Heritage Home Improvements

If you value your sanity and your pocketbook you will read this review before signing a contract with Richard Spotlow of Heritage Home Improvements. I cannot attest to the quality of his work because he did no physical work for the $7,000.00 deposit we gave him in August 2020. the contract stated that he would 1- replace a small porch with a larger deck with overhang, 2- remove 4 leaking windows in our sunroom, 3- cap a pipe in our lot at our home in Westbrook. It was to be our retirement home. Richard applied for the permit on august 24, 2020. Our lot is small, we are near a river so we needed a variance. Richard supplied the drawings and we supplied the survey. From September 2020 to February 2021 Richard was asked for information from the Westbrook Building Department and so were we. We did everything they asked, we in no way impeded this project. In February 2021, after months of trying, we were hoping to be on the docket for the end of March 2021 Zoning Board of Appeals meeting. The documents, had to be submitted by Richard by mid February 2021. On March 5, 2021 we learned from the Building Dept that he had not properly answered their requests. The project could not go forward. We called him, there was no response, and then we emailed him stating that if he could not complete the project to return our $7,000.00 deposit. We never heard from him, he just walked away keeping our full deposit. We wish he had informed us he had soured on the deck project, maybe something could have been worked out so the other 2 projects could have been completed. To help us retrieve our deposit I wrote complaints to the BBB and the CT. Dept. of Consumer Protection. In his responses to both he said he would only return a small portion of our deposit. He also insinuated it was us who became "frustrated" and ended the project. Why would we end this project when at this point we had already spent more than $9,000.00o f our hard earned savings, plus all the time and effort to answer any request from the Building Dept? It was suggested to us by the Dept. of Consumer Protection that we use the Ct Judicial system to resolve our complaint. We sued him in Small Claims Court for the maximum allowed of $5,000.00 On Oct. 3, 2022 we were awarded $3,306.94 by the magistrate. The magistrate allowed Richard a setoff of $2,100.00 off the $5,000.00 and not the original $7,000.00 deposit. He was supposed to pay us in 60 days. It is now August 2023 and we have not received one cent. We now have to chase after him using the Ct. State Marshall Service trying to attach his bank accounts. We are both now in our eighties. and we feel we have been victimized. We do not wish any other homeowner to go through what we have been dealing with for the last 3 years.