sign nickel and dime out of court settlements that favor their interests only. Now tell me why should this type of homeowner hell not be considered a crime?
Magistrate Court of Dekalb County, Georgia, Civil Action #08M51368.
Defendants Gary P. Luke, dba The Town Carpenter and Andrew (Andy) W. Luke.
Statement of Claim: Breach of Contract, contractor fraud, misrepresentation and negligence. Failure to comply with terms of contract of May 3, 2008. Misrepresentation, intentional and negligent regarding ability to renovate, design, fabricate and install custom kitchen cabinets. Contractor fraud-contractor refused to complete kitchen project and to repair the numerous mistakes and damages after being paid in full.
Claim amount’ $6,500.00 plus filing fee.
I expected to see Mr. and Mrs. Gary Luke in court, but it surprised me to see Andy show. Dekalb County gives both parties the right to conduct their own private mediation meeting before seeing the Judge. It probably would have been better for Gary Luke to turn down the mediation and go before the Judge, because the Plaintiff, me bears the burden to prove to the Court the statement of the claim. Andy (Mr. Crappy) wanted to take full responsibility for everything. However he insisted that he did wonderful work for pennies on the dollar. So we settled for $5,171.25 including Court cost with future interest of 8% waived unless defaults. The settlement included a payment plan of $200 per month beginning in 30 days, payable to me on the 9th of each month. The Town Carpenter is dismissed with prejudiced.
A year later, I returned again to Magistrate Court to file a Writ of Fieri Facias, a Lien on Mr. Crappy, who defaulted on his payments less than year later. Mr. Crappy even conned his mother into making a few payments. The Court places an 8% interest on the Principal amount, so Mr. Crappy gets to pay more money as time goes by. Liens do not go away, unless I fail to renew them after seven years, but this Lien, for sure without any hesitation will get renewed forever. Legally, the Lien changed my status from homeowner to pseudo bounty hunter and now I can pursue legal remedies to seize salaries, bank accounts and other assets belonging to Mr. Crappy as well as pursue Mr. Crappy himself.
Personal stories about the problems caused by hiring negligent home repair, remodeling and building contractors.
