ALL SOUTH FLORIDA CONSTRUCTION

At the beginning everything went ok. Phil (contractor) came to our house. He was recommended by the city to us. He did a walk-through with me identifying the needs of the house to get it up to code. His bid was part of home renovation loan attached to our mortgage. Once half the funds were distributed to him by the bank, we were in constant contact with him and he waited almost 30 days to begin any work. The subcontractors he hired to do the work were never on time. Various times I took off of work to be there so they could have access to the house and no one showed up. Phil insisted that the house did not need to be pressure washed before painting so they painted without doing so even though it was part of the contract for him to do it. When the subcontractors did show up Phil didn't even know they were there and did not check in on them at all. The subcontractors left a mess each time they performed any work. Various times during the time the work was performed, I called Phil and he had no knowledge of the status of the different projects being worked on. The worked performed was mediocre at best. He only had one man painting the entire house by hand. They later patched spots on the outside of the house and never repainted them. He went the cheapest way possible on every project while still charging us max dollar. Example: he left the drain hose for the washing machine draining into the utility sink instead of draining into a pvc pipe which goes to the outside (city sewer). I have never seen that before in any house. The plumber told me to do it correctly would have been another $60.00. All his subcontractors seemed pretty disgruntled with him and all of them express several complaints about him to us. After the job was finished, we received word from a few of the subcontractors that they had not yet been paid even though the money was distributed to Phil by the bank. The subcontractors also told us that Phil insisted that they cut corners/costs wherever possible instead of doing high quality work. Phil missed various items that should have been noticed during our walk-through. Instead the inspector made us fix them after the fact and because the loan amount was final we had to pay for various items out of pocket. He later also tried to charge us more than the contract price at the end. After he finished his work he began excessive phone calls and emails to us about being paid knowing that the bank was the one who actually had to cut the check. Due to lack of attention to detail and refusal to do the job for us, we had to hire a separate contractor to come in and fix electrical safety issues so that the bank inspector would pass us. It was made clear to him that until the bank inspector passed us he would not receive the other half of his payment. Upon hearing this he filed a claim of lien on our property and the bank refused to pay him (due to a policy stated on the contract) until he removed it. We were forced to find a lawyer, incur legal fees, and waste time all for no reason. On the last day of the contract he released the lien and later was given the other half of his contract payment. Between the time he finished the work and when he got paid, he would drive by our house a few times a week. We also received word from the bank that he was making excessive phone calls to them and our lawyer demanding payment even though he knew we were still within contract. This experience was extremely stressful and not a good welcoming into our new home. Please beware. I wish someone would have warned me. At the time I looked for reviews online and was not able to find any so I went on the the word of the people at the city. This man should not be allowed to have a contractor's license.