Kennedy Construction

Initial Business Response /(1000, 14, 2018/06/21) */
In regards to Mr. Warranty claims:

Warranty Items:

1. The phone line was functioning when we finished work. Owner should contact service provider.

2. We have completed tile deficiencies for Mr. already, including some outside of the area we tiled that we were not compensated for. One of our employees was at the residence a year ago on a separate matter, Mr. tried to show him the affected area but couldn't seem to get it to "pop". Mr. refused to pay for portions of the work done at his house under a cost plus basis and, therefore, nullified our contract.

3. We had our electrician assess this plug to determine that the failure was not our doing and was nowhere near the work we had completed, the electrical contractor offered to complete the work for Mr. for a fee which he declined.

***. We complete our deficiencies at zero cost to our clients, *** but we cannot allow ourselves to be taken advantage of with frivolous claims. ***

In regards to our business ethics and a contract we opted not to sign. Mr. felt that because he received certain rates on a project four years ago that he deserved the same treatment. When we informed him that our rates had increased and that we would not lower them for the new project, he decided to not engage us. I don't believe there is anything unethical about the way we conducted our business in a free market.

We hope you will take this into consideration.

Initial Consumer Rebuttal /(3000, 16, 2018/06/25) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
By way of reply and using the same numbering:

1. We did in the end ask *** and the fault was in the connector installation Kennedy did. I have had this repaired at my cost.

2a) I sent Mr. K a video of one of areas "popping". More areas have since started "popping". Varies depending on temperature.

2b) it is a complete surprise to me that our warranty has been "nullified" particularly as we have been discussing these warranty works up until recently. Is this something Kennedy Construction feels they can do unilaterally and retroactively without discussing with clients or in reference to the contract? This is very troubling.

With respect to the final invoice for the work back in 2014, we agreed a mutually acceptable compromise amount (context: the under-tile heating Kennedy installed did not function and we had to move out of the house at considerable expense which I covered for a further 3 months so he could jackhammer up some 300sqft of our new kitchen so he could fix it)

3) The electrician that Kennedy is referring to in his reply above, refused to take ownership of their disconnection of the exterior plug. A subsequent electrician sent by Kennedy Construction confirmed that they thought the other contractor had inadvertently disconnected it from the panel when they were doing the reno. From my perspective, all I know is the plug worked before Kennedy Construction started their work and didn't work afterward. I have recently had this repaired at my cost.

In emails exchanged on August 2 2016 Kennedy committed to fix these in September of that year. He didn't. It was eventually agreed he would fix them as part of the next project which, by then, we were in active discussion about.

With respect to the Kennedy Construction's comments on the recent contract and fees, it is blatantly untrue, I would be happy to share share my direct correspondence with Mr. K, particularly our emails of June and July 2017 and specifically Mr. K's fee confirmation of July 3, 2017 and the contract his team sent me to sign on Sept 14, 2017 which included the fees agreed with Mr. K on July 3, 2017 which I duly signed. Mr. K reneged on his fees commitment only much later on Feb 2, 2018 - again, I'd be happy to provide copies of this correspondence.

I agree with Kennedy Construction's statement that they have a great reputation, indeed I referred several projects to them and was actively looking to do another with them. Their business approach seemed to change dramatically at the beginning of 2018 when they started engaging in what I believe are unethical business practices. Perhaps they had conflated the warranty work they had agreed to do with the new project we were seeking to do and so when the new project was not advanced, they decided not to bother with the warranty work. As I said to Mr K back in the summer of 2017, I preferred to keep the two matters separate, he didn't and now here we are.

Final Business Response /(4000, 19, 2018/08/23) */
My comments are as follows. The electrical box wasn't affected by our team as confirmed by our electrical contractor. It is in a different area where we worked on the house, *** claims it worked prior to us starting the job which is not true and is an attempt to get free work out of us to repair a previously not working electrical box. The *** cable worked fine and was never an issue and not covered under our warranty as we are not responsible for telecom work. The tile was work was already repaired and extra tile repair work was done to another bathroom due to the previous contractor doing a poor installation job that was not effected by our work was repair at a cost to us as *** refused to pay. *** This went on and on through out the project and we ate money along the way. Another reason we prefer not to work for him again.

Final Consumer Response /(4200, 21, 2018/08/26) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I thank Kennedy Construction for their response. Perhaps, with time, they are forgetting details of the job they did for us. Kennedy Construction's contractors did significant work on our electrical panel and the plug in question worked before they did the job and didn't afterward. This is not subjective, it is fact. I have now spent over a thousand dollars having this and the telephone extension Kennedy installed repaired. With respect to the tile work, Kennedy did indeed have to replace much of the tile in the area in question as they had incorrectly installed the underfloor heating cable (it didn't work) and in another area where tile was popping - evidence of poor workmanship. Unfortunately it is all along this seam that tiles are now popping and area of popping tiles continues to expand. I expect it will be several thousand dollars to have this fixed. Both items (poor tile install and poor electrical work) are clearly workmanship items that are covered under Kennedy Construction's 5 year warranty. I am not seeking to get "free" work out of Kennedy Construction, I am merely asking them to live up to their commitments and remedy their poor workmanship. In my ideal world, their workmanship would have been better, I wouldn't have these continued problems from their work and I wouldn't have to go through this very unpleasant process. It has, however, been very insightful.

As for accusations that I refused to pay his bills, I have looked into this a bit more and from what I can find I paid all the bills in full. At the end of the project and prior to settling the final bills, I did an audit so that we could financially "close out" the project, and in that audit I discovered that Kennedy Construction had failed to return the deposits I had to made to the Municipality when we applied for permits. As these deposits where not fees or money Kennedy Construction was entitled to but that Kennedy Construction had kept, they were credited against the outstanding money owed. At the time, I thought it was an honest mistake on Kennedy Construction's behalf, now I'm not so sure.

In any event, in my view, and nothing Kennedy has put forward has convinced me to the contrary, there is still workmanship warranty work Kennedy Construction is responsible for. Given the tone and nature of their correspondence, they clearly can not come back into my home to complete the work themselves. I expect just the tile and floor repair work could cost us at least $6,000 along with considerable disruption to our home. I propose that we split this 50/50 along with the electrical repair I've had completed. Kennedy can provide me with a cheque for $3,500 and also remove our project from his website and we can consider this matter resolved.