Beyond dissatisfied, Mike Kemp Rescue1 never had any sense of urgency and delayed as long as…read morepossible. He completed at most, half of the entire work. My duplex was heavily damaged from a tree during severe storm in July 2023. Ceiling collapsed in kitchen, lots of water damage and a big insurance claim. I met Mike from a personal friend/referral and Mike seemed very qualified with expertise to repair over $60,000 of storm damage to roof, structure and water damage. I met him at the property shortly after storm in July and paid deductible of 5k so he could start tree removal and mitigation. A few days later, insurance paid $48,000 for settlement and Mike strongly persuaded me to hand it all over to him/Rescue 1. Big big mistake. He hired my own electrician to re-attach torn off meters and other misc repairs to restore power once the trees were gone. Even though I had deposited the insurance money with Rescue1, he to this day never paid the electrician of $2300. Mike put fans in the damaged half of the property and disappeared to the Ozarks for a few weeks. I confronted him by showing a pic of the check for 48k, and he started screaming at me, using the F word, saying he had "million dollar deals going on" which made it clear he seemed complacent for collecting money but no urgency to move quickly to repair anything. Days turned into weeks, then months, and finally a new year. By Mid-September, Mike completed a lot of the demo and rebuilt of the damaged unit, along with "Some" of the roof. When he rebuilt the ceiling and interior of the damaged unit, he did not put insulation in the attic and cut many wires, making it hard to figure out what went where. He or the crew broke a granite countertop, which I had to eat $863. He completely stopped on the roof because, he said several times, he was concerned about the framing and wanted Farmers Insurance to pay about $20,000 more for framing correction. He did re-roof 1/3 of the duplex and left plastic over the other 2/3 of the property roof from September until I released him at the end of December. He did do other work outside of the insurance claim, so I give credit there. He replaced a bad bathroom floor on one side and gutted a leaking shower on the other side. He complained often about doing "so much more work" than what insurance covered. When the roof sat tarped from September forward, it leaked on the occupied side, and he went back a few times. Apparently, the fascia was bad, but that should have been addressed when the roof was covered to make sure it was water tight. The tenants freaked out several times because of water penetration, which never should have happened with correct fascia and tarping. I was very sick of waiting months and going into a new year, so I contacted another roofer to check out the roof and framing issue. Turns out it was not a big deal, and Home Depot lumber was used for reinforcement and moving forward. I hired the "new guy" and the house was done in 2 weeks! I had to use credit cards and spend thousands of dollars because Mike had all the money upfront. I released Mike and instructed him to provide invoices for all work done and to settle up financially, but he refused by not doing anything.
Summary: Mike collected $53,000 upfront, did shoddy work omitting insulation over kitchen ceiling, cut wires, broke granite countertop, abandoned project mid- October after partial roofing, did not properly flash new roof, had to stop water penetration in occupied side because of fascia, did not pay electrician sub $2300, never had any sense of urgency to get job done, screamed using F word when confronted early on, never set any expectations or got much done, blamed insurance for a low payment but I verified Farmers DID NOT RECEIVE documents requested to support the 20k supplement, never invoiced and cannot account for how $53,000 has been utilized, I had to always text for status updates as he never communicated unless asked directly. I gave myself a present and fired him around January 1; the house was done in 2 weeks. I spent thousands of $$ because Mike had all the money. Attorney advised police report for fraud with Overland Park, done. Am also in touch with JOCO DA
