Lavezzo Construction

Our experience with Jonathan Lavezzo has truly been one of the worst we've had in our 40+ years. We entered into contract for the fence construction in early January 2014. This was "a 2-3 day project" per Jonathan. We paid a down payment according to the terms of the contract, and work began. It was a harsh winter here, so we completed understood when things were delayed (while ground was frozen, etc). About a month after the contract was signed, Jonathan approached us and asked for $900 so he "could cover payroll". Mind you, no work had been done on our fence project for weeks at this point; but he implied he needed the $900 so he could resume work on the fence. We were already $3000 in at this stage, so we gave him the benefit of the doubt and agreed to pay him the $900 with the promise he was completing the fence within 2 weeks. That never happened. He made some slow progress; and again, it was a rough winter here, so we tried to be understanding. At this point, we only owed him $1000 on the balance of the contract (per contract, balance was to be paid upon project completion). After weeks of the fence being left unpainted (and we have a strict HOA- so painting was a requirement, and was in the contract), we continued to contact him, asking him when the painting could be completed. Eventually he said he had a paint crew who would be out on a Saturday (this is now 2 1/2 months after the contract was signed for the "2-3 day project"). He then said the wood was soaking up more paint than he'd anticipated, so he asked us for the remaining $900 balance that Friday to ensure he could buy enough pain to have the crew completed finish by the end of that weekend. We were very reluctant- and told Jonathan this. He assured us the paint crew would finish the fence and painting in its entirety by Sunday evening. So, we handed over the final $900. A paint crew came on Sunday- while it was raining- and painted the fence partially. Since Jonathan was paid in full, we have hardly heard a peep from him. We have emailed and called him weekly- trying to be workable, and simply wanting to get this project finished in its entirety. 3 months after the signed contract (about 6 weeks after the fence was built), we noticed many of the pickets were coming detached from the crossboards. The pickets (about 1/3 of the entire fence) were secured to the crossboards with a single nail. 2 weeks ago, we noticed an entire 15' section of the fence was very wobbly- and realized one of the posts was split crosswise across the base. Jonathan hasn't even paid us the professional or personal courtesy to come to our home and inspect the current state of the fence. To backtrack a bit, one of our neighbors asked for Jonathan's contact info for some work he needed done. This was immediately after we entered into contract with Jonathan and had had no problems at that point- so we provided him with Jonathan's info. Despite Jonathan being "too busy" to come by and inspect the state of our fence, he was out at our neighbors' homes giving them quotes (and trying to get signed contracts/project deposits, no doubt). He was 20 yds from our home to try to secure new contracts yet didn't have time to come to inspect the fence here. Most recently, our community's project manager notified us that Jonathan had actually put one side of our fence onto our next door neighbor's property. (These is a new construction community). Our neighbors were scheduled to settle/close today on their home, and the closing was delayed (SAME DAY), as the settlement company wouldn't allow the closing to proceed because of the fence/property line issue- so now we are facing hundreds of dollars and an extremely tight timeframe within which we have to find and hire a contractor to remedy the problem so our neighbors can close on their new home. Again, Jonathan is silent. Dealing with Jonathan Lavezzo has truly been the worst possible outcome in terms of dealing with a contractor. It has been one headache after another. I only wish the April 2014 review posted on Angie's List would have been posted before we hired him- because our experience has been parallel to the other Angie's List reviewer. He is the epitome of a con artist. Further, when I checked his social media pages after not hearing from him, I saw post after post where he has been on camping trips, at his "beach house" in Delaware, and just basically living it up. It has truly turned our stomachs. It is my intent to do everything within my power to ensure the Commonwealth of Virginia revokes his contracting license; every potential customer he may have is at least aware of the multitude of problems he has caused before they decide whether they will hire him; and that we recoup the money we've wasted hiring him. His contracts mean absolutely nothing to him (aside from being a false sense of assurance he conveys at the very beginning of a project in order to get a fat deposit from customers). Unfortunately, the only real recourse is small claims court for us- which we will unquestionably be pursuing. But who wants these headaches? Incidentally, our neighbors have now refused to work with him.

Our experience with Jonathan Lavezzo has truly been one of the worst we've had in our 40+ years. He owns two businesses: Handiworks, LLC and Lavezzo Construction. I am entering the review we posted on his construction page on Angie's List, as I feel it is his overall method of doing business in general and his complete dishonesty that any consumer should be aware of before deciding on whether to do business of any kind with him: We entered into contract for the fence construction in early January 2014. This was "a 2-3 day project" per Jonathan. We paid a down payment according to the terms of the contract, and work began. It was a harsh winter here, so we completed understood when things were delayed (while ground was frozen, etc). About a month after the contract was signed, Jonathan approached us and asked for $900 so he "could cover payroll". Mind you, no work had been done on our fence project for weeks at this point; but he implied he needed the $900 so he could resume work on the fence. We were already $3000 in at this stage, so we gave him the benefit of the doubt and agreed to pay him the $900 with the promise he was completing the fence within 2 weeks. That never happened. He made some slow progress; and again, it was a rough winter here, so we tried to be understanding. At this point, we only owed him $1000 on the balance of the contract (per contract, balance was to be paid upon project completion). After weeks of the fence being left unpainted (and we have a strict HOA- so painting was a requirement, and was in the contract), we continued to contact him, asking him when the painting could be completed. Eventually he said he had a paint crew who would be out on a Saturday (this is now 2 1/2 months after the contract was signed for the "2-3 day project"). He then said the wood was soaking up more paint than he'd anticipated, so he asked us for the remaining $900 balance that Friday to ensure he could buy enough pain to have the crew completed finish by the end of that weekend. We were very reluctant- and told Jonathan this. He assured us the paint crew would finish the fence and painting in its entirety by Sunday evening. So, we handed over the final $900. A paint crew came on Sunday- while it was raining- and painted the fence partially. Since Jonathan was paid in full, we have hardly heard a peep from him. We have emailed and called him weekly- trying to be workable, and simply wanting to get this project finished in its entirety. 3 months after the signed contract (about 6 weeks after the fence was built), we noticed many of the pickets were coming detached from the crossboards. The pickets (about 1/3 of the entire fence) were secured to the crossboards with a single nail. 2 weeks ago, we noticed an entire 15' section of the fence was very wobbly- and realized one of the posts was split crosswise across the base. Jonathan hasn't even paid us the professional or personal courtesy to come to our home and inspect the current state of the fence. To backtrack a bit, one of our neighbors asked for Jonathan's contact info for some work he needed done. This was immediately after we entered into contract with Jonathan and had had no problems at that point- so we provided him with Jonathan's info. Despite Jonathan being "too busy" to come by and inspect the state of our fence, he was out at our neighbors' homes giving them quotes (and trying to get signed contracts/project deposits, no doubt). He was 20 yds from our home to try to secure new contracts yet didn't have time to come to inspect the fence here. Most recently, our community's project manager notified us that Jonathan had actually put one side of our fence onto our next door neighbor's property. (These is a new construction community). Our neighbors were scheduled to settle/close today on their home, and the closing was delayed (SAME DAY), as the settlement company wouldn't allow the closing to proceed because of the fence/property line issue- so now we are facing hundreds of dollars and an extremely tight timeframe within which we have to find and hire a contractor to remedy the problem so our neighbors can close on their new home. Again, Jonathan is silent. Dealing with Jonathan Lavezzo has truly been the worst possible outcome in terms of dealing with a contractor. It has been one headache after another. I only wish the April 2014 review posted on Angie's List would have been posted before we hired him- because our experience has been parallel to the other Angie's List reviewer. He is the epitome of a con artist. Further, when I checked his social media pages after not hearing from him, I saw post after post where he has been on camping trips, at his "beach house" in Delaware, and just basically living it up. It has truly turned our stomachs. It is my intent to do everything within my power to ensure the Commonwealth of Virginia revokes his contracting license; every potential customer he may have is at least aware of the multitude of problems he has caused before they decide whether they will hire him; and that we recoup the money we've wasted hiring him. His contracts mean absolutely nothing to him (aside from being a false sense of assurance he conveys at the very beginning of a project in order to get a fat deposit from customers). Unfortunately, the only real recourse is small claims court for us- which we will unquestionably be pursuing. But who wants these headaches? Incidentally, our neighbors have now refused to work with him.

This is a rental house and I am out of town so I conducted a lot of the business over the phone. I believe Jonathan is a dishonest person. The price was acceptable but I wonder now after dealing with him if the quality of the shingles was exceptionally low. I don't have any experience with the quality of shingles. I had to give him a down payment for the materials which was acceptable. The job started on the date that he said he would start. A few days later he called me and said he would be finished tomorrow and he needed to make a payroll and could he charge the remainder of the job since he just had a few more hours to complete the job. I foolishly said yes. After that he was very unresponsive to anything. When I returned to town that weekend, I found the job unfinished and the yard was littered with the tiles that had been removed. I called him and he said he would try to come clean up the next day. He didn't come. He did come back eventually and finish the roof and clean up a little but I am still picking up pieces of tile and tar paper. He didn't cut the tiles that hung over the gutters and I called several times about that but he wouldn't come back.