Summary: For your own sanity and possibly safety, do not hire. The owner, Cory, offered an arrangement where any work that went out budget could be paid at a later date after funds were drawn out of a home refinance. Key work was left unfinished, and prior to even sending out any invoice, the owner reneged on this arrangement, threatened to place illegal liens on the property, threatened lawsuits, and threatened to report (what he thought were) unsafe conditions in the home to the city, conditions which his company was hired to fix. He then attempted to extort illegal late fees after the fact with no signed contract, all of which were well above the limit for such fees under Tennessee Prompt Payment Laws. He has some good men that work for him, (one was drinking while on the job sadly), but he is profoundly unprofessional, unstable, and has little knowledge of and/or respect for the law. Details: I am a local real estate investor and I like to do as much renovation work as I am able, but I had both given birth and had heart surgery in the summer of 2020, and was thus unable to do the work myself. I originally booked Cory’s company for another project I was about to begin, but called to cancel roughly 4-5 days before the start date since my last project remained unfinished and the contractor that had been working on it had vanished into thin air. Cory pressured me into keeping the booking, claiming that I was putting him in a bad spot by cancelling last minute, and that he’d be willing to “work with me” on my budget and payment schedule. I relented and had him to come and take a look at my unfinished project to see if it was possible to finish it within the budget, which was funded through something called an asset loan. (For those that don’t know, an asset loan is a high risk/interest only short term loan by which a private lender provides purchase and/or repair funds for a real estate investment. They only fund for fully completed items on a draw schedule, so when work is finished, they send a home inspector out to check the work is complete, and only then are funds provided.) I explained that there was roughly seven to eight thousand left in the asset loan, and that there were a few items we’d discovered that needed attention that were not on the lender’s list. Both were necessary for a tenant to move in safely; one issue was a leaking roof, and the other was rotting wood that left the back deck unstable. The rest of the work involved installing some lighting, replacing some quarter round, tiling in a shower, replacing a few broken windows, and putting down some laminate in the bedrooms. Cory assured me all could be fixed within two weeks of work (amounting to roughly 8K), probably even in less time, so I kept the booking and allowed his men to begin work. In the event the work went over budget, he made the offer to take 60-70 percent of the total amount and accept the rest later. I told him that in such an event, the rest of the funds would have to come out of a home refinance, something I was planning on doing as soon as the home was finished and I had a signed lease. After two weeks of work, the home was still unfinished, so I agreed to have one of his men stay on to finish what could be finished for another week. At this point I started to receive daily calls and texts from Cory demanding payment, which was extremely confusing, since I hadn’t received any invoice from him to date, and because I had been very clear that funding was only awarded to me when the work was fully completed. He informed me the roof was structurally unsound and was too dangerous to be fixed by his men, so I said I would find someone else to fix it. Towards the end of the third week, it was clear the work still wasn’t going to be finished, so I put my son into day care and came the last few days to help get the work done in time. It was at this point I noticed the man working on the job was taking 90 minute lunch breaks in his truck, much of the time at the property (meaning I was paying for this time), and that he’d come back to work after his breaks smelling like beer. Not the worst thing in the world I suppose, but not something I’m happy to be paying for, and probably a contributing factor to the extended time frame. This employee also lost his ladder and two small windows from the property, the former I replaced for him at my own cost (I felt partially responsible since the home was in a bad neighborhood.) At the end of the third week, the inspector was able to check off the items on the list (thank goodness it wasn’t raining that day with the leaking roof), so I provided the owner with seven thousand (two payments of one thousand and another of six thousand). I had to hold a small amount back (temporarily) to fix the deck and the roof, since if neither of them were finished the home couldn’t be leased, and if the home couldn’t be leased, I wouldn’t be able to get an investment refinance and pay him the full amount (keep in mind I still didn’t know what the final total was at this point since I still had not been sent one invoice). The owner then threw a fit, demanded payment in full, claimed I wasn’t keeping my word, and began threatening an assortment of things. He claimed I hurt him as a small business owner and messed up his payroll. This was confusing since he was the one that offered the arrangement to begin with (I wanted to cancel). I apologized and asked him why he would offer an arrangement like this if he couldn’t afford it, which only garnered more rage. He demanded to know when he was going to be paid in full (again very confusing since we had already discussed these terms) and demanded a time table. I had assumed he as a professional in this industry would know what a refinance time table was, so I had not specified that in the beginning, and he didn’t ask me until this point. I told him a week or two to finish the work and lease the home, and probably 4 weeks for the refinance process (title, appraisals, and legal). I had someone come and look at the roof, and it turned out there was nothing structurally wrong with it; it was an old home with a very steep pitch that hadn’t been built without collar ties, which aren’t structurally necessary for the roof in terms of safety. All that was wrong was it was missing a couple shingles, which I had replaced by another contractor, who financed the work for me, and I was able to finish the deck myself and a little help from the contractor. A couple days later Cory texted me and informed me he was placing a mechanical lien on the property, and that he would be charging late fees of three percent per week until the balance was paid. I calmly informed him that mechanical liens cannot include interest or late fees, and that that level of interest couldn’t be charged without a signed contract. He ignored this and then threatened to call the city and report (what he thought were) unsafe conditions in the home. Note I (still) had not received one invoice at this point for the work done. (Imagine for a moment threatening to report someone’s property for work you were hired to complete but failed to do. Insurance and/or workman’s compensation can often be separate and more expensive for roofing than other construction work, so my guess here is he didn’t want to tell me from the get go he didn’t have the coverage for roofing work and instead fabricated the “structural issues” with the roof, but I could be wrong.) He also looked up my home address and the home’s worth and demanded I pay him (since I could apparently afford it because of the net worth of the home, or some other convoluted argument; I informed him I don’t own the home in which I live anyway.) This was particularly creepy as a woman; it seemed like a a subtle, “I know where you live” type of threat. For this reason I particularly encourage people to not hire his company, especially if you’re female. I assured him he would be paid in full and that all of these threats were completely unnecessary. I had to hire someone who (fortunately) financed the work for me and finish the work m