Hugo Zamora Home Services

I contracted Mr. Zamora to remodel a 12 x 8 bathroom. I should have reacted to the first red flag which was that he asked for 50% money up front. He also made confident claims about his skills in tiling, drywall and painting that were not evident at all in his results. His first attempt at tiling was bad enough that an industry expert said that I should fire him immediately, based on photos of the job. He brought in helpers for some drywall and plumbing that had better skills than he did. Nevertheless, this job was sufficiently bad that I terminated our arrangement. Since Mr. Zamora broke promises to repay monies owed, I sued him in Small Claims Court. His lawyer responded with a bankruptcy notification. Since his prices are above market and his results are poor, I do not recommend this unscrupulous tradesman.

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We have a house with wood exterior, and some boards were in need of replacement, window trim needed repair, and the entire house could use a fresh coat of paint. We got estimates from several people and hired Hugo Zamora Services (including giving him half the money upfront, nearly $3000) because we liked his approach, and that he could start within a few weeks (May 28) and be done within a week, weather-permitting. He had done some various jobs around our neighborhood. We went around the house beforehand and identified all the damaged wood and agreed that all of these boards would be repaired, and it was written up in the contract that all damaged wood would be repaired. He assured us verbally and in writing that the cost would not exceed his estimate.The project started late, and although Hugo told us before signing the contract that he would be doing the work himself, he was not there and every few days one or two of crew members came without him for 3-4 hours and things moved VERY slowly. Hugo kept promising day after day that he'd show up but then he wouldn't. Twice he told us there was a car accident, but his assistant told us no, Hugo was actually at another job in Arlington that was dissatisfied with his work and wouldn't pay him until he got more done. We had to spend a lot of our time calling and emailing him when we kept coming home to find nothing done again. He did not communicate to his assistant the plans he and we came up with on repairing the windows, and his assistant caused a lot of damage to one window, which Hugo said he would fix "at the end of the project." His assistants seemed confused and didn't know what Hugo's plans were. Seven weeks in, on July 18, he announced he still hadn't been paid for his job in Arlington and he was not going to finish our project. We were shocked and tried to convince him to finish and he said no. So not only is the project less than halfway finished but Hugo has walked off the job and is refusing to give us our $3,000 deposit back. He said we would need to take him to court if we wanted our money back. He said couldn’t afford to finish the job, implying that he needed more money without ever explicitly asking; in fact he said he would "do the right thing and not ask for more money." We asked, how is walking away and keeping our deposit doing the right thing? We emailed a compromise (offered paying more money after full completion of the project or letting him keep $1000 and walking away) and he never responded.  He had told us from day one that he always gets approval from customers before doing work that wasn't in the contract, and not only did he not do this, but because he didn't explain the job to his assistants they probably used the wood in the wrong place. Because two walls had a lot of boards replaced while Hugo was not onsite, far more boards than he and we had agreed to replace and didn't need replacing, our suspicion is that Hugo’s lack of communication with his team members led to their replacing boards that didn’t need replacing and he no longer has the wood needed to replace the areas we did agree to replace.  There are several areas we identified during our pre-contract walkthrough that have not been replaced.Right now, in addition to needing the wood replaced, the shed doors replaced, cosmetic work on a front overhang, the power-washing and the painting done, he left us with the large kitchen window  frame and drywall severely damaged, lots of hardened putty on a bedroom window and the lower roof, a ripped screen, and damaged trim, which we expected he would repair at the end of the job. He actually called and apologized for all of his no-shows several days before he walked off, and told us we had been so patient and understanding. Despite our flexibility and patience with the delays and mistakes in the project and our willingness to negotiate, he has refused to either complete the project or give us our money back.