Marc
Fairfield,#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, September 20, 2006
There are always two sides to every story. The customer was not privy to the telephone conversation our office had with the building department regarding the permit application. Once we were notified the application had been lost, we hand delivered to the township and it was approved. It is in our best interest to apply for all permits as quick as possible. Unfortunately, this township is not the first and certainly will not be the last to lose and/or mis-place a permit application. It happens more frequently than we as well as the State would like. What township building departments do and do not do is not something we can control. However we will continue to strive to make the process as efficient as possible as to those factors that we do in fact control.
Marc
Fairfield,#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, September 20, 2006
There are always two sides to every story. The customer was not privy to the telephone conversation our office had with the building department regarding the permit application. Once we were notified the application had been lost, we hand delivered to the township and it was approved. It is in our best interest to apply for all permits as quick as possible. Unfortunately, this township is not the first and certainly will not be the last to lose and/or mis-place a permit application. It happens more frequently than we as well as the State would like. What township building departments do and do not do is not something we can control. However we will continue to strive to make the process as efficient as possible as to those factors that we do in fact control.
Marc
Fairfield,#4REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, September 20, 2006
There are always two sides to every story. The customer was not privy to the telephone conversation our office had with the building department regarding the permit application. Once we were notified the application had been lost, we hand delivered to the township and it was approved. It is in our best interest to apply for all permits as quick as possible. Unfortunately, this township is not the first and certainly will not be the last to lose and/or mis-place a permit application. It happens more frequently than we as well as the State would like. What township building departments do and do not do is not something we can control. However we will continue to strive to make the process as efficient as possible as to those factors that we do in fact control.
Marc
Fairfield,#5REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, September 20, 2006
There are always two sides to every story. The customer was not privy to the telephone conversation our office had with the building department regarding the permit application. Once we were notified the application had been lost, we hand delivered to the township and it was approved. It is in our best interest to apply for all permits as quick as possible. Unfortunately, this township is not the first and certainly will not be the last to lose and/or mis-place a permit application. It happens more frequently than we as well as the State would like. What township building departments do and do not do is not something we can control. However we will continue to strive to make the process as efficient as possible as to those factors that we do in fact control.
Jennifer
West Orange,#6Author of original report
Tue, September 19, 2006
In the rebuttal is not true. They state that the town told them that the building application was lost. This is not true. The building officer told them they never received the building application - they were told this while I was there. The new building application was hand delivered with me in the office on July 20th and the company had no reason for why the building office didn't have it before them. The company tries to blame the town for their incompetence - none of this is the town's fault.
Marc
Fairfield,#7REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, September 12, 2006
This is sent by way of response to the above complaint filed on your site under the heading Home Remodelers Group: "We pride ourselves on outstanding customer service and satisfaction and unfortunately in this instance we may have fallen short of that. For that we apologize. The customer entered into a contract for the sale and installation of a deck at their residence on March 3, 2006. It is company policy to verify funds prior to the work being released to production for processing. The contract was released to production on or about March 17, 2006 and received by the coordinator on March 20th. All pertinent information was then submitted to the architectual firm on or about March 22nd. On or about April 10th, the preliminary plans were received back from the architect. At the customers request, a copy of the plans were forwarded to the customer for approval on April 11th. Once approved, the sealed plans together with the permit application packet (zoning and building) were sent to to Township on April 17th. Pursuant to the Uniform Construction Code for the State of New Jersey, the township has 21 working days to approve and/or deny the permit after submission. Unfortunately, this time frame is usually longer than prescribed. The office contacted the township zoning office on April 28th to check on the status of the zoning application. We were advised that zoning was denied on April 28th due to the setbacks of the property. A letter was sent to the customer on May 2nd advising of said denial and that due to this, the job would be delayed. In order to meet zoning requirements, the homeowner agreed by executing an additional work authorization to alter the dimensions of the deck to conform to the set back regulations. This work authorization was signed by the customer on May 3rd. The new dimensions were then forwarded to the architect for dimensional and plan revision on May 4th. Revised plans were received on May 16th. At the customers request, said revised plans were forwarded to customer for approval on May 17th. Once approved, they were again submitted to the zoning office on May 22nd. Zoning was approved on June 15th. Once approved, the application then goes to building for approval. On July 6th, we contacted the building department for an update. We were advised it was still in review. On July 17th, we were advised that the building department did not have the building permit application - that it was lost. It should be noted that once the application is approved in zoning, zoning will forward the application to the building department for review. A new building permit application was hand delivered on July 18th. Approval was received on July 18th. The job was started on July 19th and completed on July 30th to the customers satisfaction evidenced by their signature on a completion certificate. The balance was paid in full."