All Forum Posts by: Tom Gillotti

Very cool, man! That work looks very professional and well done. Thanks for sharing! 

 Thanks Max! I will never sacrifice my integrity. I'm willing to do a lot to discredit the builder but not so much that I would have to lie. At the end of the day I have to look my family in the eyes and know that I did/am doing the right things. 

I appreciate the input! 

 That's definitely a tough pill that I haven't swallowed yet. It has crossed my mind many times but I figured that the least I could do was take them down with me. If I'm left with the mess they left, they will be left with whatever mess I can make for them. Again, maybe they just keep ignoring me like they've been doing or maybe they finally come to the table. 

I have to follow my gut and only quit when I know it's the right thing to do. 

I definitely appreciate the input! 

@jim cummings Thank you for your response. We had originally thought we would end up on smal claims court until the estimate for work took us over $10,000. We might find ourselves doing what you recommend if all else fails. 

When you say "media type" what do you mean, just approach the local news stations? I did send our story to several news outlets but have heard nothing back. 

We have been continuously hitting the builder in their online reviews. We asked a lot of friends and family to give them a low rating on Google to start. This has already resulted in a drop from a 5.0 rating to a 1.8 rating. Maybe they won't care but maybe they'll finally take us seriously and respond to our request. 

I feel like I'm dancing in an anena that I know nothing about but I also feel like I'm doing the right thing... Most importantly, hopefully I can save another family from the type of headaches we've endured.

Can you clarify what you mean by damages? We are fighting workmanship and quality control issues right now. I don't know how to quantify that other than the estimate I've received from a separate contractor. 

I'm feeling pretty defeated with this whole thing and a bad contractor is going to be allowed to continue to take advantage of people. How is that ok? It's frustrating, especially in a largely military town.

Sorry... Just venting. My family and I just want this all in our past but most lawyers won't return our calls and the ones who do can't help because they're too far away or say it's not worth their time and resources. 

This is mostly why I've just decided to try to take this into my own hands and destroy their name if the legal system won't work. If I'm not going to get them to do their job (or pay for someone else to do it correctly) then I'm going to try like hell to make sure they can't do this to someone else. 

 No sir. Sorry if I wasn't clear. The estimate for work is around $13,000. The legal fees were around $2,000. I added 15% (completely arbitrary) to the $13k for any unexpected expenses during repair. Hope that helps to clear things up. 

 I'm sorry, I should have just copied and pasted the url since it's so long. I typed it wrong. 

CornerstoneCustomHomesAbileneReview.wordpress.com

 That was my first thought when I posted the website... but libel, as I understand it is, "a published false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation; a written defamation."

Isn't it only a problem if I'm stating something that isn't true? Or, do you just mean that I'll be dealing with a frivolous lawsuit that will just waste time and resources?

I believe they would have to prove that I lied about something. 

Also, I believe that I own the rights to the floor plan of our house, as we had them custom made. Today I found another property that they are building that is our floor plan exactly! Can they legally do that?

We purchased a single family home last year in Abilene, Texas (small town) and had a lot of problems with the builders and sub-contractors. So much so that I wrote a lengthy review of our experience and created a website. It's quite long and I understand if you are unable to take the time to read it all. 

This is the website: cornerstonecustomhomesabilene.wordpress.com

If you did get through it all, here's where we're at now. On July 3rd (2018) I sent a settlement request to the builder's lawyer for the amount of the estimate (plus an additional 15% for unexpected expenses) and the amount of legal fees I paid for the lawyer (total is just under $17,000). I did not hear back from their lawyer for several days so I sent another email to confirm receipt of my email with the settlement request. The secretary confirmed receipt. A month went by and I heard nothing back. This is when I created the website above and posted the review as well as attached it to reviews across the internet (Google, Yelp, BBB, Houzz). Well, all of those sites have since removed the review (likely at the request of the builder). So, I attempted to contact another lawyer today and was told that the amount of work that would need to be done with this case would be too much for the estimated return, so "sorry but good luck, we can't help." 

I've considered direct mailings to certain areas of the town (it's a small town of ~130,000 people total) and have even considered renting a billboard to post the website around town where others could read the story. 

I have a few goals with this:

First, I would really like to help others avoid the headaches we went through with this builder.

Second, I am trying to get their attention and force them to settle so I can pay someone else to come in and do the work properly.

Last, the most ideal situation would be to get them to buy back the house and we all go our separate ways. We are moving soon anyway (work move), so it would not be difficult for us at this time. 

Any help is greatly appreciated. We are stuck and want to put this all behind us!

 Could you elaborate? Kind of vague information.