Richfield Design & Construction Inc

We ended our services with Richfield since there were delays on all fronts -getting us initial estimates, responding to the building architect's reviews, preparation for Dept. of Building (DOB) documents etc. At first, we had clearly informed Penn from Richfield that we are looking to get the work done in the apartment by the middle of september and hence we started to get him involved early on in the process even before the closing of the apartment was completed so that we could begin on the designs and submit documentation to the condo board as soon as possible. Penn took 4 weeks to return our calls and emails to just get a rough estimate so that we could begin on getting the work started. His first email just provided us with a total cost. After asking for a cost breakdown by the 4-5 projects, he did not respond to us for another week and half. After finally closing the apartment, we met with Penn to sign the contract with a 10% money down for the project. Once the initial designs were created and submitted to the condo board, the building's architect responded back asking for more details about the project as well as official architect drawings that would be required for a DOB approval. Penn took 2 weeks to respond to the review and once he finally responded, the board asked for an official response with DOB quality documentation. At this point, Penn wrote an email to us and asked for $7,500 more to provide DOB quality documentation for the design. When asked for a breakdown of these costs, he gave us rough estimates for cost of architect, expediter and his own time during this process. While I did not approve of him asking us more money for documentation we assumed he would be providing, we asked him to bring down the $7,500 to an amount that was industry standard ($4000 - $5000). He refused to do so at which point we contacted another architect on our own and arranged for DOB quality documentation. At this point we informed Penn to essentially play the role of a contractor, however, Penn took days to respond and I finally decided to pull the plug as he was not responding to my calls or emails in a reasonable timeframe. Now we are 2 months+ delayed with no work to show for. I emailed Penn on multiple attempts at wanting to meet with him in order to settle the downpayment amount of 10% that was given to him to start the project. Instead at the last minute he decided to settle the costs over an email and charged us exorbitantly for his services - 8% of the total project cost (some of which we never evenreceived information about - e.g. the cost of installing a smart glass- even though he charged us for his 1 hour with the glass supplier). He also included costs of parking garage, gas and other items which in my opinion are costs ofdoing business and should not have been incurred by us. We could have fought this battle but decided to settle on the amounts to avoid any more hassles as this has been a very unpleasant experience. I would not recommend Penn's services for the future to anyone else. He has essentially taken $1900 from us for giving us pencil drawings of the apartment which had to be redone by our new architect anyways since the condo board outright rejected the drawings and asked us for professional documentation.