T
themaenad
Guest
- Jurisdiction
- Michigan
First Question: Had a sewer back-up flood in basement. Called a restoration company. Guy shows up and says he is "licensed and insured" and hands us a card with IICRC and EPA Lead Safe logo on it. The firm is not credited by IICRC but he does have a certificate from them. EPA never heard of them Called LARA - Michigan Department Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. This guy is unlicensed. Called the township where he works out of and he is operating illegally out of a building. Signed a Work Auth doc so he could help move stuff out of the basement. He did about 12 hours total work. Terrible job. Had to hire ServPro to come in and complete the job. Paid them in full. Wife signed a non-compliance doc so they didn't remove shower/ceramic tile. They obviously altered after she signed it and included 'interior walls' which wouldn't make sense, they had to be removed. She signed a work satisfaction doc to take dehumidifiers away but listed all the things they did not do, including, cut, bag and remove items from back yard. A day later we receive a bill for over $10,000.00. Trust me when I say, the bill was fictitious and we can prove it. Line item after line item of lies. A day later a letter from an attorney threatening lawsuit and collections for past-due amounts. This is a man in a van with old equipment. He just changed the name of his LLC two weeks prior. LLC is registered to some address not listed on the contract ' to work auth.' We have tried to pay him off ($6,300 for roughly $1,400 worth of work) just to leave us alone and stop with the legal fees. We can prove price gouging but my questions are: 1.) My attorney and I have spent hours trying to find the Michigan statute or law seeing if a water mitigation company needs a license (Maintenance & Alteration Contractor License) or just some sort of license in general to charge people this sort of money. He removed drywall, carpet, door encasements, bathroom vanity and baseboards. I would think someone would need some sort of license to do work in a house. 2.) What do you think this guy's angle is? I've done my research, he is broke. Do you think the attorney gets a percentage of money if he takes us to court? I have estimates from legitimate companies who say the job is between $3,000-$5,000 max. He is unwilling to prove his line items and keeps raising and lowering the price arbitrarily. He is basing the amount on the $10,000 insurance payout. The City Insurance Inspector said his bill is price gouging. I asked them to let the inspector take measurements and i will get back to them afterward.
RESPONSE: He would be willing to go down to $8,000.00, which would more than cover the ServPro bill (and would represent a lot less than 6 inches of water with respect to the pumping issue). If we wait till the inspection, that offer is withdrawn and we are back to $8,895.00.
RESPONSE: He would be willing to go down to $8,000.00, which would more than cover the ServPro bill (and would represent a lot less than 6 inches of water with respect to the pumping issue). If we wait till the inspection, that offer is withdrawn and we are back to $8,895.00.
