Choosing The Right Contractor

We live in Amador County and were doing a kitchen remodel when we found dry rot on the outside of our kitchen window as we were installing a new one. Our window installer informed us that we needed to find a contractor to fix the dry rot, so we started to interview many.  We thought we were doing all the right things by contacting many licensed contractors to get to know them and to get the best deal.

We picked out the contractor that was going to repair our home of dry rot, or I should say, “My husband picked the contractor”.  This contractor shows up with his girlfriend and they say all the right things.  They bring many samples of product to reside our home to give us the opportunity to pick what style we want.


On our contract the contractor has added 

• The job will be finished in One (1) Month.
• All payments to be paid at completion of the job.
• Contractor to remove dryrot.
• He is going to take all debris to the dump which is included in the contract price.

I will be continuing this.  Stay tuned.

If you go to The California State Contractor’s License Board site you will find a wealth of information to help you with all the answers to your questions on picking the right contractor and making sure he is legal.  We thought we did all the right things to make sure this contractor was honest.

After this contractor left the job, yes he abandoned the job!!!  THANK GOD!!!  Of course once again the lies come into play and he gives 4 different stories, never being consistent with anything because a person who doesn’t tell the truth can’t keep the same story.

• Get References!!  Many References!!  Call them up and if you can, go and check out the jobs that was performed.

• Make sure you get the contractors License Number to check with The State Contractors Board!!

• You will need to Check The Status of their License.  - Now this one can be tricky because we checked the status of his license.  Come to find out later, the license was not in his name!  The license was in someone else's name.  He had told us that he had been in business since 1980 and the license says 1990.  Plus if you start to click on all the links in the license you will find lots of information.  We found later that he had not been working under this license for over 12 years.  Came to us and has only been working under this license for a little over 5 years.  The license clearly shows no bond was paid for for over 12 years which means that they can not work under that license.

• I would check his drivers license as well to make sure that this is really the person you are dealing with.  Come to find out later, this person had another name and even more than that!!  He was not who he told us he was.

• Make sure his name is printed as well as signed on all proposals and contracts as well as any change orders.  AND make sure you watch him sign the contract!!

•  Make sure that you have a copy of the contract as well before any work starts.

5.01 Contractor's Performance


The performance of the contractor is measured by two criteria:

1. Whether the contractor performed the work according to the plans and specifications, and
2. Whether the contractor completed the work within the time specified in the contract plus any extensions of time authorized by change orders. 

We find out today that yet there was another lie from this Shoddy Contractor from Amador County!  He had come to us telling us he had been in business and owning this construction company since 1980 and has been licensed, insured and bonded.  (Me not thinking to do the math since he was only 43 years old - He would have been only 13 when he started the company)

As you can tell on the bond history above from The State Board, the bond started 1988 and then expired on 1991 and no bond from 1991 till 2004.  Which means they were not working with this license from 1991 to 2004.

Well that is another lie because we were informed that he had been working since 1980 and even if he had been working since 1991 would have been OK with us.  Not for a little over 5 years.

So what does this tell us?  It tells us that this isn't his license and that he doesn't own this company.  Well after further looking into this liscense we see that he isn't the owner of this company.  A lady is the owner and he is only the RME.  So now we assume that this lady who is the owner must be his mother.