I am responding to the complaint filed by the Customer. The Customer called me for an estimate on a roof. He stated he just bought the house and had some issues and would like me to come look at it as soon as possible. This call came through to my phone about 4pm. At the time I was working in Scotia. I told the Customer I was in Scotia finishing a job, and he stated he would appreciate it if I could take the time to make it out to East Berne from Scotia. I told him yes. We made an appointment for 6pm that day. When I arrived he was sitting in his car in the back yard of his property. When we pulled up the drive way and looked at the house I immediately understood why he wanted me there to look at it right away. It was obvious before even getting out of my vehicle how bad of shape his property was in. The home was built in 3 different sections on 3 different types of foundations. The main home sat in the middle, and there was an addition put onto the right side of the house not properly applied and it was highly visible that side of the house had sagged. The third part of the house which was all the way on the left was a mobile home poorly attached to the main house. The roof was sagging and pulled apart from the main on both sides. I asked the Customer if I could take a look at the inside of the house because I knew there was water damage and wanted to see where it was coming from. We did a walkthrough on the property and the house was in terrible shape. At that point I stated to the Customer that he has his work cut out for him and I hope he bought the property for a reasonable price because he has a lot of work to do on the house, not just the roof. I told him that he was going to need plywood on his roof. I walked the roof off and it was very soft and pulled apart, and not structurally sound. It takes 3 sheets of plywood to cover every 100 SQ ft, or in roofing terms, 1 SQ. I told him he was most likely going to need 60 sheets of ply wood but I would not know that for certain until I pulled the shingles up. I knew that the house was going to need all new plywood but I believe it is against the law to tell the customer that they need all new wood until the existing roof shingles were completely removed. My original price to do the roof, removing old shingles, installing 2 inch wide face galvanized drip edge to perimeter of home, mobile home addition of house was to have complete application of ice and water barrier because of low pitch, 6 ft of ice and water applied to rest of home. We would also install titanium underlayment, a new soil pipe flange (or pipe boot), also install moire black architectural LIFETIME warranty shingles, install new ridge vent. This price was 7,000. I had a coupon on an ad for $1000 off on this type of job, which brought the job down to 6,000. The Customer then asked me if I could save him another $1000. I stated, no. We came to a compromise of 5,400, which I thought was being very fair with him. I brought it to his attention that he could be opening a can of worms, because the house was not maintained. I could not specify exactly what could be underneath the shingles without taking them up. It is against the law for a contractor to take apart a customers roof with out a contract in writing. He stated to me I own the property now, it has to be done, and done the right way. I also applied 60 ft of prebent fascia to his home at no charge. As we were taking the roof apart he was pointing out several spots where his siding had holes or was completely blown off. The Customer asked me if I could repair it for him. I agreed. Day one on job, I removed existing roof shingles on house. As we were getting the shingles off the underlayment was in terrible shape on home. The decking that was underneath that, was in very bad shape. The mobile home part of the house seemed to be much spongier than rest of house. That is when I pulled up a sheet of the existing plywood and noticed the structure underneath was made out of 2x2's for beams. The beams were too far apart from each other, not giving the roof enough structure. I took pictures of all, and where the two slopes meet at the ridge, every beam was pulled out from the weight of the shingles, and in that part of albany county, gets a lot of snow in the winter time. I believe between the weight of the two and not having a structurally sound roof, that it why the beams seperated. If I would have put the mans roof back together with the existing beams it would void his warranty with the material and his roof would be definite to leak. I explained and showed everything to the Customer. At first, he was amazed at how bad it really was and said we need to fix this the right way, and how much would that cost. I explained that all existing plywood would have to come up to have exposure of the beams and to remove and replace. I also explained to him that he would be needing 60 sheets of plywood to redeck the roof. This I had brought to his attention, before signing the contract, that he may need up to 60 sheets of plywood on his roof but would not know for certain until I had the roof apart. The Customer agreed. The Customer signed the contract knowing that he was going to need extensive work done to his house, but we would not know exactly what because you can't see through the shingles that were already there. He signed and initialed the proposal for each phase of roof and cost. I also had to raise certain beams from where the roof had sagged from not being on the proper foundation. The Customer agreed on price and scope of work for each phase. Signed by him. The Customer was very happy with the way the job was going from beginning to end. When we were done cleaning property, and were packing up, we were going to do the finalization of payment. At that time the Customer stated to me that he was 2,100 dollars short of payment and that he would need to give me a post dated check for that amount. On contract in the Customer's writing he states: Check #0098 for 2,100$ must not be deposited until 9/5/12. At this time I stated to the Customer that he agreed to scope of work and price why would you not bring to my attention before this, that you were 2,100$ short. The Customer stated that he was taking a home equity loan and the line of credit would be in his account on 9/5/12, and the loan took longer than expected. I took the check to the bank on 9/5/12 and the teller told me that there was not enough funds to cash the check. I called the Customer several times before reaching him through albany county sheriffs department located in New Scotland. Officer at station called the Customer's number, and he answered. The Customer was very nervous about being arrested for writing a bad check, which was post dated, and with insufficient funds. After I left sheriffs, the Customer had called my phone. I answered. He asked if there is some way I could work this out with him. The Customer stated to me that they wouldn't give him the loan and he did not have much money. I agreed on taking finalization payment in two portions, 800$ each, for a total of 1,600$, saving the Customer and additional 500$. The Customer told me to meet him at Stuyvesant plaza to give me 800$ and would meet me on his lunch break the following day in the same location to give me the other 800$. The Customer signed a promisary note in writing and once again did not follow through with his agreement. Went to Stuyvesant plaza the next day at 12 noon and waited for 45 minutes. He never showed. Called several times before he answered. When the Customer answered the phone, he said I am not paying you. I said, so you broke another written agreement? He said whatever and hung the phone up. I receive another call from the Customer stating that he now wanted to pay me the 800$ now, and not deal with the hassle. Met him again at Stuyvesant plaza and received the 800$ and he signed off on finalization of payment. Several days later I received another call from the Customer that he had a leak. The leak was coming from a vacuum exchange box on rooftop of mobile home side, that I had brought to his attention before even starting the job, that it was rusted and rotted. The Customer stated he would worry about that later on. My company carnaced the vent exchange box to stop the leak. The Customer did not want to spend anymore money and got very angry. I did everything on my part of conducting business the right way. I did not sell him any work he did not need, and I did everything the contract states. The Customer has lied to me several times and is lying about several things in his statement to you. I can prove to you that the Customer is a liar and is trying to get out of paying. The Customer states I did not cover entire lower roof with ice and water barrier. I am willing to go with the Customer and someone from your establishment to take off a slope of the roof to prove to you that there is full ice and water under. After you see this you will know what type of man the Customer is. After I prove there is complete ice and water on complete lower part of roof, that should settle this situation and the Customer can call another contractor to re-install the shingles. None of this was a verbal agreement, it was all in writing, broken down into sections and signed by the Customer, agreeing. If you need anymore information to this matter feel free to contact me. Thank you!