Saul Cruz of Cruz Lawn and Landscape is a fraud.
Do not hire him at any price. He will take your money and not do any work.
He stole $3,170 from me. This is embarrassing to admit because I like to think of myself as business savvy and no one wants to have to admit they have been defrauded, but that's the case here and I need to say something so that hopefully he will not prey on anyone else in our community. On Big Island we look out for each other, we don't steal hard earned money from our neighbors. A predator like this does not belong in this society.
I live on the Big Island of Hawaii. I currently rent, but have been working on creating a home of my own that will belong to me. (It's the dream right?! Building something that you can call your own.) While making moves to attain that end, I purchased a small piece of undeveloped land on the east side of the island with plans to have a small portion of it cleared and put a tiny home on it just big enough for me and my dog. These are modest goals. I poured every cent I had into this project, wiped out my entire savings. I was "all in" for this dream.
I contracted with Saul to do the clearing portion of the project as this is undeveloped land, lightly forested with native Ohia trees and ferns. In an attempt to respect the land as much as possible I only wanted to have a small area cleared. Only 2,000 square feet. Big enough to put a little cottage down and have a modest little yard. I want to leave the majority of the property in its untouched natural state. Afterall, you don't come to Hawaii to mow everything down and have a big lawn. You come here because you love everything about it, the rain, the trees, the vines, the beauty of the tropics as they are. You come here to live hand-in-hand with those things, not in opposition to them.
I currently live and work on the west side of the island. This is a couple hours away from the property in question. And as I work long hours I am not able every day to visit my property to inspect it. I did however make the mistake of trusting Saul at his word and on his contract that the work I paid for would be completed as contracted for.
On April 23rd of this year I had my first contact with Saul regarding a land clearing project.
On May 1st he sent me a formal proposal for the cost of the project. Which I signed on the same day and returned to him. Which he then signed in turn that same day (See attached photo of the contract signed and dated by both of us) That same day he sent me his Venmo information via email requesting that I pay him that way, and I promptly paid him 50% of the declared project cost as was outlined in the contract that we both signed. First Venmo payment Paid 5/1/21: $1,585.00
We scheduled to have the project begin on June 12th as I needed to get the property officially surveyed and marked at the boundary lines. I needed to wait until I got that official report back from the surveyors office before any work started on the project. I was specifically advised to proceed this way by my realtor, in order to avoid any mistakes in the clearing project. (My realtor, I should say, Is excellent. I highly recommend her)
On June 5th (a full week in advance of the project start date) I sent Saul and email containing the report from the surveyor. This report clearly detailed the Tax Map Key number for the parcel of land as well as the exact GPS coordinates of the piece of land. Along with this document I also sent him a detailed sketch of how exactly I wanted the land cleared in order to preserve it as much as possible in it's natural state. On this same day I also followed up with him via text message to be sure he received the documents in question.
On June 6th he responded via email confirming that he had received my previous email and that he would use the sketch as a reference for clearing the land.
On June 12th (the morning that the project was scheduled to start) I confirmed with him one last time that he Still had the surveyors report and the sketch of how the land was to be cleared. He responded yes, and said that the final portion of the project (The Base Course for foundation of the future home - cinders) would be completed the following Monday. In this same text conversation I asked him to send me photos of the finished product when he was done with the clearing. He did not send any pictures that day.
10 days later after several unanswered texts he sent me fraudulent photos of a completed project. And requested that I pay the remaining amount as he needed to pay his people. I foolishly did send the final payment. But when I got a chance to visit my property I discovered that he had in fact done no work at all. The photos he sent were fake. He refuses to take my calls or to refund my money.
This man is a predator and a thief. read more
