Elite Development

A contractor/homeowner agreement was established on August 29, 2014 and terminated, effective July 30, 2016. Termination of the contracting service, provided by Vonya Porter - President - Elite Development - is the result of poor performance by the General Contractor/Manager, Ahmed Porter. Per the agreement, Elite Development has failed to specifically abide by the following: • Failed to complete work by the original deadline of April 16, 2015 and extended deadlines of August 30, 2015 and March 31, 2016. • Failed to correct defective work and persistently failed to carry out work in accordance with the agreement. • Failed to supervise work of subcontractors. • Failed to reimburse owner for materials purchased by owner. • Failed to maintain discipline among employees to include prompt clean-up of worksite (e.g. trash, cigarette butts, construction material, etc.) • Failed to ensure work was of good quality and free of defects or faults. • Failed to not cease work for more than 30 consecutive days. Elite Development was issued written warnings of these performance problems via email on March 29, 2015, September 1, 2015, January 26, 2017, and February 7, 2016. These warnings were received by Ahmed Porter and Rory Swan. As stated in the final warning, Elite Development needed to take steps to correct performance issues by March 31, 2016. Failure to do so has resulted in termination of services. Elite Development's failure to complete the project on time and exceed the original deadline by 15 months has caused undue hardship on the homeowners. Essentially, the owners have been paying $3,500 mortgage per month and only allowed to use 771 sqft of the 4,829 sqft living space. Notwithstanding the fact that the 771 sqft is only 80% complete. The homeowners have bared the burden of a poor credit report due to Elite's failure to complete the renovation on time. This is reflected in the homeowner's credit report by showing that they owe more on the house than its value due to the inability to get a new appraisal based on 203K renovation repairs leading to a significant drop in credit scores. The failed project completion has caused the owner significant monthly added expenses to include excessive utility bills, storage fees, higher than normal bank fees, and home construction insurance. Due to the incomplete project and trash left by Elite Development in the backyard, the owners have had to live with rodents in the backyard/basement and insects in the apartment. The owners have incurred all the penalties of Elite Development's lack of professionalism to complete the project on time per the agreement. Elite Development has been paid $177,250.50 which is 65% of the renovation budget; however, the contractor has only completed 25% of the work. The work that was completed is of such poor quality that new contractors state they must completely re-do Elite Development's work. The owner will seek damages to include project re-start expenses, lost rental income, storage and interest fees totaling $191,844.

This was a costly job and we wanted it done right, so our contract included paying Elite $3500 specifically to handle all necessary plans, permits and inspections. Months later we were contacted by Montgomery County building inspectors who informed us that no electrical permit was ever obtained, and no inspections were ever conducted.They visited our home and found multiple code violations in the work done by Elite. The building inspectors told us we will have to break open our walls and ceilings so they can check for (more) electrical violations, that our kitchen range hood was not installed to code, the electrical work done above the counters and the bar was not up to code, and neither of our bathroom exhaust fans were vented outside, among other problems. We contacted Elite but they refused to take responsibility and even asked us to pay them more to do the job properly! The DC Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection has opened up a file on Elite and the Maryland Home Improvement Commission is also examining this case. Would definitely not recommend their services.