When we began remodeling our home, we had never been involved with such an extensive construction job before. But Brian Tilley seemed sincere and we felt we could trust him.
Right off the bat, he took advantage of our trust by under-quoting us the price of the job, which we later learned is common practice for contractors to convince you to hire them. We should have sensed something was off when he asked for 40% (!) of the entire price of the project upfront (which we later found out was not normal and not even legal) in order to get materials so he could begin right away. He took that 40% and disappeared for two months. We were told by experts in the profession that he likely took our money and spent it elsewhere.Never having done this before, we trusted him and assumed it was normal. BIG mistake.
After handing over that large sum, and soon after starting the project, he came with change order after change order amounting to literally TRIPLE the cost of what we were originally quoted. Despite our architect drawings remaining unchanged, he blamed us for excessive upgrades. He tried to put the blame on us, saying that we were upgrading everything to an extreme. But the few things we did “upgrade” on, we actually paid for out of our own pockets.
Additionally, he conveniently neglected to inform us that according to our contract, all change orders must be submitted BEFORE the changes or upgrades are made, and not after the fact- which is what he did.
Under his threats that he would walk off our job without it, we paid those excessively large change orders in full.
Where all that money went was a mystery because he then came for a “final” change order in which he informed us that he’s not paying for a whole host of expenses which were supposedly covered in his original bid. Wanting to just be finished with it all, we again paid in full.
But then he was back with ANOTHER final change order and refusing to pay for previously agreed-upon expenses. When we questioned the details, he became extremely disrespectful and negative to my wife and threatened to withhold city approval.
We wish our dealing with him had ended with us finally moving into our home. However, his lack of straight-forwardness and honesty turned into a plumbing nightmare for us after just a few months of living in our newly renovated home.
Before we started our renovations we requested that the sewer line to the house should be replaced entirely, due to problems we had in the past. He agreed and we spoke with a few plumbing companies who could do this. At the last minute, he informed us that he wants to do the whole job himself. We were not thrilled with that idea, and told him so.
But he reassured us that he can do a perfect job and we can surely call him if there is ever a problem. He signed in our agreement that he would put in the new line, ALL THE WAY to the city one.
Not long after we were back in our house, there was a massive sewer backup. He did come by to help and concluded that one of our kids probably flushed a stuffed animal down the toilet. We were skeptical, having had kids in our home for over 15 years and never experiencing that even once. But we said ok, and let it go.
But then not long after- another sewage backup! This time I called a plumber who sent a camera down the line. The footage showed that the new line did not go all the way to the city as Brian had put in writing that it did. Instead, it stopped about 20 feet before the city and for 20 feet there was the old pipe which had collapsed right at the point connecting the new and old (note image attached). The sewer company was appalled that Brian did such a dishonest thing. It was outright fraud. Although he did admit to what he did, there was no apology and he took no responsibility for the sewer repair that cost us well over $10,000.
In conclusion, he left us with a mostly nice home, but a very bad taste in our mouths from his lack of integrity and the constant harassment we endured while working with him.
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