A B J CONSTRUCTION

In April 2008, my wife wrote the first check to Al. He also took an example of the cabinet door to match the finish and style. The cabinet door made its' way back in May and then went back again later in May and again in July. He also started the work on the covered roof over the patio in about 3 weeks once he sorted out where to ship the materials. And then the problems really started. At this time, I was travelling out of the country for work and returning every other weekend and my wife became very uncomfortable dealing with Al. I wanted to make the best of the situation and began calling him from the UK. I ended up chasing him until the end of June when I returned home. He would show up for a bit of one day and then disappear for a week. Then I'd call him and he'd promise to get started again. Over and over and over. I made it back to the US in late June and was in disbelief that the 1 to 2 week project was now in month 3. Little did I know that I would still chase Al for another 6 weeks pleading with him to finish the work. And when he 'finished' the work, he lied to me. Before I paid him the final monies due to him, he told me that he just needed to speak with the inspector one last time and he would have the permit finished. And he assured me that he would finish the permit. In early September, St. Louis County mailed a violation notice to my house and then that is when I really had an 'uh-oh' moment. I then called the County and they informed me that no work had been completed on the permit. I called Al and after several attempts to reach him and asking him to call me back, I finally reached him and he assured me that he would take care of the permit. And then again - nothing! I then wrote the first of 3 letters to Al requesting that he work with me to solve the problems with the permit and the cabinets (by this time, I'd spent $275 to fix the doors). He did call me back after the 2nd letter, but I was forced to eventually send the 3rd and final letter. Ultimately, he wouldn't sign a final agreement letter that I drafted, which I thought was very favorable to him. By this time, I'd spent the full $800 to fix the cabinets and doors and the permit still wasn't finished. The agreement letter that I sent him stipulated that he would complete the permit as agreed and that he would give me 2 days of free lable in lieu of the $800 that I'd spent. Again, I thought that was very favorable. Again, he didn't sign it and mail it back to me. I'm not left searching alternate means to recover me losses.