California Jungle

Description of Work: We fired our previous landscaper,California Jungle, Chris Degroote lic # 812808 for the following. Chris Degroote’s crew admittedly vandalized our property and cut our construction chain locks three times when Degtroote did not show up with the key. His crew claimed their boss was late or wasn’t answering his phone. They left our construction gate unlocked multiple times despite multiple emails and calls asking him not to. We were billed for, yet never signed, change orders. Most of the changes California Jungle tried to bill for were due to his ineptness, not knowing how to follow plans and code violations. We gave Chris Degroote multiple chances to perform per contract including a formal notice to perform. He failed to do so, costing us thousands of dollars in expenses . We gave him the final notice to perform after he missed a very critical appointments with city inspectors and our general contractor. Chris Degroote did not work diligently as promised, rarely returned phone calls. California Jungle’s quality was not done in a workman like manner as per contract. Code and city violations: By not responding to my general contractor’s multiple requests he was responsible for a stop work order and cost us a great deal of delays and money. California Jungle moved the potta potty restroom on to public sidewalk and did not respond to multiple requests to move it. (Took him three days). California Jungle moved our dumpster on to public sidewalk and did not respond to multiple requests to move it. (Took him three days). California Jungle left a “Sanford and son” looking truck in front of our neighbor’s house for 3 days over a weekend . He ignored her and our request to move it. Trash, food waste was constantly left in our street and on our yard despite a large dumpster being just feet away. Applied the wrong drain pipes. I repeatedly asked him to meet with our general contractor who very well knows the city building codes. Our general contractor drove 2 hours to meet him on several occasions only to be stood up. Performed work against city code on a State holiday then tried to bill us for it when he was shut down (Civ Code 10.28.040). Did not have proper city permits or business license as required by law to work in Newport Beach. Chris Degroote did not put in electrical wire chases before rebar as per code or basic hard scape . We had to pay extra to remove nearly all his work including a “bag of worms sprinkler system” that went no where and did not follow the plans we provided and he signed. Additionally we had to remove over 6000 pounds of dirt that he trucked in which was not per plans or drainage coded he should have understood. We were able to finish our project once we fired Degroote in a very fast manor with quality. As and example of what can be done when someone knows what they are doing we continued our landscaping with a more suitable replacement.