Belfor Property Restoration

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I contacted Belfor June 2014 for asbestos removal from several rooms of a residential property. I phoned and spoke with Rick Stalcup who took his time in listening to my potential needs. I explained that the house was undergoing a major renovation and I was managing this renovation project from Virginia, 2500 miles away. He stated he would be able to come out for an assessment within the week. I also emailed him a copy of my preliminary asbestos report for review. A day after his evaluation Rick called me to discuss his recommendations. He noted that on inspection of the attic the ceiling area over the two bedrooms had sustained significant water damage. I explained that this was probably due to a severe storm during a re-roofing in which that area was unprotected. He suggested that instead of scraping the popcorn ceiling from these rooms that the entire ceiling be removed. The dining room and hallway would be standard abatement. He emailed the estimate after we spoke on the phone. I phoned a few days later to schedule the work and he was able to send a team the following week. Work was completed in four days. Rick and the Belfor team did a great job in the ceiling removal and remaining popcorn ceiling in the other rooms. The post asbestos clearance report was negative. I would hire Rick and the Belfor team again and highly recommend them for any asbestos abatement needs. They do solid work with prompt service at a fair price.

This was the most miserable experience we've ever had with any construction service in Reno, by far. I was struck by how similar the earlier review on Angie's list was to our experience. The flood was in January 2013, After the AAA claims adjuster roller her eyes at the people we got initially to dry out the kitchen area and the contractors they referred us to use were a little slow in response time we went with the contract which the AAA claims person recommended, which was Belfor. They began like gangbusters but within a couple of weeks they were AWOL and MIA constantly. Months go on with us having to call them ever few weeks to find out where they are, each time promising they will finish the job in short order. Meanwhile we don't have our kitchen! It wasn't a big job, just fixing some sheet rock, a little pain, redoing the flooring, refinishing the cabinets and the counter tops. They wanted to replace cabinets but I saw no reason, only needed the fronts refinished except for 2 of them. That took a couple of months with no cabinets and no sink, and refrigerator in the living room the whole time. Thankfully we had a small bar sink adjacent to the kitchen. I wanted tile like we had, Belfor made us go through their vendors who tried to jack up the price on us. Belfor lied about how much the tile would cost wanting us to pay for the overruns. I shopped around and found the same tile at less than 1/4 the price. After thay they did a change order and took flooring about the scope of work. We had the same problem with the flooring. When they finally installed the cabinets they didn't put them in the right order. We told them but their guys wouldn't listen, so the cabinet over the sink no longer was over the pipe for the sink, so they Jerry-rigged the pipe--I'm serious, I have pictures! Then over where the A/C vent comes in, which was under a cabinet, the vent no longer fit so they boarded it up. I was at work and when I found out they put the cabinets in the wrong order I made them switch them around and that's when I discovered all this and took pictures. Ok, cabinets in, their subcontractor does an ok job with the counter tiles and then they disappear for months. We're on our own doing the flooring and finally in AUGUST I demanded they return and put the refrigerator back and put the doors on the cabinets--I forgot to mention that part. I gratefully signed off just as soon as possible to get them out of our house. Big mistake. After we found two chips in our refrigerator door--it was only a few months old before the flood. The panel facing on one cabinet end has warped, the trim doesn't match and they left holes underneath. Now the worst part, which I posted to my FB page on OCTOBER 15th, 2013. I'm just going to cut/paste my post here: " so after a rough day at work, actually left half an hour early because I wanted to get home in time for a bike ride to calm down a bit, there is a voicemail from Belfor--the idiot contractors I had do remodel the kitchen after our January flood. Now understand it took them until July to finish the job and frankly they didn't do that much. We had a different company pull up the flooring and dry out the house. So basically they took months to do a "just ok" job of refurbishing out cabinets and did rebuild one cabinet, but we ended up paying directly for the tile and paying for the flooring. Did I mention they installed some of the cabinets backwards and we insisted they pull them out and do it right because they place a cabinet base over the air conditioning vent after taping over it first? I have pictures. So after going round and round with AAA and other subcontractors we thought it was all done in August. Belfor sent us a bill for $864 that said "final billing 100% complete" and I paid it. Now, today, when I get home that voice mail stated I owe them over $6k that if I don't pay it by tomorrow they will put a lean on my house! I call them back and their accounts payable person confirms that's her intention. Then I frantically call AAA and they call them and get the same story. This has been a disaster all the way along. The frozen sewage pipe in the kitchen was just the beginning. How can they do that? They haven't sent us a single bill since I paid the $864, no warning. I could pay it tomorrow if it was legit but this feels like harassment and extortion. Tomorrow morning will be spent calling AAA again and my attorney to see if they can do a cease and desist. I would rather give the money to my attorney than Belfor at this point. Hey friends NEVER USE BELFOR." They did put the LIEN on our house that night, after no notice previous, after I had asked and they confirmed IN WRITING THAT the contract was paid in full back in August. As it turns out their bookkeeper must be incompetent for giving me the paper trail she did. They didn't even bill for some things until way after the work was done. It did turn out that AAA had not paid them the full amount and they hadn't bothered to notice AAA that they hadn't done all the work they had originally proposed. I never did get to the bottom of the whole thing AAA did finally pay them off and they did finally take the lien off our house. At one point there was a nasty yelling match between Paul Gardner and me in their office, me demanding the release the lien and him being indignant asking what idiot would think that $864 was paid in full (of course me not know what the insurance had or had not paid by then). The whole thing which they promised would take them only a few weeks to complete, ended up being one of the most traumatic years of our lives. I repeat NEVER USE BELFOR.

The emergency water removal went fine. They came and vacuumed up the water and placed fans. They were paid $9,200. + for that service. Then, the fun begins...Chris Nelson, came to our site and asked an employee to sign what she was told was an estimate. As it turned out, it was a contract for $38,000. of repairs to the building. The employee is not an officer of the corporation and did not have signing privileges on behalf of the corporation. The workers came and tore up the building to start the repairs. We were told there would be additional charges for putting the insulation in the attic (add $1,000.) They then abandoned the job for a 5 month period. First, they sent for an asbestos test,( add $475.) Then, we waited and waited, we went to the flooring company to select flooring and were told we were unable to select the flooring that Belfor would have to select it. Then, we waited and waited and waited again. We finally went out on our own and hired electricians, drywallers, floor installers, painters etc. and even had to haul off the damaged drywall etc ourselves. The grand finale is the $22,000. bill we received for packing out and storing equipment worth an estimated $500. Then, the company placed a lien on our property to recover this ridiculous amount. Following a meeting with my attorney today, I learned that Belfor is not a licensed contractor. They find out exactly what insurance will pay as an overpriced inflated charge and bill that amount. Chris Nelson said he has no boss but when we filed a complaint with the Contractor's Board there was a man named Paul Gardner, who pretended to know us and said the job was not completed because we wouldn't answer the phones for 5 months. We did not know this man and he is paid to take advantage of victims in Reno on behalf of Belfor. This company has law suits pending for shoddy work and misrepresentation of their qualifications. BEWARE OF BELFOR.