Tile Stone And Art Contractors

Description of Work: Georg Stutzenberger dba as Tile, Stone and Art in Salt Lake City was hired early August, 2009 to do an extensive remodel on a 6,000 sq ft home. An upfront fee was paid in lieu of "padding" sub-contractor 's work. Georg promised a timely execution of the work, and agreed all work could be done for an agreed upon price of $150,000.00 according to a previous bid by another contractor. Work included new AC/Heating, Duct work, Concrete, Landscape, 3 Bathrooms remodeled, wood flooring, new carpet, exterior/interior paint, raising the kitchen ceiling, new doors, new stone fireplace, sheetrock, electrical and plumbing. We wired monies directly to his Wells Fargo account, and pre-paid money while we stayed away from the project due to the extent of the construction to be done. The first two invoices in August were timely. Communication continued via phone and email while we were away, always assured the job was progressing smoothly. 2 months went by without an invoice. When we returned late September (the agreed date of move-in being October 8), the house was far from liveable. We requested an invoice for the work done to date which was promised within a few days but we didn't receive till October 31. The scope of the work was large, but was vaguely summarized on 1 1/2 pages with no receipts/bids. Georg at this time required further funds despite already having received ample funds from us and much of the work had already been paid for but incomplete or not even started. We did not agree to paying him further funds until the work already paid for was complete. Then the sub-contractors were saying their checks were bouncing and leaving the job. We kept trying to get Georg to explain his final invoice line by line on the nebulous charges. He said he didn't have to furnish receipts and that no one does in this business! During that month of October, Georg was hardly at the job site, work had slowed to a standstill, yet we were into this project now $180,000! In the end we had to fire Georg and on November 11th we hired a new contractor and basically are now paying double for many of the jobs that began and were paid for under Georg's tenure. We still tried to reason with Georg, but he no longer answered his calls, and we received a letter from him saying to direct all further communication to his lawyer. Thus, litigation has begun. Today, January 21, we received a Mechanic's Lien in the amount of $15, 983 from the Concrete contractor for work that was performed in September, fully paid to Georg by us. I called the concrete company and they informed me that Georg had sent a partial payment check to them in December for $9,000 and that check bounced. Unfairly and unjustly we now have a lien on our house because of Georg's misdeeds, which we now have to pursue in court.