Before signing any contract with Cortese Construction, read this review.
In July 2021, with a new baby on the way, our family contacted Cortese to help free up our last remaining bedroom which was then used as my husband's home office. The plan was to partially finish our basement with a home office, full bath, and egress window. During an in-home consultation, Cortese and their architect took measurements, at which time Cortese provided an estimate of $70k, which we could afford.
In Feb. 2022, Cortese presented us with a $93k contract for the same project we had discussed seven months earlier (a delay that Cortese said was due to architect). When we asked Cortese about the $23k price increase, Cortese told us it was because the previous $70k estimate was based on inaccurate measurements, even though Cortese took the measurements in July 2021 and the scope of our project remained unchanged. By this time, our new baby was born, and my husband and I were desperate for a dedicated bedroom, and so we signed the contract.
The contract, which we signed on Feb. 2, 2022, expressly stated that construction would "commence approximately 120 days after signing," and that it would be "substantially completed 150 days thereafter" (see photos - note that both the "120" and "150" day numbers were handwritten on the contract by the owner of Cortese Construction). My husband and I interpreted this as meaning that Cortese would begin construction on approximately June 2, 2022, and substantially complete the work on July 2, 2022. However, no work had begun as of July 2022.
When my family reached out to Cortese in July 2022 for an update, we were told that someone would contact us in Nov. 2022 to get our project scheduled and that we could expect work to begin as soon as Dec. 2022 or Jan. 2023. We were shocked by this delay, which Cortese attributed to their inability to find qualified labor to staff their projects following the COVID-19 pandemic.
To make matters worse, when we expressed our dissatisfaction over the months-long delay, the owner of Cortese Construction insisted that he had told us to expect a fall 2022 construction start date when we signed our contract on Feb. 2, 2022. Besides the fact that neither my husband nor I recall Domenic Cortese mentioning any such schedule delays, he is the one who hand-wrote on the contract (before signing) that construction would begin in approximately "120" days, and be substantially complete in "150" days, from Feb. 2, 2022. It was this evidence of dishonesty, combined with the $23k price increase attributed to the owner's apparent mismeasurements, that caused my husband and me to question whether or not we could trust Cortese with our project.
In late July 2022, my husband and I chose terminate our contract with Cortese Construction. Because the fine print on the back of Cortese's standard contracts reads, "the approximate commencement date and the completion date herein specified are not of the essence of the contract," there was no escaping this contract without penalty for unreasonable delay under New York State contract law. Consequently, we were forced to pay Cortese a $9,300 termination penalty. We also had to pay $6,100 for the materials Cortese had already purchased for our project, which we did not mind because the materials can still be installed by another contractor.
Before we finalized the termination agreement, Cortese agreed that upon termination, they would deliver the materials they had purchased to our basement. However, when the delivery truck ultimately arrived, Cortese's employees refused to bring the materials to the basement and instead left them in our garage. When I called the owner of Cortese Const. for clarification, he said his attorney had advised they not deliver the materials to our basement. This rendered our garage unusable and caused us to pay a sitter to watch our two young children while my husband and I struggled to bring the materials to the basement. read more