What a shady contractor. If I could give him zero stars, I would…read more
Tony (Faton) Emiri is the contractor who came to do the work. Knowing it was a pretty big job, he was confident he could do a beautiful job of demolishing and replacing a large flight of concrete stairs on a hill, also expanding the top step, and also demolish and replace the collapsed fieldstone retaining wall below, both of these original to house, built in the 60's. This work was to be done in Hamden at my 86-year-old mother's home in 2023. He showed us pictures of work he had done, and the pics were beautiful.
My 86-year-old mother and I sat down at her dining room table to discuss the price, the work, the contract, when he would begin, and such.
He asked for the initial payment as a check made out tom him personally (I don't care if he saves a little on his taxes). My mother and I showed concern, because he immediately went into his "I'll treat you like I would treat my own grandmother." I feel really bad for her if she still lives, she must be lonely. And broke.
His contract stated he would take 1/3 of the payment up front, 1/3 when the work was half-way finished, and the final 1/3 upon completion.
He did no work for 2 weeks. When I called him, he told me the usual excuses contractors like him seem to make, either finishing one job, something came up, etc. He showed up on Friday of the second week and worked half of the day. I'm not sure what he did; there didn't seem to be much 1 person could do, That didn't stop him from asking for the second payment on Monday, to which my mother said no.
Once the work began, the bulk of it was completed in a few phases, not taking too long. He subcontracted the concrete stairs, but he and his crew did the wall, which was finished before the stairs. One day he called me at work to ask if he could adjust the landing to have a curve in it, because he clearly had miscalculated where the stairs leading down from the newly extended top step would now reach the landing, meaning the stairs parting the wall to the bottom parted the wall at the original point that had been cleared away, not adjusted because of the newly extended top step. While the curve looked fine, it showed a stress crack within weeks. I'm no concrete expert, but it seems to me that if you cut anti-stress seams to keep stress breaks from happening, you might put one where the most stress would be, which high-school geometry would tell you. This can't be repaired, it must be broken and replaced. That didn't happen.
He made a point of saying repeatedly in the days leading up to the final push with the completion of the stairs he would need the last payment that day so he could pay the sub-contractors. Against our better judgement, she paid him upon promise he would return to finish the clean-up, which was quite a few items needing attention.
The stairs came out ok, except for the rebar sticking out of one side in 6 places and the gaps, one quite large, in the concrete. When I called him and sent pics, he said he would come out that week. His crew left large chunks of broken concrete, piles of dirt and rocks, and worst of all, MANY pieces of the metal railing they had cut off the stairs, not to mention screws from the forms for the stairs. There are gaps in the wall where there is no concrete between rocks. They cleaned up their equipment that day and were gone. He came out one time to clean the cement splatter off the front door and siding. All along, we had multiple text message and phone messages between myself and also my sister and Tony, When I called him a few days later to come out to clean up, he said he'd be there by the end of the week, I guess I should have asked which week, because most of the things he was supposed to do are still undone.
Fast forward to the spring of 2024, none of these thigs had been addressed. It was a very mild winter, and cleanup could have easily been done on almost any day with a light jacket to stay warm enough. My sister and I called him and texted him to try to get him out to finish. Of course, he said he would, but he did nothing more that the items listed above. My sister indicated we would seek legal advice, including possible litigation for elder abuse. He was very angry at that He also told my sister in no uncertain terms that his lawyer told him he had nothing to worry about. We have not seen him or heard from him since.
