C & N Builders

This job was a nightmare from start to finish. Art Perez was referred to me by a girlfriend. He had done a small job for her and was reasonably priced, quick and professional. When I met with him to discuss my job I thought I had found a jewel. He had been a "Mr. Mom" for a few years and was trying to start up his business again. I agreed to give him $1000 in advance for building materials, along with a $20 daily gas allowance. In addition, I agreed to pay the daily parking fee in my high-rise. At the time I was watching a friends 3 year old and agreed to watch his 2 boys to help him out. I felt Art was giving me a good price and I was helping him out with extra money and babysitting on my end. He seemed happy to have the job and kept stressing that as long as he was here working in my unit he would be happy to do any extra work (installations or repairs), with the stipulation that I pay for the extra materials. My daughter and I were home the first week Art was working on the job but then he wanted us to move out while he sanded and refinished the floors. I was told this would take 2 weeks at most to finish everything. We moved into a friend's house on 4/5/09. My 950 sq ft unit was now empty so he could work with no distractions and he wouldn't have to clean up at the end of each day. Art was very difficult to work with. He would seldom answer his phone, preferring contact through texting or email. As a contractor he had to sign in/out of my building and when I checked the records saw that he averaged a 4 hour work day. He seemed to be desperate for money and at various times would send me notes or email threatening to quit unless he received more money. I ended up firing him in mid-May, at which time he sent me a threatening text. I was going to file a police report but instead just had the locks in my unit changed. He left a ladder, tools, buckets and radio. I had the items moved to a storage area in my building. It is now 6/13/09 and he still hasn't picked his items up. When I call him his in-box is too full to accept messages. The floor tiles he replaced are not set correctly and he never regrouted the floor. The faucet he installed leaked and the soap dispenser did not work. He skim coated part of the walls and just painted other areas that should have also been skim coated. He painted half of a recessed bookshelf yellow and left the remainder green. He installed the light switch so that when you turned the light on you switched down, instead of up. Installed an external light switch box with the cords running along the wall. Somehow my ceiling fan worked but not the light. The new electrical outlet was installed crooked and there was a bundle of wires left hanging on the floor. He did a horrible job installing the wall switch. The patch job on the wall was bumpy. He took home an antique ceiling light to rewire and it took a month before I could get him to return it to me. He left it on my girlfriends driveway for me to pick up.