Drew Wagstaff

It was a complete nightmare. Fraudulent and insincere. Mr Wagstaff at first presents very well, and comes across initially as a very nice man. Very charming. The trouble starts when you try and get a solid QUOTE. He wants to work to (your) BLANK CHECK, and hates to be pinned down. I tried him out on a fairly small job, but he knew there was a much bigger project waiting on another (rentall) house.. Well, I could NOT get a solid QUOTE in writing! He would fudge and wiggle and prevaricate, and eventually, he supplied a LIST of MATERIALS. Without prices for labor.. That was for the second job, and I decided he would not be getting that. I just did not trust him. Meanwhile, he was slowly working his way through the first job. I soon discovered materials were missing. Timber, plywood, two by fours, paint, etc. Example: (just one) The house I bought came with an almost full five gallon matching paint pot. They painted an area about fifteen feet wide and three feet high. When I came back, no paint pot. Gone. "Where is the paint?" "We used it." "That is impossible, where is it?" He adamantly, looking me right in the eyes, assured me they had used it ALL, and dumped the 5 gallon container. When I became irate, he suddenly admitted that "one of his workers" had "taken it home." In other words: bare-faced lying to my face. I couldn't wait to get rid of him, but we were half way through the project, with walls and roof exposed. He wanted a payment.. I wanted a written invoice. He kept promising he would get me one. Next thing, he did not turn up for work. Reason: he was in prison. Arrested for a domestic dispute involving his wife. I was not too impressed visiting my contractor in his cell. Complete with bruises and scratch marks on his face. The next day he was out on bail, and turned up wanting money. I said I needed paper work. he said he could not provide any, because his wife had run off with his accounts computer. I then asked for at least a HAND WRITTEN invoice. He refused, and threatened to leave. In the end, I did something i never do: I negotiated a VERBAL contract, for him to finish the job, The agreement was spelled out to him: An agreed amount in full and final settlement, to FINISH the job. Well. Very simply, he never did finish the job as promised. I had to get another contractor in to finish it off. But that was not the worst part of it. THREE MONTHS LATER (after he realized he would not be getting any more work from me I guess) he suddenly remembered another alleged $1,500 worth of work he had forgotten to invoice for! I refused to pay. He subsequently sued me, and I ended up in what a local attorney described to me as the "Kangaroo Court" of the soon to be EX Justice of the Peace. Said good old boy could not have made it more clear that he was not interested in my side of the story. I had put in a written rebuttal four days earlier. The so-called Justice had clearly not bothered to read it. Instead he was very pally with Mr Wagstaff, and awarded against me. So I do NOT recommend Mr Drew Wagstaff, despite his oily charm.