martyn
Joined: 19 Mar 2009
Posts: 1
Home Country: uk
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 Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:24 pm Post subject: Beware of some Expat builders |
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Be very careful when choosing English speaking builders. I had a renovation in Sofia and for lack of language and trust in local builders, I chose an unreliable American builder, Tom Nelson. I was led to believe he had a team of qualified workers, who could do a proper job at a reasonable, not cheap, price.
However it became clear that for a lot of the work he was using people off the street. Even his head guy who was a regular admitted that some of the work was poor and blamed an unknown who had come to mess up some tiling.
To cut a long story short a 6-8 week job became a 3/4 month nightmare. During this time his rudeness and arrogance became more and more apparent. The only interest he had was in the money and the lack of pride or care in the work was evident when I saw the finishings- a ten year-old could have done better with some of the paintwork.
I managed to persuade him to redo some, although it was as if he were doing me a favour and indeed wanted to charge me for it.
Furthermore, a fews days after he left, the flat flooded. I contacted him and although he practically admitted his culpability he started to deny responsibility and in fact began to fling insults.
The plumber who saw it stated a pipe part should have been replaced during renovation. He also owes further work on the outdoor area. When I mentioned this to Mr. Nelson he told me 'to go f yourself'.
During the last two weeks sewage has continued to flood the place. There are suspicions that things were put down the toilet pipe on purpose.
Subsequently I have lost the new tenant and more expenses are literally going down the toilet.
In retrospect I was a little naive in the payment scheme on signing the contract. Aside from avoiding this guy like the plague, I should have ensured that the final payment(at least 10%) was held back until a month after completion and the contract incorporated penalty clauses for late deadlines. |
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