Lambert & Sons Construction Corp

To sum it up in a word:  NIGHTMARE.  We have just lived through every homeowner's worst nightmare when it comes to contractors.  Paid in full, but project was never completed.  Owner of the company made threats and we've had to hire new contractors to finish the job (despite having paid the FULL contract amount PLUS all change orders).

We had a few bumps early on in the project, but didn't expect everything to go perfectly smoothly - we were undertaking a pretty complex project.  We got our building permit to tear down our existing garage on August 5, 2010, followed by the building permit on August 24, 2010 (delayed due to a conservation commission issue unrelated to Lambert & Sons).  Teardown of the garage was slow because we chose to save many of the boards/beams to be reused in the new addition.  Ledge removal began in mid-September and finished by the end of September.  The foundation was done by mid-October and the framers showed up to begin work around November 1.  Although we had planned to stay in the house during the renovations, we noticed many days where the framers were slowed (sometimes leaving mid day or earlier) as a result of having to work around existing electrical and heat.  We talked to the framers and to the Jeff Lambert and made the decision to move out for one month to give them the house to themselves and to move the heat/electrical.  We coordinated our "move dates" with Jeff to ensure that we were out during a time that would be most productive for the project.  We left the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, progress did not proceed as quickly as we had hoped.  We were, however, able to move back in on our scheduled return date, 12/23/10.  Progress continued, very slow, but steady.  We were told that by being out of the house for one month during the framing, we could expect to shave 3 weeks off the end date.  Sadly, this was the beginning of the trail of lies that we were going to be fed for the next 6+ months.

Then, we started seeing turnover mid stream with the subcontractors.  Some time in January/February, the first crew of siders showed up.  They worked for a while, then were replaced by another crew, only to be replaced by yet another.  Allegedly due to conflicting projects.  Then, in February/March, a plasterer came in to start hanging blueboard and plastering.  Within a relatively short time, he, too, was gone, replaced by another crew.  Again, supposedly due to having another commitment.  At some point, we realized that the original plumber was also gone. 

By April, it became quite clear that there was no way they were going to meet the May 4 finish date that we were given in early January.  We reminded the crew that our college age daughter would be home from college on May 17, so we should shoot for that date - or at a minimum, be at the punch list phase, so she would at least have a place to sleep (her 2 brothers had moved into her room, as their room had been torn down).  We were assured that she would have a room (even if it might have a few finishing touches remaining to be done) when she got home and that they'd be all done in late May/early June.  She's very happy to be back in her dorm now, which should tell you something about how awful the summer was - she shared a bedroom with her 2 brothers (aged 3 and 5) for the entire summer!  After they missed the 5/17/11 date, we pushed hard for a REAL end date - asking for a detailed project plan for each remaining phase.  We were told 7/7/11 would be the end date.  As that date got closer and they seemed no closer to finishing, we started meeting more regularly and asking more questions about timing. 

During the first heat wave of the summer, we asked why our AC wasn't installed and were told for 3 weeks in a row that it would be installed "on Monday."  It's still not in (and now it's September and irrelevant).  We were repeatedly told that subcontractors would be in "next week".  Finally, as weeks went on and progress continued at a glacial pace, we started to see that the laborers were showing up to work, but weren't doing any work - they didn't have any supplies.  It was clear that we were being lied to and many of the materials that were supposed to have been purchased had not been and that there was evidently no money to purchase them, as we were being told regularly that we needed to "infuse" money into the project to keep it moving.  Meanwhile, we had paid every invoice (notes on invoicing below) and change order we had received in full.  We were at the point that he was asking to dip into the holdback. 

Jeff Lambert repeatedly complained that he was "using his own money to build our house".  We repeated asked for change orders to reflect any "extra work" that he believed was being performed.  We did not receive any change orders that were not paid.  Finally, in late July, we met with Jeff to discuss the amounts outstanding and the remaining work.  At that time, I suggested that we both bring all of our records, as his latest invoice reflected a remaining balance that was significantly different from ours.  (His bills were frequently incorrect - dated months before or after the date he delivered them, including inaccurate references to work performed, attaching spreadsheets from other jobs, etc.  As long as the contract amount was what it was, we agreed not to get too hung up on the wording of the scheduled invoices.  Change Orders were a different story and we went over those closely)  We gathered our contract, change orders and canceled checks - at which point, we discovered that we had not included a rather large check in our calculations and that we had actually OVERPAID by over $10k.  Big oops!  So, there was no holdback for us to bargain with.  We expected that this would be alarming to Jeff, as it was to us, and that we all might need to take a few days to figure out how to proceed.  We were shocked to have him then propose to finish our job for $30k.  We asked for a few days to think this over.  We wanted our job done and cutting bait then seemed like it would cost more than $30k.  That was on Wednesday.  My husband got 7 telephone calls (unanswered) and several texts on Thursday asking for a check.  On Friday morning, we were still mulling over our options and had not written a check to Jeff.  He immediately sent an invoice for $60k and got his lawyer involved.  All payroll checks to the laborers on our job bounced.  That night, we received multiple text messages from Jeff threatening to "come over with some of the guys" at 8am Saturday morning to "collect the money they are owed."

On Saturday morning, thankfully, none of the guys showed up looking for their money.  The electrician, however, did show up; we informed him of the ongoing dispute and he told us that he was not surprised and that he was owed nearly $11,000 (6,000 for materials and 5,00 for labor).  On Monday morning, the flooring guy showed up to work.  We informed him of the situation and he had a similar reaction; he's since told us that he's owed roughly $6,000 for our project.  We've received a call about a bounced a check for roughly $1,250 (and never replaced it) to a vendor who made our vanity.   We had a visit from the original plasterer, who stopped by to see if he could collect his $6,200.  It would appear as though not one of the subcontractors has been paid on our project.  Most recently, it was the supplier for our specialty wood stairs, who left a message that he'd not received any money for the materials used on our project.
Edit: the list of subs who were not paid continues. 
HVAC: 6k
plasterer (2 of them) 62