BUYER BEWARE:
Do not hire Frank Devonshire Contracting if you are looking for your construction to be completed in any realistic time frame with any type of support after signing the contract and giving a down payment. However, If you do decide to sign a contract with him negotiate a start and completion date that is worked into the contract and minimize any money you offer upfront.
Long story short, the company is poorly run, over booked, and they offer nothing but excuses, lies, and missed commitments. Your down payment is going to fund other projects that he has booked. I know this because even after the first day onsite he asked for another $7,500.00 before completing any contractual work ontop of the large downpayment we have already provided him, which was supposed to be for buying our materials upfront. I have spoken to multiple people who are in the same boat as us and nobody wants to speak out in fear of him not coming back to complete his work. We have been under contract with him for a year and he has only been here for 2 working weeks and only after dozens of attempts to contact him.
My husband and I signed a contract with him in Sept. 2023 to convert our one garage into a den and add a shower to a bathroom in the same area. When we signed the contract, he told us work would most likely start in February 2024. When February came, we followed up and he pushed the date to April. After ignoring multiple emails, we asked him to quote additional work, and he showed up right away and brought some of the information he submitted for permitting. At this time, we also told Frank that we had a baby coming in September so everything needed to be complete before I delivered, and he promised us it would be done.
After looking into the info he provided us, it turns out his permit was rejected. It took him another 3 months to finally get the documents approved but he could not get the permit issued because he has too many expired permits. He blamed the county, but the delays were blatantly the fault of his company's neglect of our project. He showed up in July to start the work and demo'd a load bearing wall and installed a beam and went missing for another month. We reached out and said it would be unacceptable to have concrete being demolished with a newborn. I ended up having the baby two weeks early and the Tuesday after coming home with the baby, Frank sent workers to rip up the concrete. After the concrete was out, he was supposed to have his plumber show up to do underground plumbing he then said he had to send someone out to give him a quote? Wouldn't you think after nearly a year and 10's of thousands of dollars he would already have his sub-contractors locked in? At this point my husband said fck it and did the plumbing through the company he works for. The plumbing is completed, Frank is nowhere to be found and there is still NO PERMIT for the major structural work he's done. It has not been inspected; we don't even know if it is still safe to be in the house. The beam he put in is missing screws, all his trash is still in my garage, he has left half of our house completely disheveled/without electricity and open to the environment with only two pieces of plywood blocking the opening where the garage door was. We now have bugs, mice and all types of critters coming and going as they please through half my house with a newborn and a two-year-old. After talking to him he keeps lying about when he will have people there and we have no confidence in him being completed before it gets too cold for our newborn and we have to find another place to stay.
I just want this nightmare over and to be able to raise my kids in a home and not a construction site, and to let people know what they are getting into when they deal with Devonshire Contracting. read more