Complaint Review: Richard A. Davidson

If you want construction work done right in the Mount Washington Valley, do not use Richard Davidson of Center Conway, New Hampshire.

In October of 2005, I moved into a house that didn't have a certificate of occupancy for a variety of reasons. The main one being that Richard Davidson of Center Conway, New Hampshire who I had signed my original contract with had failed to follow through. My house was a modular house set in the beginning of August. For almost two months he did nothing. He didn't install the septic, didn't run the plumbing or heating pipes - nothing.

To get a certificate of occupancy I needed a certificate of operation for my driveway from my development, an approval for operation of my septic system, back stairs, and my garage finished off to code so as to be fire-resistant. All of this work could have been completed as soon as the house had been set, but he did none of it. The excavation work and site work had been completed by someone else who was working for him at the time.

We began getting into a dispute with my development over the driveways. They were claiming we had two which we didn't. The second driveway was for construction and would end up being for my parent's house next door. I had given Richard Davidson the money for all of the permits for that property as well as the driveway bond back in July. He did nothing - didn't file any of the paperwork. If he had, I wouldn't have had the dispute I did now.

I went back and forth with the commissioners for the development until they finally called code enforcement on us for living there without the certificate of occupancy. And I was only in this situation because of Richard Davidson and his failure to do what he was supposed to.

Now I had to get a lawyer involved and he eventually brokered an agreement with the commissioners. I got my certificate of occupancy but not after being fined $4,500.

By the end of October, I decided to get someone else to do all the work on my parent's house and not involve Richard at all, despite me having already given him money toward work over there. I just didn't want to deal with him any more and it was worth the money I was losing just to make him go away.

When he finally did show his face again, it was to present me with a bill for $12,000 for "extras". With the original contract I was told I was walking into a house that would be done. Later on, all of it became "extra". When we first drew up the contract I was told I would be walking into a finished house. Later on when we had to change over to this property, the only addition should have been the well. I paid the guys who drilled the well myself. The only things Richard had were the pump, holding tank, and water line. We priced them out and found them to be less than $2,000. That is the only thing that should have been "extra" and considering he'd gotten money for my parent's property (the bond alone was $4,000) it should have more than covered it.

I told him to take me to court if he wanted his money and presented him a bill for about $15,000 for what I incurred as a result of the work not being completed on time. This included the motel bill for my parents, storage, the fines, etc. I didn't even bill him back for other work I'd done that was originally supposed to be included but suddenly became "extra" like finishing off the interior of the garage to meet code. Then there's some of the work which was done pretty shoddy that I will either have to pay someone to fix or incur other expenses to get around it. This includes where he ran the piping for my heating system and hot water in the basement. Instead of drilling holes through all the floor joists so the piping was up in this section, he got lazy and hung it below the joists. Now when I go to finish off my basement I will either have to pay someone to come in, disconnect the pipe, drill the holes through the joists and run it as it should be or put in a drop ceiling, which I don't want to do.

He wanted to dispute it but I told him to take me to court. It took him two months but he did. His plan was to run up my legal bills and force me to give me money. He lied and his lawyer lied all over the place to get a lien on my home. And I had paid him more money than the contract called for! And he had walked off the job and not completed the work in the contract!

So now I have a house that has issues and I can't fix them on my own for two reasons. One is my legal bills - I would rather give the money to a lawyer than to him. The other is my counter-claim. This included perimeter drains which were supposed to go around my foundation, were in the contract, and were also in the state-approved septic plans. Richard Davidson chose to overrule our contract, overrule the state and on his own didn't put these in. Because of this, the fill my home was built on was washing out in storms. This is in addition to the faulty grading he did on the property that was causing washouts all over my property.

In the summer of 2006, he and his lawyer began to sound like they might settle with me by having an outside contractor come in and fix the issues I had. I guess by now he knew I wasn't going to back down and I had a good case in my counter-claim. Phone calls went back and forth which his lawyer ignored. My lawyer submitted interrogatories for the case to his lawyer which they both ignored. They are supposed to complete them within 30 days. After 70 days my lawyer made a motion for a default judgment. Neither he nor his lawyer responded so I got it.

I still had to pay someone else to finish things on my house. Richard Davidson was supposed to install rear stair but I had a deck put on. The siding wasn't completed at the bottom near the foundation and on the wall outside where the garage doors are (he was supposed to install garage doors and I had to pay someone else to come in and install them as well). He has a total lack of ethics when it comes to this business. He makes people think things are included in the price he gives them and makes all sorts of promises verbally, then all of a sudden comes up with "extras", welching on contracts, taking money and not doing work.

I received a judgment in Carroll County Superior Court for $12,981 plus legal fees. With that and interest, it comes to just shy of $20,000. The judge ruled that it was due to "deceptive business practices" and "violations of the consumer protection act".

He has now taken property he owns and transferred it into someone else's name to hide it from me and get out of paying the judgment. There is one spec-house he built that still is for sale and was owned by him on the tax rolls in the first half of 2007. By the second half, he had allegedly "sold" the property and another parcel to another person - the same person! In this market do you honestly believe the same person bought two properties from him?

And we drove by the spec house. It still has a "FOR SALE" sign on it. However, the phone number that's listed at the house doesn't go to a real estate office. It doesn't go to the "new" property owners on the deed. It goes to... Richard Davidson!! Are you going to tell me he sold this house to someone else who is just trying to resell it using him and not a broker? In this real estate market?

Want to be conned out of money and have your dream of a home in the White Mountains shattered? See Richard Davidson of Center Conway, New Hampshire.

Patti
Madison, New Hampshire
U.S.A.