HARVEY BURGER BUILDER

When we started dealing with him, we thought that he was licensed and grade. What ended up happening was that he put in wrong windows in some of the rooms. They weren't the right size and right color, nothing. We had an inspection of the bathroom. He never not only hooked up the bath, including the toilet or the shower, we ended up finding out that he installed the wet green board behind the tiled walls. He also cut the main support beam on the floor. By him cutting that main support beam in the bathroom, the inspector would not pass it unless he fixed it. He never fixed it. He just tiled over it, while his son was gluing together custom tiles from Italy that went on the floor. He just tiled over it. He never installed the shower at all. What I now learn from a licensed contractor that we trust is that it's not even leveled, so the water wouldn't even drain properly. There were lot of things he did. He was supposed to extend a room. He never came back and finished any of the work and he wanted the rest of the money. We weren't allowed to touch anything in the house because we were taken into court and it ended up going to arbitration. There were three arbitrators on the panel and the middle one who I guess was the head arbitrator just totally ruled against us. They wouldn't even force him to fix the main support beam. This house came with a C of O and because of him, this house no longer has a C of O. So out of our pocket now, we have to hire someone to go through the bathroom on the main level and to the bathroom on the above level, where he messed up, to fix that to get a C of O to have an inspector pass it. So he put us through hell. We had between our attorney and our expert, it was upwards of $60,000 he created to repair. They would literally have to redo and repair so much of a disaster he did. For example, our house needed upgraded wiring. This house was built in 1950. He told me no problem and he was going to handle that. We have endless wires going all over the ceiling of the basement and the contractor we trusted said they go to nowhere. The power box that was installed is not only installed in a dangerous area, by water, but also he never upgraded it. In second floor alone, we have absolutely no power. Our house is running on extension chords all over the place. He left garbage all over the house and then we took pictures of everything. This was what we were going to go to court with. We never made it to court. We made it to arbitration. He literally won. They didn't even force him to come back and make sure the house had the C of O which it had before he started. As far as the roof goes, there are pieces on the roof he never completed. We paid him in full for the roof and it's not completed. We paid in full for the windows and he has installed windows that weren't even the right size or color to the house. It was a nightmare. He left a bucket full of water which had a hole in it that leaked all the way into our bed and destroyed $800 mattress. They didn't hold him responsible for any of this. In the end, we weren't even sure if he was licensed. He was an absolutely horrible contractor. We then found out through employees of his and other legitimate contractors - it was like a rumor through the grapevine that he had done this for untold thousands of people, where he had taken their money and never completed the jobs. The price was fair considering his work. He never came back to complete it. So the price would have been excellent had he finished everything - replaced the windows that was a wrong size, finished the gutters and certain things on the roof, which would make it complete. He left holes in places. He didn't patch down on the roof. That is literally flapping in the wind. We called his house phone, his cell phone a million times. Even when he did answer, because half the time the phone was shut off, he'd say, "I'd be at your house on Wednesday" and never showed up. We literally had to drive to his home. Even the days he did come, he'd stay an hour or two and leave and never come back. His own employees were the ones telling us that he was doing this to everybody. He would take jobs and not finish them. He had two or three going at one time and never finished one job - spend a couple of hours at this house and couple of hours at that house thinking it would pacify the home owners. He actually asked us for the full balance of the money we owed him when he had all this work that was never even done in our house. Not only would I never use him, I would never recommend him and have already told people and talked to people and they have come up to me saying, "He does this to everybody. He is a terrible contractor."

He not only didn't upgrade, he left it in an area with water which is highly dangerous according to light inspectors and legitimate contractors. This went on for a long time and we were told we couldn't touch anything in the house until the case was resolved. At that time, we thought we were going to court but it ended up just going to arbitration. Then the arbitrators ruled against us, which we were shocked. He didn't do anything he said he was going to do. We kind of treated the guy like family. We used to feed him dinner. His workers were really the ones that told us all these things, that we were one of a handful of many. He was doing this to elderly people, taking their life savings, asking for 10 grand down and then not even showing up to do the work. Showing up enough to pacify them, but never completing it. We even had drawings and schematics of everything of what was supposed to be changed and where. He didn't do any of it. For example, our own master bedroom was supposed to be extended by 10 feet. He tore down a $5000 shed which was supposed to be re-installed in another part of the house. He was supposed to label and number each piece so that they would go back together. Instead, they just literally threw in a junk pile. The quality absolutely sucked. He did everything we asked him not to do. You couldn't get him over here. You couldn't reach him on the phone. We went as far as to drive to his house. He would pacify us and say, "Okay. I'll be there first thing at 9 o' clock in the morning on Wednesday" and then just not even show up. In the very beginning he showed up. He did the roof. The only thing was he didn't finish it. He did the windows. But in that case, he installed wrong size or wrong color and never replaced it. He failed all the way around. I would never use him again in the future.