S&C Construction

Sean Carroll willfully charged us an illegal 30% deposit and has refused to return our money! He is claiming our 5 figure deposit was a project set up fee, which is illegal and now claims it was for designs fees which were never included in the contract, nor discussed prior. We reached out to S&C Construction in April of this year to get an estimate for remodeling our kitchen. There were many red flags missed on our part that we did not catch on to until November. The first red flag was the consultation. It was not thorough at all and we were left with a lot of what ifs that other contractors brought up that (although more expensive) eliminated the need for a lot of change orders/unexpected expenses once the project got started. We advised him that we wanted our kitchen completed by Thanksgiving and he assured us that would happen. Second, highly qualified contractors list their license number on their website. Sean Carroll's license is not on his website and is listed to have only been active for a year with the state. We would have never hired someone with this little experience. Third, and the biggest red flag was Sean charges a 30% "project set up fee" which is illegal in the state of California. I am curious if he has charged all of his clients this amount or just us. We paid him this deposit back in May of 2021. The contract or estimate approval never came with a timeline for the project, blank change order form, insurance information, and several line items that were not included in the contract he provided as required by the state. The contract was invalid from the beginning. It is illegal in the state of California to charge a project set up fee for work not yet completed or a deposit that exceeds 10% or $1,000. Every licensed contractor we have spoken to since have advised us that this is illegal. We do not know what Sean has done with our deposit, as it was never used to order the materials he stated the 5 figure deposit was for. Using a client's deposit for anything other than the project it's intended for is also a felony. In November, after still no anticipated start date for the project and after having to design our kitchen ourselves (when we were told we would be working with a designer), and after finally realizing that the contract was invalid we requested our deposit back as we were no longer comfortable with working with him. He has refused any and all requests for a refund and has basically disappeared, once he saw he was caught. He claimed that the deposit was to protect any work on the project. He has not done any work on our home other than provide estimates and sub-par renderings. He claimed the deposit was for ordering materials. This is also illegal and he never ordered anything, because he never gave us a start date until we started pressing him in November. We have filed a complaint against Sean Carroll and his company with the state license board and he tried to claim they were for design fees. Stay as far away from this company as possible. He completely took advantage of us. We have spoken to several contractors since who have given us higher, yet more thorough estimates and only require a $1,000 deposit to set up the project. We also became suspicious as to why his estimate was so competitive including custom cabinets and it's because the estimate is bare bones and invalid to begin with. You do not want to be in this position because once a contractor tears up your home you will be hit with change orders costing more money. Every time we brought up a concern or something that may come up, Sean mentioned a change order request would be made. He is disorganized and no you will not be working with a designer as promised. That is why he is trying to hire one now. All we want is our deposit back and the owner, Sean Carroll has refused to respond to any requests thus far.

John was very nice, he took interest on what we wanted, he put a lot of personal attention, professional and friendly