H & H BUILDERS & REMODELERS

On 10/24/11 we entered in a contract with Perry Hooks and H&H Builders for a project to remove all of our siding and replace it with fiber cement planks for a cost of $54,772.  Mr. Hooks was given a deposit of $1,000 after which he requested an additional $10K cover his scaffolding cost of $5,500. We trusted that Mr. Hooks had costs to cover and we paid him an additional $5,000. His crew spent less than half a day opening up a few sections of our eastern wall when they discovered that additional shear wall was required to move forward. Mr. Hooks required the services of an engineer to draw up measurements and plans so we put him in touch with a qualified engineer who'd drew up plans for retrofit work 2 years prior with Alameda Structural. After providing him with the plans and contact information we continued to ask for but never received guidance on next steps, estimates and itemized change orders.
Mr. Hooks and our engineer had an unreasonably difficult time connecting over the holidays. We had attempted several times to connect Mr. Hooks with our engineer however there seemed to be very little initial motivation on Mr. Hook's part to make this happen. Instead my wife was instructed by Mr. Hooks to spend several days coordinating everything from translating measurements and relaying messages to physically getting wet stamps. Unfortunately nothing we did provided Mr. Hook's with enough information to move forward. This impasse continued for 2 months and on 1/6/2012 we received a letter from his lawyer claiming the following:
- We were withholding information - IN FACT we had been trying for 2 months to coordinate information. - We were trying to use outdated plans from 2009 - IN FACT these were the same 2009 plans that Mr. Hooks reviewed, retained, and then sent his subordinate to bring back to us to get wet stamped we met with the engineer per Mr. Hooks instructions- We were in default and that was unlikely that we would resolve within the given 2 weeks so best to surrender to contract termination - IN FACT we have phone records and emails that reflect proactive attempts on our part to resolve these issues with Mr. Hooks.
After we received the unexpected lawyer's letter we immediately reached Mr. Hooks on the phone trying to figure out what to do next. He claimed he was committed to meeting with our engineer, doing some research on the changes in plan specs and providing us with information about the scaffolding company. We followed up with him daily until his voicemail was full, but was never able to reach him. Mr. Hooks did not return a single one of our phone calls, voicemails or emails. Since the scaffolding costs represented the bulk of the money spent we decided to investigate further, so we had an inspector come by who cited several OSHA violations. We were promised proof that the scaffolding company used was licensed, bonded and insured, but never received a response. This led us to believe that sub-standard sub-contractors were used to cut costs and increase margins for Mr. Hooks. This was confirmed when a crew came out to remove the scaffolding and we questioned the foreman Mark Young who claimed he was the owner of Celtic Scaffolding and was originally invoiced $4,500, not $5,500 as Mr. Hooks had claimed. We later contacted Celtic Scaffolding who confirmed they never having heard of us, our property, and that Mark Young was NOT an employee, but in fact worked for his competitor with Rankin Scaffolding which we confirmed was not licensed with the state.
As soon as this job strayed from its original scope, Mr. Hooks did not show the type of competence required of a skilled and professional contractor to help us through this. He continued to change his story about what was needed, how to proceed and made misleading and untrue statements. In the end:
- No work was done. - Questionable, unprofessional and unsafe practices were used.- Remnants of demolition were left on site* In an effort to ''patch'' up sections of the wall that were taken down, damage was done to the interior.- We'd paid out $6000
Mr. Hooks provided no value and no progress towards improvement and actually left the property in worse condition than before he started - exterior clean up and internal repairs were immediately required to return our property to its original level of safety.
Finally, we submitted a complaint to the CSLB, upon which Mr. Hooks stated to the public that this complaint had been quickly dismissed.  This turned out to be 100% untrue and as of the date of this posting the complaint is STILL OPEN and under review.