Robert E Verner General Construction

This contractor Robert E. Verner Contracting and Bella Homes is deceitful and fraudulent and will take your money and not finish the job.  He promised to build a 650 ft. addition on our house in 12 weeks on our South Hills, Pittsburgh ome and it has been over one year and the addition is still not anywhere near complete.. He has not done any work in at all in months. We have not had access to our backyard last summer and this summer. The addition is still sitting without doors and windows. The wood and floors of the addition are deteriorating.  He will take your money than tell you to fire him if you're not happy. You will be left having to hire another contractor while he walks away with 100% of his profit along with your money for the next stage of your project.
Caution -he will come in and purposely bid on low side to secure the job, take the maximum deposit he can get and you won't see him for months at a time. Soon you will not see him at all.  I can give you names of several other homeowners that he's done this to. He has little to no experience in building homes and additions despite his website claims.  His only experience is with roofing materials.
Robert E. Verner Contractors files bankruptcy every 6 to 7 years and is obviously getting ready for his fourth filing, has burned bridges with many material providers. He cannot get credit with any contractors nor hire any decent help.  His workers have filed claims for back wages and there are pending claims with the State of Pa Attorney General.  All of the foregoing information is public record.  Read past claims with Better Business Bureau to understand how this contractor works and do background check and proceed with caution to protect your personal safety and finances.

We found Bob at the Pittsburgh homeshow and he responded quickly afterwards to come out for a quote. We got a quote from one other person and chose Bob because his price was quite a bit lower. They started pretty quickly and the guys were there like clockwork every day. They were very professional and seemed to work hard. Overall we were happy with the work and asked for quotes for a couple other projects, but that is where the communication pretty much ended. We never got the other quotes or really even heard from Bob again. We are happy with the work performed and we were clearly a priority to him during that time, but it seems like we fit well into an empty week in his schedule and he isn't that interested in future work. We have since moved on to find others to help with our other projects.
One other thing that was kind of strange, but didn't really affect the project in any way, was that Bob did everything via phone / paper. The original quote was sent to us in the mail and he physically came to our house to sign the contract and get payment. Just seemed a little behind technology-wise but it didn't slow anything down (other than the fact that we were wondering where the quote was until we realized it had come in the mail!).

Everything went very well.  The work was done within a reasonable period of time and I was left with very little to clean up. 

Update April 2012
Mr. Verner put mulch the entire length of my drifveway which I now find out causes termites and other insects to be drawn to the mulch.  I now have to pay for the removal of the mulch and for stones to replace it.

I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau on this company and Mr. Verner's responses included:
- Complimentrs I had given him for jobs performed in 2005 - 2007.
- Further harrassment threats me and untrue accusations regarding myself and my family.
- Mr. Vener has refused to discuss this issue with me over the phone or in person yet has driven two cars on my driveway without my permisson while I was not at home and three times has been seen driving slowly past my house (once taking pictures).
- I was in Office Depot (3 miles from my house) and Mr. Verner was in the same store (over 25 miles from his house; while I stayed away from him, he wrote to the Better Busienss Bureau that I was stalking him!

If you want to use Mr. Verner, do NOT give him any upfront money; once he gets money it takes him months to show back up.
Make sure you detail out every sentence.  If you contract to build a driveway, why would I not expect it to be an even width?  Mr. Verner used the word "approximately" that is acceptable to the BBB. 

Oriiginal complaint:

• Major problems with driveway / parking pad:

- Wall crooked and bricks jet out into driving surface
- Width is uneven varying from 10'6" to 9'9" to 10'1" to 10'2" to 10'3" throughout the 49' length of driveway / parking pad - Grade is steep and gets steeper where the driveway is 9'9" and is also curved
- No driveway curb
- Told by several people that the cement is cracked and there are no expansion joints (Bob claims otherwise, backed by the guy who poured the cement)
- My Saturn Ion can manage the first part of the hill but does not want to handle the 2nd slope in dry weather  (without any snow or ice; I built this for winter parking.
- Yard is a mess - 2-3" groove between yard and walls.  Yard is at a very steep angle on one side and it is completely uneven; they did not level out the landscaping at all. 
- Per a phone call I made to the City of Pittsburgh Zoning -  Bob obtained the permit and submitted a plot plan, retaining wall drawings, survey and specifications on an industrial engineering letterhead but they told me the width should have been 8-1/2" not 9'9" to 10'3".  The City of Pittsburgh is to inspect the construction and determine what needs to be done. 

I had told Bob in 2010 and repeatedly in 2011 that for 2 years during the winter I have had a hip injury and cannot walk on steep hills (sometimes even small inclines).   The specifications for this project was "as flat and wide as possible" with a "driveway curb" and "allow for drainage".   The issue here is that the car has problems now getting up the driveway and I am afraid of falling while cleaning off the car or getting out of the car as well as driving down it when the weather turns the driveway to a sheet  of ice. 

Bob  insists it's a beautiful job (and it looks great but is NOT what I paid for).  While he refused to talk to me he has come to my house twice while I was not at home and drove a truck and large car up the driveway to prove me wrong.  He had no right to come on my property while I was not home.  He has also been seen my neighbors taking pictures of my property without my knowledge while I was at home on two separate occasions.

I have told Bob repeatedly that it does not make any difference to me what his truck can do or not do.  I am very dissatisfied with the job and it needs to be redone in the spring of 2012 based on city of Pittsburgh code and to my satisfaction.  Everything will have to be approved by the City before doing anything.  Yard will also need to be relandscaped and rest of contract items done (motion lights, trim tree, fix motion lights, etc.).

Bob has a proposed a railing which is NOT acceptable.  It will only give me less driving room . Note: Address Change:  Robert E Verner 892 State Road 66 Leechburg, PA   15656 Phone Change:     Cell 412-513-1429       Office  724-236-0283.

UPDATE:

January 2 and 3 were our first real days of winter in Pittsburgh this year.   I've now used the "ski slope" two times while it has been snowing and it only proves how bad this parking pad / driveway is.   The slope is as steep as my street and in just one day of winter with 2" of snow has taken 15 pounds of salt to clear it. It is impossible to remove snow on either side of the car while in the driveway.  When getting in or out of the car the slope is extremely dangerous to walk on.  

I told Bob for over a year, pointing out the importance of a flat surface as possible driveway and he excavated it to a flat surface with the walls as to the surface level (the back wall is over 7' high).  Bob has refused to answer any questions; he just comments on my satisfaction with him in the past and how beautiful the job is.  I'm the first one to admit it "looks" beautiful, that that is NOT what I contracted him to do  - I contracted for a flat as possible driveway and I got a ski slope that is dangerous to drive on and even more dangerous to walk on.   He refuses to answer my phone calls or even discuss this over the phone.  He hides behind emails.   

I have repeatedly stated that if WE cannot resolve this then I will bring in legal 3rd parties.  Bob's response is:  "We have a difference of opinion and therefore we are where we are." 

UPDATE January, 2012

Bob sent me an email in January 2012 stating that he had "exceeded" City of Pittsburgh requirements to prevent me from having to file for a variance.  I never requested that this project be outside City of Pittsburgh regulations.  Bob told me that the City allowed a 10' wide driveway (the city stated he submitted plans for a 8'6" wide driveway). 

In response to Bob's comments below: 

Notice that he only addresses the past and only one sentence about the current job which admits the width is uneven. Bob did not include the property survey, permits, etc. in his figure below.  The actual contract, including all costs, was a little less than $40,000.

Bob was fantastic to me from 2005 - 2010 and I gave him fantastic reviews, plenty of recommendations and lots of emails and thank you letters for his work and great service.  What happened in 2011 that he did a complete turn around, I have no idea.  I drove on the driveway for the first time on October 29th and this was the start of the dispute (when I realized how bad this job was). 

I have given Bob high praises for his work from 2005 - 2009.  The reference below is when the driveway / parking pad was first excavated.  The surface as perfectly flat and the three walls around it were anywhere from 3' to over 7' in height.  I anticipated what I contracted for  - a driving surface with a very slight grade.  Bob, however, built a very steep grade from a flat surface.

Bob's proof:

Pictures would show a similar picture that I have on this site that displays a steep driveway that is uneven with bricks jetting out into the driving surface.  The pictures with his truck would clearly show you can only exit a car / truck from one side (illustrating there is no r

 I told him that he needed to make this safe for my grandchildren. He gave me a warranty for this and he has not cooperated with his obligations. The materials that he used were faulty and we are having this fixed by another contractor. The railings were bowed and were falling apart. Some of the actual rails are cracked. The skirting has spots where they drilled and is missing the screws. The roof leaks and they said it was due to our siding even though it was because of faulty materials for the roof. The reason I had to have the deck redone was because the spindals were falling off and for safety. The railings fell out, so they were not put in properly. The chimney cap came off, I had to have that redone. I wanted a redwood choice deck. The ventilation in my sunroom was not put in properly. I had to have siding replaced on the back of my house. They said that I had poor windows that caused

They were unreliable in regards to scheduling. They considered the job finished, but it was not in my opinion. The prices were very high. There was poor communication throughout and a failure to keep their word.

The job was to take a week to 10 days. They started on May 14 and completed the job on June 22. They worked partial days and not at all some days due to waiting for material (we signed the contract on April 12). Granted we did ask them to do a couple of extra things which would have probably added 3 days at most to the job. We had to repeatedly ask them to repair one spot on the roof and to paint the vent pipes. They did not clean up after themselves well. I would find trash from their lunches and cigarette butts everywhere. We are still picking up nails. We had discussed finishing our basement with Bob but told him we wanted to see one project finished before signing a contract for another. When I told Bob that he would not be given the basement job, he became very upset and kept repeating that my husband had wasted his time. He was extremely unprofessional.

I had a bad experience w/ Verner. I hired him to convert a window in a brick house into a single-pane glass door onto a new deck. The first problem was not his fault; the door had to be custom made and the dealer never placed the order. Bob, very apologetic, promised that the minute the door came in I would be "first in line"; he would "drop everything else." I gave him the date of an open house, a weekend when I would have out of town guests. When the door arrived, it was the week before my event. He called me on a Wed. and said he would be here Fri. or Mon. He finally came on Tues., when there was too much rain to open up the house. So they started on Wed. and didn't finish till Mon. - leaving me with patchy walls and an unpainted door during the event. The work is excellent. He didn't do any of it. One of his two men was very skillful, the other not. He untruthfully denies timing conversations. Those conversations happened. I judge him untruthful, unreliable.

I was impressed with the promptness of returning phone calls and the business like computer printed proposal. Bob has 4 crews so there is never a problem of absentees. Also he employs workers with different areas of expertise, so that when an improperly capped pipe was discovered he sent a worker up through a crawl space to remove it. Also, damaged decking was to be replaced on a time & material basis, but since this turned out to be minimal, he did not charge for it. Cleanup was very satisfactory. I intend to call him again next spring to replace a stoop beside the house and put in a concrete walk. I initially scanned Angie's list and it was quite useful in giving me an idea about costs, but I found Bob doing a roof in my neighborhood and that owner recommended him, so that's the way I went.