Complaint Review: Durakraft Construction - Clinton Township Michigan

Ronald Kraft II approached me with an offer to do some handyman work for me.  He said that he had a crew out of state that wanted to be home for the holidays and if they worked for me rather than collecting unemployment he would not charge me for labor.  He said that it would be a tax write off for him and wouldn't deplete his unemployment security account, and he could use the positive reference and pictures as advertising on his company website.  He indicated that he had noticed my Craigs list posts offering various items for free that could be used as Christmas presents by people short of cash for the holidays and said "what goes around, comes around". 

My original Craigs list post clearly indicated my personal circumstances (temporarily disabled due to accident) and my desire to have all of the odds and ends completed by one person for a fixed price, since I was unable to do them myself.  I received numerous responses to my Craigs list ad,(more than 30) but decided on DuraKraft since Ron indicated his interest in helping each other and his employees out over the holidays.

We wrote up a contract which detailed the work that I needed done, which was mainly small handyman items such as installing door trim and a small section of  floor trim, replacing a light switch, fixing a dripping faucet, replacing a doorbell button, etc. but also included repairing two kitchen cabinets that had been damaged by a defective shut off value and waste trap, and some painting.  Even though I had the majority of the materials since I was originally planning to do the work myself before the accident, I agreed to pay $400 for materials for the cabinets, some outside security lights and other miscellaneous incidentals.  Ron collected the $400 in cash since he said he wanted to start right away the next day, and didn't want to wait for a check to clear.

We also discussed the fact that, due to my allergies, I did not want the cabinets rebuilt in my house.  Ron said that it would be easiest to take them down, and take them to the business to replace the interiors, make sure that no drywall repairs were needed underneath the cabinets, and  then bring them back the next day. 

He said he would come back at 8am the next morning to start and that the entire job would take two or 2 1/2 days.  When no one arrived the next morning I called and was told that they were being held up on a roofing job by an inspector who had changed his mind about the specifications (I now suspect this is the other report on this website about this same company.) but that they would be here in the afternoon.  They didn't make it in the afternoon either, but promised to be there at 8am the following day, which also didn't happen.  There were more delays, but eventually Ron and another man showed up with no tools, worked for about half an hour using my tools, and then said they needed to pick up a garage door for another job and would come back later.  They didn't come back, but when I contacted Ron he said he'd be back in the morning.  No one came back, and Ron didn't return voice mail messages.  When I finally reached him by using another telephone number he said that they'd be here the Saturday after Christmas, and then when he didn't show up then either, he said he'd be here the Monday after New Years.  He didn't make it then either, and when I managed to reach him he said that I needed to clear out my garage, kitchen and dining room so that he had room to work, and yelled at and berated my fifteen year old daughter when she answered the phone and told her to get off her lazy *** and move the furniture that was stored in the garage out so that he could rebuild the cabinets there.  I said that this was not acceptable due to my severe allergies and reminded him of our previous agreement on this matter.  I also indicated that it wasn't possible for my daughter to move the furniture even if there was a place to put it!  He then said that it wasn't possible to do any of the work since I wasn't giving him room.  Most of the items didn't even require work room in the first place (trim, faucets, doorbell, light switches, ceiling exhaust fan, etc) and we had already agreed that no woodworking would be done in my home.  I explained that I had pneumonia and my doctors believed that it was being aggravated by the deteriorating wood in the cabinets, so I needed the work done as soon as possible.  Ron said that I knew all along that he was fitting me in to his very busy schedule (even though the original agreement was to have the work completed before Christmas by a crew who would otherwise be idle).  I said that I would be willing to hire another carpenter and release DuraKraft from the contract if he would simply return the money I paid for materials that were never received.  At first, Ron insisted that I owed him for numerous trips to my home, (presumably the trip to sign the contract and collect the materials money)  but when I said that I couldn't find mention of a trip charge in the contract, he said that he'd send a check for a refund, but it never arrived.  When I finally managed to reach him on his cell phone he pretended to be someone else and said that "Ron" had reported ME to the city building inspector because there was mold in my house and it needed to be condemned. He also said that my daughter and I would be out on the street by nightfall when the city inspector called the police. There is no mold in the house, but there is a tiny bit of mildew in the cabinet that I hired DuraKraft to replace.

After that, he shouted that he was putting a lien on my house for 5 times the amount of the contract.  I'm not sure how that's possible, since I paid him in full, but that's what he said he'd done.  He continued shouting that I was ripping him off because I should be paying him what I collected from my homeowners insurance for the leak (although homeowners doesn't usually cover plumbing leaks since they are not considered sudden or unexpected, which a contractor should know).  He also shouted that I had presents under my Christmas tree so obviously I had more money that I could have given him.  Even if the presents hadn't been the ones that I was donating to the less fortunate, (which he already knew about) I cannot see how my personal Christmas celebration had any effect on our contract, or was any of his business at all.  The original proposal came from Ron, and I had nothing to do with costing the job at all.  I simply agreed to what he proposed.

The city building inspectors office confirmed that the condemnation rhetoric was an idle, if a particularly malicious, threat, and that no report had been made.  They said that they doubted that it was possible to do so anywhere in the city offices.  They suggested filing a small claims case against DuraKraft and indicated that I would not be the first to do so.  

Basically DuraKraft took my money and ran, and when I caught up with them, began threatening me rather than doing the work or amicably refunding the money I paid.  Anyone not wishing to pay for being threatened, or who actually expects work to be done,  would be well advised to steer clear of this company.