JOHN IWANOW'S EXCAVATION

We contacted John Iwanow to have him do road repairs. We wanted to have the ditched on both sides, road felt and base rock laid and then have 3 inch minus put down, along with our driveway straightened and stumps pulled. He said that wouldn't work in our area, so we did what he suggested. We were quoted $8700-$9000 for the completed project. This length of the road is 1500 ft. I kept waiting for him to drop off a contract or something in writing showing what we agreed to. That never happened. The verbal agreement was we would pay him so much and he would do work that would cover that amount paid. We would pay him some more and he would do some more work. He agreed. Things that were to be done last, the driveway and stump pulling were done first. Everything was done in reverse order. I gave him a payment in November and I asked him when was he going to finish the road. John said all his equipment was winterized and he wanted to see what the road looked like after winter and in the spring put any more rock down where it might have puddled and had problems with drainage. I said that would be fine. At that point, according to his confusing invoices, we owed $2700, not a problem. Later John calls my husband wanting more money. Saying we owed another $5000 for the road. My husband was on a temp layoff from a job and he told him we will send him $20 a month until he got back to work and John agreed without a problem, and cashed the checks. At that point we knew we had a problem with him and the unfinished road. He told my husband that the road was finished! He called and left numerous threatening messages, anything from putting a lien on our property to having the Sheriff coming out to tow our vehicles. We have rock that ranges from sizes of 2ft to small pieces for 1500 feet of road. Some of the repair was done on a right a way, with a neighbor, we live on a small private road that goes through other owners property. For drainage in spots we have these huge holes dug in the side of the road, on our neighbors property. Which is not acceptable. She is upset. We had another contractor come out and give us estimate on the amount of rock that John dumped and the cost for repair. We were told John dumped 15-20 loads of rock, invoices say 45 loads. It's going to cost us $11,000 to redo the road correctly. The contractor we had come out to look at the mess we have been left with, said oh this is from John Iwanow. He won't buy rock from him at all. From what the contractor told us, no one will buy his rock. We have since been sued by John in Small Claims and John lied in court, stating that what he wanted to do to the road, road felt ditching, etc. would cost $13,000, but we wanted to go a cheaper route, so that's what he did. He lied in court. We wanted the road felt and ditching, and he talked us out of it. Also he said that he has never been in court before, but the contractor that came out, said John has been in and out of court and that he would never use his rock. John said that the contractor we got an estimate of repairs from uses him all the time. And because of my husband being laid off (my husband is back to work) we just didn't want to pay for the road. Because of his lies in court and the Judge not listening to us, we lost and we are not appealing the case. John also said in court a mutual friend of ours said how I loved the road. Well I did, thinking the road was going to finished in the spring. We were shocked when John told my husband the road was completed. I have since found out he is not a licensed contractor in the State of Idaho, which according to Idaho Law, any contractor who does work that is over $2500, has to be licensed. I am going to find out now if he is bonded and insured, and also John has a quarry he owns, and that's where the rock comes from he uses. I cannot find on MSHA website where his quarry is registered with them. I would not recommend him to anyone. His work was horrible, work ethic far from acceptable and his integrity is zero. We are now stuck with a road that isn't completed, and we are going have to pay for a road to be done right the first time. If anyone wants to see the road or the photos, I will be more than happy to show the mess we are left with. UPDATE OCT 14, 2013: We won our appeal. He is not a licensed contractor in the State of Idaho nor is his pit registered with MSHA. According to Idaho law he has to be licensed to even bring suit against us. We won based on our road engineer's testimony and not being licensed. He lied in court and got caught. We will turning over all documentation to the Idaho Attorney General's office, the Better Business Bureau, MSHA, State of Idaho Licensing Department, Idaho DOT, Bonner County Commissioners and any other regulatory agency he has to report or be licensed to.