LG Construction is owned and operated by Lorenzo Guajardo and I want to be really clear that I never actually used Lorenzo's contracting service. My boyfriend and I lived in one of his remodeled properties for 2 years but I think the way he interacted with us speaks volumes about his business ethics and I wanted to share my experiences.
When we first moved in, I enjoyed the property. Everything was recently remodeled so it was nice and new. I will say that clearly a lot of work had been done in the house as it was one of the nicest on the block. My parents at the time were thinking about purchasing a fixer upper in the nearby area and I even recommended that they use him for contracting work.
However, over the years, we started to notice things that were wrong with the house. Every summer and winter, the boards would warp and our doors wouldn't work properly. The outside door didn't lock properly in the summer and in the winter, we couldn't close the backdoor. We told him about the problems but the front door never got fixed and it took him several tries before the backdoor locked properly. We went without hot water in our bathroom sink for two years and every time laundry was done, our house turned into a sauna.
But what really concerned me was what happened when we were moving out. We hired a professional housecleaning team to come and clean everything. The only visible damage was a scratch on the wall from the corner of our bed. I wasn't concerned about it at all since it was superficial and I thought it could be easily covered by some paint. When he came to do the final run through, he noted the chip and then offered us $250 out of $500 of our deposit. WHAT?
He explained that the wall would take him hours to fix. I offered to hire an independent contractor to get an estimate and I said I would be willing to pay whatever they decided was fair for the amount of work. He said it didn't matter what they said because he was only going to give me $250.
In an effort to understand him better, I asked him exactly what he had to do to fix the scratch on the wall. He said that it would take him hours because he had to go to the store, buy sanding material, and buy paint. I said that I assumed because he was a contractor, he would have these materials along with the paint. He said that he did. Umm, ok?
He then stated that there were still dirty areas in the apartment and found dust on the ceiling fan and said that that was another one of the reasons for the deduction. I offered to call the cleaners again and have them redo anything he found that was dirty. He said it wasn't going to matter.
Weeks before we moved, I asked him if he knew where I could get rid of our couch. He said that part of his business involved throwing away large objects and if I wanted to leave anything behind, he would be glad to get rid of it for me. So we left the couch behind and this too was added to reasons for the reductions. I pointed out that he had volunteered to do this and I was more than happy to remove the furniture myself if it was going to cost me extra. He then agreed that he had volunteered to do it but stated that he was exerting time and effort and thought it was a valid reason for deduction. Again, WHAT? COME ON!
We negotiated and eventually, he still only agreed to refund us $250.
It was an incredibly frustrating experience and at one point I questioned whether it was legal for him to make estimates like that. I've rented apartments all during college and grad school and either always got a full refund on my deposit or a reasonable itemized list of deductions. This was the first time someone had randomly quoted me a number that I felt inaccurately reflected the amount of work needed for the place and then adamantly refused to negotiate or clearly explain his reasoning for the deductions. After some rental rights research, I found out that it wasn't legal at all. Minor wear and tear, including damage caused by furniture rubbing against the wall, is covered by the renter and itemized deductions should be given.
We scheduled to meet with him again the next day and we showed him the renter's rights papers and offered to enter into mediation with a neutral party. His verbatim response was that he didn't care what that the renter's rights paper said and he refused mediation. Awesome.
Perhaps working with him as a contractor is different than my interactions as a tenant but in my opinion, the two are related. Shady business is shady business. read more