Bella Builders

We hired Vinny to do a major kitchen remodel and had nothing but trouble. He hires unskilled day workers, so we had no idea who was in our house from day-to-day, and they were doing important work. Vinny was rude and unprofessional and could be intimidating at times. His temper is inappropriate and we just wanted him out of our house. However, our main complaint was that we had already paid for and received the building permits before Vinny got the job, but then Vinny charged us for them again. When we pointed out his error on the itemized bill, we received no response. We literally had to go to a lawyer and threaten litigation to get a response from him, which was then something along the lines of, "Well, I gave them a discount, so they owe me anyway." Clearly, this is a ridiculous way of doing business. Because of his shoddy workmanship and those he hired, we've had to have other repair people out to fix some of the things he installed incorrectly, costing us more time, aggravation, and money. This guy and his "company" of people he hires from the side of the road every morning, doesn't know what it means to take pride in his work. He has no integrity and will take your money and leave you with a broken house. STAY AWAY!

Horrible experience - hands down the worst we've had (and we've owned four houses and done extensive interior/exterior work). 1. Contractor was hired based on friends' recommendation (halfway through project, we learned that they had had to fire this contractor). 2. Contractor was hired to perform exterior remodel (sandblast, stucco, paint). Contract specified cost and finish date. 3. Issues arose early and continued throughout project period, and included workmanship, communication, timeliness, and contract violations. 4. Ultimately fired contractor, who then filed lawsuit. Settled out of court, work was completed, attempted to pay amount owed per contract, but contractor sued for more and we had to go back to court. Judge ruled that we owed exactly what we had agreed to pay, and no more. Judge also ruled that contractor had to credit us for damages caused by workers. So, although we now have a judgment against us, we ultimately paid what we owed and the contractor didn't get any extras. However, this took over our lives, lasted five months, and was a horrible experience. In addition, and perhaps even more importantly, the workmanship is substandard - we did not get what our contract specified, the contractor himself had to redo some of the work (twice), and after the court case we ended up having to hire other contractors to redo the work yet again. We strongly urge people considering a remodel to check out the Contractors State License Board (CSLB) website at www.cslb.ca.gov, as well as the Better Business Bureau and Angie's List, before hiring this or any other licensed contractor. Had we done a name (not just a license) search at the CSLB website, we would never have hired this contractor.