Chris Satterthwaite — Jun 15, 2023
14 years ago I hired J&N construction (now Pro Builders).
They were a lesser bid than the other 3 companies I had bids from in Qu…
14 years ago I hired J&N construction (now Pro Builders).
They were a lesser bid than the other 3 companies I had bids from in Quincy, albeit the others were advanced in experience from J&N.
J&N provided legal documents on milestones when they would be paid by the Bank. But they did not follow them. They asked for money advances before they finished the milestone, on the first three payments. Eventually they stopped 2/3 of the way through the building, because the Bank said it wasn't ok to continue to extend before the milestone was completed. Then, J&N stopped all construction on the house for 5 months.
I took legal action requesting them to start again, and they sent all the sub-contractor bills that were not previously paid by the construction.
Turns out there's a loop-hole for general contractors and bank documents. Jerod of J&N (Nick) knew this, which came out in the legal interaction. If all sub-contractors did not sign the lien waver prior to the general contractor receiving the check by the Bank, then the general contractor is no longer liable to pay the sub-contractor from what was appropriated from the Bank. My bank did not have that in their legal contract. That meant sub-contractors put liens against the final build of the house, which needed to be paid in full by the owner (instead of the general contractor) - prior to the owner being able to switch from a construction loan to a normal house loan (100% percentage on the loan per month, instead of 3-6% percentage of a normal loan).
I could have sued Jarod, and if I did - he would have lost the ability to build 350K+ houses with his building insurance. I didn't believe it was Godly, so I chose against it.
So I paid 53K over the 350K to the bank, for the liens against the house by subcontracting. And then I paid 30K more and put the effort in (since I do construction) to finish the house.
Notes to consider for potential J&N/Pro-Builder projects, follow.
Since the construction 14 years ago. Here are the problems I've had in the house:
1) The first floor settled and you can visually see waves across the floor now. They didn't put enough support joists in the house for an open staircase.
2) They hired sub-par roofers that did not know what they were doing. On a 50 year 4 (out of 5) material roofing, I've had to repair it twice. And the last one was a complete replacement of the ridge venting and shingling because they did not use pitch-sensitive shingles. They shoved them shallow, then pinched them steep. And they all broke/leaked.
3) They nailed the drywall pieces into place for speed (who does that?), and I've repaired drywall 3 times (hundreds of spots) and repainted 3 times.
4) The drywall in the steep main room is collapsing, and I'll have to tear out and replace it. Again, likely because Jarod liked to use nails for speed.
5) The utility room door, they wrapped the house wrap through the door frame. Over time that caused mildew and then mold in my utility room. I had to tear it out and fix it.
6) They vented the master bathroom into the crawl space instead of out a vent. I'm now in the process of tearing out the insulation, mold-treating the rafters, venting the space according to code, and fixing the bathroom.
Overall, the competitor bids (30-55K over J&N's) are about 250K under what I've had to pay for J&N's incompetencies. Something to keep in mind.
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14 years ago I hired J&N construction (now Pro Builders).
They were a lesser bid than the other 3 companies I had bids from in Quincy, albeit the others were advanced in experience from J&N.
J&N provided legal documents on milestones when they would be paid by the Bank. But they did not follow th…
14 years ago I hired J&N construction (now Pro Builders).
They were a lesser bid than the other 3 companies I had bids from in Quincy, albeit the others were advanced in experience from J&N.
J&N provided legal documents on milestones when they would be paid by the Bank. But they did not follow them. They asked for money advances before they finished the milestone, on the first three payments. Eventually they stopped 2/3 of the way through the building, because the Bank said it wasn't ok to continue to extend before the milestone was completed. Then, J&N stopped all construction on the house for 5 months.
I took legal action requesting them to start again, and they sent all the sub-contractor bills that were not previously paid by the construction.
Turns out there's a loop-hole for general contractors and bank documents. Jerod of J&N (Nick) knew this, which came out in the legal interaction. If all sub-contractors did not sign the lien waver prior to the general contractor receiving the check by the Bank, then the general contractor is no longer liable to pay the sub-contractor from what was appropriated from the Bank. My bank did not have that in their legal contract. That meant sub-contractors put liens against the final build of the house, which needed to be paid in full by the owner (instead of the general contractor) - prior to the owner being able to switch from a construction loan to a normal house loan (100% percentage on the loan per month, instead of 3-6% percentage of a normal loan).
I could have sued Jarod, and if I did - he would have lost the ability to build 350K+ houses with his building insurance. I didn't believe it was Godly, so I chose against it.
So I paid 53K over the 350K to the bank, for the liens against the house by subcontracting. And then I paid 30K more and put the effort in (since I do construction) to finish the house.
Notes to consider for potential J&N/Pro-Builder projects, follow.
Since the construction 14 years ago. Here are the problems I've had in the house:
1) The first floor settled and you can visually see waves across the floor now. They didn't put enough support joists in the house for an open staircase.
2) They hired sub-par roofers that did not know what they were doing. On a 50 year 4 (out of 5) material roofing, I've had to repair it twice. And the last one was a complete replacement of the ridge venting and shingling because they did not use pitch-sensitive shingles. They shoved them shallow, then pinched them steep. And they all broke/leaked.
3) They nailed the drywall pieces into place for speed (who does that?), and I've repaired drywall 3 times (hundreds of spots) and repainted 3 times.
4) The drywall in the steep main room is collapsing, and I'll have to tear out and replace it. Again, likely because Jarod liked to use nails for speed.
5) The utility room door, they wrapped the house wrap through the door frame. Over time that caused mildew and then mold in my utility room. I had to tear it out and fix it.
6) They vented the master bathroom into the crawl space instead of out a vent. I'm now in the process of tearing out the insulation, mold-treating the rafters, venting the space according to code, and fixing the bathroom.
Overall, the competitor bids (30-55K over J&N's) are about 250K under what I've had to pay for J&N's incompetencies. Something to keep in mind.
Read more
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