Legal Eagle Contractors

Our experience with Legal Eagle Contractors was disappointing, to say the very least. Was sold on the claim that “skilled contractors” had worked with Legal Eagle for decades and that the project would be a quick three month turnaround. The contractors were not skilled nor did they have any longevity with Legal Eagles, as they were sub contractors whose work project was shoddy and in need of later repair. Several of the subs were fired by Legal Eagle during or just after our renovation. The project supervisor (Enrique Sifientes) had never managed a renovation prior to ours and was fired by Dan Bawden (Legal Eagle) after our train wreck of a renovation. Of course, this did little to redress our failed renovation, which actually took 14 months to “complete” (and is not really finished, as Legal Eagle Contractors abandoned the project). Maybe Legal Eagles was top notch once but the bloom is way off the rose. We lived in our home during the remodel and blocked off the back part of the house. I came home on more than one occasion and workers had pushed through the barricade and wandered into bedrooms. Yes, things went missing. This was a 6 figure remodel. Legal Eagle was also creative with the accounting and would start facets of the remodel, get paid in full for that segment but then stop. When we complained we were warned that Legal Eagles could walk off the remodel and that Legal Eagle had other projects going and financially it did not make sense to send whole crews to knock out our remodel (as we already paid too much and flipped the job). If you still wish to do business with Legal Eagle I would suggest you write into the contract a completion date and specific provisions about who is doing what work and qualifications. Adam P. Criaco

Took several months, but the result was well worth the money and time. I was able to see my Previously flooded condo for more than we were even asking. Note the "after" picture of my kitchen which was restored beautifully.

They came into my home without my permission and put up a sheet with staples all around. I took down part the sheet, but am unable to take down the big, heavy duty staples in my wood. This is after I was kind enough to take down the fire wall for them to work on the neighbors wall. I asked if they were going to leave the wall like that with a lot of mess all over the floor and got no response acting as if they do not know English or do not understand me. I left a message for their boss and am still awaiting a return call. The pointed side of their nails are coming through the wall on my side.

Very professional. Some small mistakes along the way were resolved professionally. Overall quality has been positive. I was sure I would use on next bathroom but ended up being disappointed in bid on second large job, so decided to try more reasonable contractor.

The work performed by Legal Eagle was wonderful! i ALWAYS call them for anything that needs to be done to my house, and have used them many times for interior and exterior work. I wouldn't even waste my time calling anyone else about anything to be done on my house. Legal Eagle uses subcontractors and chooses the best in the business; they treat them well, and their customers get the BEST work. When they replaced my roof, they sent over a crew of 8 and finished in one (1) day; that included pulling off the old shingles down to the plywood, replacing a few pieces of plywood, installing roof line vents (as opposed to wind turbines), and cleaning up. I was out of town when they painted the exterior, but the job looks wonderful; i had removed shutters years ago due to sun damage, and we put up new fiberglass shutters; i had always hated the columns on the porch, and they replaced those before painting. I am very happy with the work i have come to expect from Legal Eagle and have plans to use them for the one more project (driveway and sidewalk replacement) i have currently scheduled. Rest assured, they're at the top of my "who do i call?" list.

The job was done mostly correctly, but as soon as I signed the contract it turned into a classic contractor nightmare -- the job was supposed to be turnkey but the owner soon stopped showing up, and after a week or two his supervisor also stopped showing up leaving me on my own with a mess of unfinished work. It turned out that moving the wall involved moving electrical and AC also -- as if that should be a surprise -- but the contract did not cover that, and I found myself not only having to pay for most sub-contract work myself, on top of the $7,000 due the contractor, including my paying the engineer his $1200, but also my having to set the sub appointments, supervise them, and call them back repeatedly to correct their work, some of which was never done correctly. The contractor was paid in advance and nowhere to be found, of course. What the contractor did besides make phone calls to a few subs giving them my address and cash my checks and disappear, I don't know. My polite request to adjust the contract got only turning his back and a smug walk out the door. After multiple requests his supervisor finally dropped off a few inexpensive replacements for several lights that the subs had broken. Final result: one wall partially removed at a cost of 7 weeks of my time and $9,500. An exercise in bad public relations and how not to run a business.

Dan, his staff, and his crew all are pleasant to deal with. I made clear that my budget was limited, and Dan suggested reasonable options to reduce the contract amount. I liked the detailed contract and the updates with each request for a progress payment. His crew made two mistakes during the installation of the exterior doors. Dan fixed both at no cost to me (but at considerable cost to Dan, I think). Quality of work was very good.

I really liked the company in the beginning. They came right over and helped us decide what to do. They were very nice and friendly and I had a good feeling about them. Sadly it quickly went badly. The price was very high. We didn t know though, we didn t really do enough research. Their time line drug on and on. The man in charge of our house did a very bad job with everything he touched. The new white tiles didn t match the older ones. Tiles fell off. The toilet broke before they left and it wasn t fixed. The man in charge was verbally abusive to the painter while I was home. They half painted a wall and didn t finish. Finally I asked them just to leave. I give them a 'C' because we should have been on them more to get things right and we didn t ask them to come back to fix it. Otherwise I would give them a D. This actually took value away from our home, and it was 3x the cost of anyone else. This was 2003.

Have no idea how pricing compares. The only issue is the length of time & procrastination. Work is still going after more than a year!