OLD DOMINION CUSTOM HOMES

Description of Work: We hired Mike Stone after having another contractor run out on us and our money. He showed us other homes that he had completed and was working on. We called his references and were please with their answers. All went downhill from there. He obviously has no talent on his own to build anything and no organizational skills. He had carpenters and helpers on the payroll, including three of his sons, that did all of the work. He was not paying them or any of the subcontractors hence everyone quit or refused to deal with him. Even his sons are no longer speaking to him. Every vendor that he dealt with was owed money. We ended up paying for everything ourselves up front because no one trusted him and had taken him to court for non-payment of his bills. He would promise us anything during arguments but the situation never got better. He continued to lie. It came down to only Mike and one helper who only fetched for him doing the work. It was really poorly done. We finally fired him when the work became so bad that it became obvious that we would have to start tearing out some of his work to make it acceptable. We spent so much money with him and got a very bad product. It cost us double to hire another contractor to come in and correct his mistakes and finish the job. He was a poor communicator and would not return calls, or when he did return calls always made excuses why work was not being completed. We have ended up with a small log house that has gaps in the logs and really badly done drywall among other things. There was only so much the next contractor could do to correct his shoddy work. Please do not do business with this company or Mike Stone! I would not recommend Mike Stone to do any type of residential or commercial construction. We are in the process of filing a formal complaint with the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, www.dpor.virginia.gov. This department governs the license of all contractors.

Description of Work: We had our building site cleared and entered into a construction "reservation" agreement with Mike Stone dba Old Dominion Custom Homes on 9/13/2010 to design and build our retirement home. In the end he ONLY did some preliminary design work (via a sub contracted) and the clearing work, but took ( STOLE) the rest of our payments worth at least $15,577.50 including monies paid to have a subcontractor perform excavation and install a septic system. Since that time we have learned that Mike Stone has ripped off other home builders - in one case around the same timeframe the family paid over $25,000 and recieved no services. Mike will tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear. He is disarmingly cordial and seems very agreeable; however, since early December when we learned from the Excavator that the engineering firm that did the septic field work was about to put a lien on our property due to lack of payment Mike has avoided communicating with us either verbally or in writing (I did reach him by phone once on May 2 when I tricked him by turning off my caller ID). In fact he never picked up a registered letter from us, nor has he responded to our regular communications including those from our lawyer. On January 7, 2011 we sent Old Dominion Custom Homes a letter which read: Dear Mr. Stone As you know, in September of last year we entered into an agreement with you and your firm d/b/a Old Dominion Custom Home Builders to design and develop our home in Hampshire County, West Virginia. As part of that agreement you were obliged to meet certain deadlines in the development and construction process and, most importantly, you were to use the funds that were advanced to you by us to pay subcontractors. This is to confirm that you have not abided by the terms of the agreement reached between us and this is to confirm that as a result of your breaches that agreement is terminated The breaches by you of the agreement are numerous; the following is a partial listing: You have not returned any of our phone calls or e-mails since Dec 6, 2010. You have not returned calls from Gary’s Excavating since sometime in November. You have held the funds we sent to you for the septic system since November 15 instead of forwarding them, along with the executed subcontract, to Gary’s Excavating. You have made little to no progress on our project since the end of October, including specifically that you did not contact Architectural Design Services with the changes discussed at our October 29 meeting. You have failed to accomplish the necessary steps to produce the construction contract you committed to have in place by December 31 in our telephone conversation on December 1. To date we have paid you in excess of $28,000.00. We have learned that there was at least one subcontractor who had performed services at our property for which they were not paid and were threatening to place a lien against our property. Accordingly, this is to demand that you return a check immediately to us in the amount of $15,577.50. The difference between this amount and the amount we paid you will more than compensate you for any services you allege that you performed for us as well as the small amount of reimbursables that we believe have been paid with the retained funds. In addition to demanding the aforementioned payment, we would expect you to sign in the place marked below as your acknowledgment of the termination of any and all agreements between us and also to confirm that you are not to be involved in any way with the design, development, and construction of our home in Hampshire County. Thank you for your attention to these matters. We expect to receive confirmation of your acceptance of these terms by return correspondence. Sincerely, We later followed this letter with another letter dated May 31, 2011 that read: Dear Mr. Stone As per our conversation of May 2, this letter is to inform you that the Construction Reservation Agreement we entered into September 13, 2010 is null and void for any number of reasons, not the least of which is you did not begin construction on the house by the close of April 2011. At this time per the Construction Reservation Agreement clause cited below, we am demanding that you fully return a check immediately to us in the amount of $15,577.50. To date we have paid you in excess of $28,000.00. The difference between this amount and the amount we paid you will more than compensate you for any services you allege that you performed for us as well as the small amount of reimbursables that we believe have been paid with the retained funds. "If the Contractor is unable to execute a start date in the months of March or April of the 2011, or at another time that is mutually agreed upon by both parties, the deposit will be refunded less the expenses associated with tasks previously described and completed. Thank you for your attention to these matters. Should you not agree with our above accounting, please contact us at your earliest opportunity. Sincerely, We also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau who was unable to resolve the problem and eventually gave Old Dominion Custom Homes a letter grade of F.