Peacott Building and Remodeling

At first it seemed like the project was going very well. Fred's crew was fabulous, and things got done on time. But as the project went on, there were a number of times that Fred Peacott didn't listen to what we were asking for. Even when there were clear drawings and plans, he built things the way he wanted to rather than the way we wanted him to--even when we had discussed details only the night before, we would arrive at the house the next day to find that he was not doing what he said he would. And when we asked to have some of these things changed, he told us it would cost more to change them. Examples of this are: starting to install cedar shingles when we were still waiting for him to give us a price on Cedar Impressions siding--then charging us both for installing and for removing the shingles; failing to install trapezoidal windows we had purchased and agreed on the position of--even in the face of repeated questions about when they would go in--and delaying so long that the electrician (subcontracted by Fred) wound up installing wiring where the windows were supposed to go. So the electrician had to move the wiring (which we paid for) and the walls had to be opened back up to put in the windows (which we paid for.) There were at least a dozen of these kinds of things--even when we were very explicit and had drawings, etc, that Fred had agreed to follow. In addition, for several months of the project, every time we asked how we were doing compared to the budget, Fred told us we were fine. Until one day he showed up and said we were $20,000 over budget! At that point, it was too late to change the things we would have done differently had we known how the numbers were adding up. And because we had paid him exactly what he asked for every time he said he needed another payment (for materials, labor, etc.) we couldn't go back. But the worst things was that, along the way, there were several things Fred told us he would not charge us for. We even put a long list of them in writing and he gave us a verbal agreement that he would not charge for them. But when his final bill came, all those charges were there and he said, point blank, that he was under no obligation to honor his word. We deducted the disputed amount--which wound up being about $2,500 or 1% of the project's total cost-- from our final payment, only to find a few weeks later that Fred had put a lien on our property. He pretty much destroyed our working relationship at that point--and for such a relatively small sum, after we had paid him everything he asked for all along the way. Pretty stupid business move on his part, as we've had plenty more work done, and would never hire him again for any of it.

It went really well. He had to work with several owners of the building and was very accommodating and easy to work with. He was responsive.