Horacio Martinez D/b/a HMCO, Substandard work, pocketed 80% of HUD money, had inexperienced homeless people do work, too West Henrietta New York
I received a $15,000 HUD grant to fix our home. The City of Rochester furnished a list of contractors you had to pick from, including minority businesses; and you had to include one minority buness in your list of choices. Mr. Martinez was the one minority business I chose and, unfortunately, he was the lowest bidder who landed the job.
I would be surprised if he even spent $3,000 on the work done on my house. He was a one-man operation and, occasionally, brought inexperienced people off the street to help him work for say $50 a day. And the work he did do was very shoddy: doors installed backwards; crumbling plaster walls; linoleum left cracked in the corners, curling up in front of doorways, or just not pieced together well; plumbing that started leaking after he reassembled it; shower doors put back in place with no grout underneath the track to prevent water leakage, which ruined my new bathroom floor; reused cracked wood around doorways; broke the wheels off the bottom of my refrigerator; floors left unleveled; big gap left above side door that lets cold air in; he brought used things (i.e. bathroom light fixtures) from other jobs to use in my house; installed tub surround with no firm supportive surface behind it; etc.; etc.
I complained to the Mayor; but this must be small potatoes to him as he never responded to me. Hopefully, someone can get some of this money back for me as I have many more things still needing to be fixed on my 100-years-old house.
Alison
Rochester, New York
U.S.A.