MAJESTIC LANDSCAPE

After the landscape project was finally completed, 3 months from its expected completion date, and within days after sending the final check to the landscaper, we discovered a crack in our front yard retaining wall which began to expand. We contacted the City's Planning Department to inquire about the walls inspection history. The City's Planning Department explained that permits were never obtained; therefore, the landscape project was never inspected. The contractor had communicated to us by email last Fall that our project was going to be delayed because he was drawing out the details of the plan to send to the city for the purpose of applying for the permits. It was shocking to learn that permits were never obtained. After asking the staff at the Planning Department to search diligently to make sure that the permits were not misfiled, the city could not find any evidence that the permits were ever requested. We sent Majestic Pools and Landscape a message by email and regular mail requesting copies of the permits and the detail plans which were supposed to have been submitted. Majestic has failed to respond to this request. We had another landscape contractor examine the retaining walls, and he gave his opinion based on what he could observe, which was that the retaining walls had the appearance of being of substandard construction, and that further cracking will probably occur with time. Also, there appears to be no drainage rock behind the walls, and one of the walls may not have been properly engineered for its height. In addition, the workers from Majestic left a gap between the cement steps and the adjacent stucco wall, which was filled with mortar even though we had requested from Majestic that the gap be filled with cement. The landscaper giving his opinion of the work believes that the mortar will crack within a short period of time. We requested that the city's Planning Department send an inspector ASAP, and the inspector came the following week. We expressed to the City's inspector about our concerns with regards to the retaining wall's structural integrity because it may not have been constructed in compliance with standard code requirements. The inspector told us that the city never received engineered construction plans which were required. He could not properly evaluate the structural integrity of the walls without the engineered construction plans; therefore, it was difficult to assess how the walls were constructed because the required inspections by the city during the construction process were never done. In addition, we had a large arbor built, and the inspector could not assess whether the posts were correctly installed into the ground. We are now left with the task of finding another contractor who can either design engineered plans of the completed project, verifying its true construction, or who will have to reconstruct all of the walls to make them in compliance with the city's codes. This is going to require considerable additional expenditure of funds for our landscape project. We hired Majestic landscape 4 years ago to landscape our backyard, and at that time, Majestic did obtain building permits from the City. We are at a loss as to why the City's Planning Department never received an application from Majestic Landscape for the building permits and never received the engineered construction plans.