Cannon Builders and Remodelers

We, my wife and I, are Hurricane Sandy victims. We live on Long Beach Island, NJ and our house has suffered significant and substantial damage resulting in the need for near total rehab. We had been unsuccessful so far in being able to get a contractor, ANY contractor, to submit a written proposal for repairs. In February of this year we were approached by a contractor's associate/employee (Mark Weiler) soliciting business. (We had contacted him in December or January while he was employed by another LOCAL company because of an ad we saw published in a local newspaper.) He told us that he was with another firm locally located in Manahawkin (Cannon Builders and Remodelers) and offered to provide the proposal we required. We outlined with him exactly what we needed to satisfactorily fix our home both on the exterior and interior. A proposal was written up, when explained, seemed satisfactory. A contract of service was drawn up by him which my wife and I signed, and we gave him a check for $3,000. A few days later we gave him another check for $4,000 as an additional deposit and explained to him we were waiting for the Small Business Association loan to be finalized and we would give him the remainder of the required deposit. He brought a crew in to work. They were SUPPOSED to remove the severely compromised subfloor and replace it with 3/4" plywood but only covered the damaged floor with 1/2" plywood. I noticed deficiencies in the contract in that it only called for interior work and materials to be used were less than we were originally told would be used. I was told that the points I raised would be added to the contract. The SBA loan was slow in processing so my wife and I withdrew $20,000 from a retirement account. After we gave him the check we didn't hear or see a worker for more than a week. I called Mark Weiler and left a message on his voicemail expressing my fear that he absconded with my money. He called me back moments later and asked if he could meet my wife and I at our house. It was there that he somberly told us that he was no longer with Cannon Builders and Remodelers due to personal reasons. Mark Weiler told my wife and I that he INTENTIONALLY and KNOWINGLY entered us into a legally unenforceable contract (it did NOT contain a start date and end date as required by NJ law) and the contract was designed to omit key elements of repair only to charge the consumer at a later time for "additional" repairs. I immediately contacted (went to the office) Cannon Builders and Remodelers and spoke with OWNER and CEO Robert Cannon and told him I wanted an immediate refund of the monies we had paid, threatening that I would have him charged with fraud and theft if he did not comply. Robert Cannon begged and pleaded that we give him a second chance, that he would make everything right. I agreed to let him come to my home and meet with me and my wife to consider his offer (since he already had our money we thought it might be easier to have him work off the $27,000). He came to our house and promised several times that if we were not happy with the way construction was proceeding in two weeks he would refund every dime of our money. In two weeks, the only work completed was the erection of a single wall which separates the kitchen and the bath.Unknown to me had hired an architect (unnecessarily), a plumber, and an electrician. The plumber was supposed to show up on a given date but when I called him he said that Cannon never told him when to come out and "spec out" the job. I drafted a letter and presented it directly to Cannon Builders and Remodelers demanding a full and complete refund to which he has not complied. I believe that Robert Cannon (a liar, con artist, and thief) has NO INTENT on returning my money. He has made numerous promises to do so but each promise was made with wasted breath. As of yesterday he supposedly hired an attorney but he refuses to give me the attorney's name and phone number.

They we supposed to start 1st week of march and didn't end up starting until the end of march. They ripped up the roof and noticed mold on the plywood and said every sheet had to be replaced. okay understandable that we had some mold but not every board at 58 dollars a sheet. And each board is 9 dollars at home depot. They did the work in 2 days and did a s***** job flashing the chimney so were supposed to come back the next day but only came back to pick up there ladder they left. then that night i decided to go up to the attic and look to check out the job they did (thank god i did) they never hooked up the exhaust vent for the gas furnace. They didn't even cut the hole in the roof they just left the cap laying in the attic. If i would halved turned the heat on it could have turned into a nightmare. so they came 2 days later to finish hooking up the vent after 2 phone calls . and then finally finished the flashing on April 16. And they also missed a lot of trusses when nailing on the new roof, oh and the dumpster stayed in my driveway for 10 days. I had to call the dumpster company to get the can picked up when i was told by John that he had called