Sorry for this long review, but this company must be stopped from their dishonest and fraudulent practices. There are two companies acting as one. Dolphin Properties Inc DBA Emergency Restoration - License #0040236. Principal - Christopher Lee Anderson - President.
On Saturday night, 10/22/22, my wife noticed that we had no hot water. I went out to the garage and found the water heater was leaking. I shut off the feed valve and dried up the water that was sitting on top of the water heater platform. Once I dried up all the water, with the water pressure off, the water heater stopped leaking.
I have a home warranty, so I contacted them on Sunday 10/23/22 and filed a claim. They set up an appointment with a company called Advanced Home Services, LLC. A technician named Dustin arrived at 1-PM on Monday 10/24/22, and said that he would set everything up. A short time later (on the same day), Jorge Villa from Emergency Restoration Experts (ERX) arrived at our house, and explained everything. I asked him why we needed restoration, repairs, etc., because there was no damage to anything except the drywall top of the water heater platform. He said they could not guarantee a final approval from the inspector, without the restoration services (that should have been the first red flag). So, we signed an agreement to proceed.
I offered Jorge the contact information for our insurance agent in Las Vegas. He said that he did not need it because he knew who to contact... almost like he had done this many times before (that should have been the second red flag). I think it is very peculiar that he used an insurance adjuster who was in Florida, which we did not know at the time. Every member of the team, starting with Jorge Villa, railroaded us through the entire process without giving us time to think. Jorge offered a $1,000 discount to assist with our insurance deductible (that should have been the third red flag). Again, no time to think... "just sign here".
Emergency Restoration Experts - We received a "Mitigation" invoice prepared by Project Manager Greg Anderson for $3,466.06. That was for "emergency" mitigation and containment in the garage and in an adjoining bedroom in the house. As I said above, the only place that was wet was the top on the water heater platform. The garage floor was dry, the adjacent walls were dry, and the adjoining bedroom walls and floor were dry. In fact, the concrete slab floor of the bedroom and the rest of the house is about 3-4 inches higher than the concrete garage floor where the water heater platform sat, so any water that could have hit the garage floor, could not possibly seep into the bedroom floor.
Dolphin Properties - The "Repairs" invoice from Estimator Dylan Anderson was $5,149.74. Once again, none of these repairs were necessary because everything was dry. Also, there were several very large line item expenses for work that was never done.
The Fraud - The $5,149.74 invoice for repairs was sent to our insurance company. However, the total invoicing to us was for $4,149.74. The $1,000 difference was supposed to be to help us with our insurance deductible. However, our insurance company never saw the $4,194.74 invoice. They only received the higher invoice. I don't think that's legal and my lawyer and the insurance adjuster both agree. In fact, in an email exchange with Project Manager Greg Anderson, he said, "...we would never charge your insurance company for something and refund you for it. That is considered insurance fraud..." But, that's exactly what they did. If we had known at the time that the $1,000 discount was to be provided by the insurance company without their knowledge, we never would have agreed to that.
The Topper - Before the mitigation team left, they hooked up the new water heater so we would have hot water until the Repair team came. When the Repair team came to do the repairs, they removed the newly installed water heater, and then stopped working. We were then called into the garage and told by the supervisor, that they would not continue working until we gave them a check for $3,649.74. Four men actually left the garage and went out and stood by the curb until we handed over the check.
After the work was done, the project manager realized that so much of the work was never done, and reimbursed us ~ $1,300. By the way, our home warranty completely paid for the cost of replacing the water heater, so technically, this should not have cost us or our insurance company anything.
I filed a complaint with the Nevada State Contractors Board. A few months later, I received a call from Jennifer Waggoner, requesting that we settle this dispute before the Contractors Board hearing. After some email exchanges, we received an offer of $1,000 from Erica Anderson in return for us withdrawing our complaint. After some more email exchanges, we could not come to an agreement. We are now waiting for the Contractors Board hearing. read more