My tenant complained of visible mold in the bedroom and insisted on toxicity testing and mold remediation. The mold consisted of a small area (approx. a couple of inches) on the hardwood floor next to the bedroom wall and small mold specks on the windowsill, wall and baseboard underneath the bedroom window. The property is family-property, and there has never, ever, been mold anywhere in the house. Based upon their favorable yelp reviews, I requested Drymaster provide me with an estimate for mold remediation services, supplying them with an environmental report and recommendation from a 3rd party. At the time, I also requested that they provide me with an estimate for restoration/repair work. I was provided only with the estimate for remediation, following an inspection by Luis. Luis was helpful, providing me with information about mold in older homes that are not insulated, as well as checking under the house for any hidden sources of moisture (such as standing water from the heavy rains). He, nor the hygienist, ever found any water, leak, or a definitive source for the moisture and Luis simply described it as mold likely due to "condensation." Drymaster was able to schedule the remediation quickly and finished the job early. To say that the amount of wall removed (relative to the minor surfaces of visible mold) was a bit of a shock, would be an understatement; Drymaster also found no existing mold behind the wallboard. Finally, Luis explained that their restoration crew was unavailable until the following week, and my regular handyman was also unavailable. Since I needed to get the tenants back into the house and had an upcoming [unrelated] RSO housing inspection, I hired another contractor who was recommended. They did a poor job, but explained that much of their difficulty lay in trying to do decent plaster work around the window framing, which was damaged by Drymaster. I more carefully examined the "after" photos Drymaster provided me with and discovered that the entire bottom portion of the original 1930s window framing had been sawed off. Luis explained that the worker who had performed the remediation work was either in-training or had recently completed training. He had made a mistake, realized his error once it happened but never informed his manager or anyone at Drymaster. I was not provided an explanation as to why this new trainee was left unsupervised. I requested that Drymaster repair the damage and was handed off to Carlos, their restoration manager. Carlos then scheduled a sub-contractor who he described as a "Master Carpenter" to come by with a molding. The sub-contractor came to the property and I requested my tenants face-time with me. The contractor was immediately combative, completely talking over me when I requested a closer look at the work, and reiterated several times via videochat that he was a "Master Carpenter." I explained that the molding did not match. He insisted that it did, offering an explanation of how it was temporarily positioned [via nails] as to why it did not align exactly. I then requested while I was on the videochat, that my tenant show him another window so that the contractor could see what the molding is supposed to look like. He began a speech/history lesson about old houses so I then instructed my tenant to disconnect the call and informed them I would be contacting Carlos regarding the molding.
The next report I received was from my tenants. They said that the sub-contractor was "awful," "the WORST guy," and said that he finally acknowledged the molding did NOT match, and that he would need to create another one and come back. Prior to leaving, my tenant documented that the sub-contractor not only called me a "f***ing bitch" when I hung up the video chat, but also threatened me, saying a number of things he could not have known about me, had information not been passed onto him by Drymaster, such as "She's lucky she doesn't live down here, because you can bet I'd get MY money." My tenant then requested information to file a formal complaint against the sub-contractor, saying he was overtly angry, aggressive and "unsafe-feeling." I immediately informed Carlos of what had taken place, let him know the sub-contractor was NOT welcome to return and that before our next conversation, I would need to speak to my attorney. Carlos' entire tone changed immediately (he had previously been rude and rather dismissive of the issue) and he contacted me to say "My sincere apologies, I will not ever hire his services for any of my customers. I will get the molding to match 100%...I'm deeply disturbed by his behavior. He is not an employee of ours. He is a handyman service that we hire. He came highly recommended to us." He offered a 20% discount on the mold remediation bill and to "drop off" another molding. They soon dropped off the molding (it is close but definitely not a 100% match) and sent me a revised invoice reflecting the discount. I paid it immediately. read more