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Jamail Smith Construction Jamail Construction has a habit of breaking small subcontractors in Houston, Texas
Why does a company who has a habit of bankrupting small subcontractors continue to operate in the State of Texas?
Why? It's because our state has yet to adopt a law in which requires all general contractors to be licensed like in California, Florida, Louisiana, etc. These states have strict guidelines in which discourages GC's to shy away from the law from which most GC's in Texas tend to do when it comes to not paying their subs. For example, just download a copy of their "Master Service Agreement" and read through the first several pages which would outright eliminate your right to receive payment as a sub if there is any problem on one job with Jamail Smith. This basically means that if you are doing three or four projects and there is an issue on one project, they have the right to hold your money from ALL projects. This of course comes after they send you a "bogus" NOTICE TO CURE which is their only way of hiding the truth by creating their own version of what is actually happening.
Since the addition of Greg Smith, this company has done NOTHING to help small contractors and in turn go out to ruin those small subs that they know cannot fight them in court because of financial strain or other legal issues that might hinder the chances of winning.
BEWARE of doing any subcontracting work with these guys and do everything in your power to avoid them getting any future contracts for I sure am.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Minority Contrator, Houston
Houston,Texas,
United States of America
Minority Contractor Ripped Off by Jamail & Smith
#2General Comment
Mon, December 06, 2010
We are a minority contractor who has also been ripped off by Jamail & Smith. We have been victim to the un-ethical business practices of Jamail & Smith and agree that they are a shady company.
It is no surprise that Jamail & Smith is trying to swoop in and lock down minority business contract because they have used small companies for their own advance.
They are trying to mask their dealings with school districts and Section 3 projects with the best intentions of small contractors while all the time they are actually taking advantage of small contractors by simply not paying for work performed.
We were highly involved in getting section 3 certified and attempting on bidding on new projects and quickly realized that the system was corrupt and a waste of time. There was an intense pre-qualification process and this was basically a joke when you do not get an opportunity to provide bids because the persons in charge of the projects are showing preference to a company like Jamail & Smith. Thus giving Jamail & Smith the bulling power they abuse. All the time the real victims are the smaller companies with the certifications that perform the work, get the minority participation stats high and in the end do not get paid, just like US!
We could not even file a bond claim against Jamail & Smith which is what we rely on when not getting paid because of a legal bottle neck.
Jamail & Smith looks to take advantage of legal loop holes. Look at the ABC Under Cover report by Wayne Deltrephino about how Jamail & Smith has had a free office trailer on the HISD compound on McCarty road for seven years rent free and doing non HISD work from this trailer. We never notice this when picking up checks for non-HISD work from the HISD compound office trailer but were not surprised when read about this report. We always had difficulty getting paid by Jamail & Smith and basically wanted to be done with them as quickly as possible. Jamail & Smith was using tax payer money to pay for this office and now does not want to pay back rent claiming that this was allowed per their contract by looking at the language in the contract. This is a good example of how Jamail & Smith will take advantage of a big entity such as HISD by looking for a loophole all though knowing it is obviously wrong and abuse it for seven years. Imagine what they have been doing to the small business that they are supposed to bring into government contracts to get the minority participation up to par to meet requirements.
I really hope the crunch on Jamail & Smith takes them where they belong.