Complaint Review: HUD - spokane Washington

Explanation of complaint: January 11th 2010 Deceptive business practices of Spokane contractor DR Construction. Misrepresentation of business, breach of contract, working without signed end date, risking homeowner and family health and safety. Inflating prices of labor costs and material, failure to provide work acceptable under manufacture and home builder guidelines.

We have written documents and pictures to support our claims against all parties of mismanagement of the HUD rehabilitation program.

Claims include: 1. Violation of our rights under the contractor and home owner contract. 2. Violation of ours rights concerning City of Spokane. 3. Breach of contract concerning D R construction. 4. Conflict of interest concerning City of Spokane, Kiemle and Hagood, and D R Construction. 5. Misallocation and mismanagement of our loan funds through Kiemle and Hagood.

Our family received a $35,000.00 low interest home loan through the HUD rejuvenation program. The program is facilitated by Spokane Kiemle and Hagood (K&H) property managers. K&H encouraged us to hire DR construction (DRC), both K&H and DRC stated that the contractor had crews of skilled workers and the work would be done in 6 weeks.

The work started on our house September 4th 2009 and to date is far from complete. On September 29th 2009 we began to voice concerns to K&H that the HUD contractor D.R. Construction (DRC) was doing defective work inside our home. We contacted Spokane city building permits and on October 12th 2009, the shower that DRC installed was inspected. The inspection cited several areas in the shower that needed to be corrected to pass city code. The drywall and shower work was so terrible; we had to stop DRC from working on our house. One of their crew, Aaron told us " I am not a drywall installer, DR is paying my tuition." This contractor is using students and apprentices and telling consumers they are skilled workers. They did not know how to install sheetrock or install a shower. This contractor charged us $5,000.00 for sheetrock job and $5,000.oo for the custom built shower.

After 80 days, the shower is still not functioning. K&H inspected our house on October 20th 2009. They supported that the work done by DRC was fine and there was nothing wrong with it, K&H required us to let DRC continue their work. K&H insisted that we pay for the work that was done, and be removed from the program, meaning that we would not be receiving the remainder of our loan to finish our house. At this point of the process our house was a shell, no kitchen, no bathroom, no bedroom, we were living in an old, small motor home in our back yard. We had given DRC our extra cash for upgrades, and no way of getting a home loan with the house in such disrepair.

In the contractor and home owner contract states that all repairs or code violations to be started within 7 days of the infraction. Also, if the contractor could not do the repairs another business would complete the repairs at the original contractor expense. K&H REFUSED to let another contractor bid on our house.

Through the beginning of our complaints and currently, K&H continue to threaten us with arbitration. Ours rights to have another contractor has been continually ignored.

Do to mismanagement of the process by K&H, the health and safety of our family has been in jeopardy. Our family has suffered without basic living necessities since October 12th 2009. Do to the actions of K&H, and the City of Spokane they managed to stagnate the work on our home from October 12th until December 2nd 2009. After three weeks of calls, written complaints, and email pictures of the defective work to K&H, HUD Olympia, and City of Spokane Community Development. We had a meeting on October 23rd with Michael Aldofea, Director of Spokane City Community Development, and K&H.

The meeting wrote up a resolution contract including a gag order on us. We were not able to speak with the contractor or the 3rd party inspector. We were ordered to stay out of the work area while the workers were on site. These violations against our rights were imposed because we saw shoddy workmanship being covered up, and we found out the workers were students. Under stress and unable to pay for the repairs on our own, we felt helpless and had to comply.

The resolution agreement stated that Spokane would hire an independent inspector and all parties would adhere to the official report on the construction work performed on our house. Also, the parties unanimously agreed that the shower would be the first priority to be repaired and completed. The inspection was done on November 24th 2009, and concluded, if fact, many areas of defective work performed by DRC. Including drywall applications and, of course, the shower. The inspector gave a detailed report on fixing the drywall applications and shower repair. K&H told us that DRC would bring in crews and have us in our house by Christmas.

On December 2nd 2009 DRC started back to work on our house. Immediately breaching the good faith of the contract and stated that the drywall would be their priority, not the shower. When we complained to K&H, their response was "the contractor has the right to follow their means and methods of construction." DRC brought in one guy to repair and finish the drywall, not the crew we were guaranteed. DRC took 10 working days to finish the drywall.

It is now 121 days since the program has started the rehabilitation of our home. Our family's home is still a shell. No hygiene facilities, no shower or bathtub, no kitchen, no living room, no bedroom.

The Spokane development rehabilitation program number one goal is to protect the health, safety and security of the homeowner and their family. The program facilitators completely failed in managing the process to be fair for all parties.