According to the contract the total cost of the roofing portion of the job was $6,174.00. Although the contract indicated that we were to pay two payments of $3,087.00 each for the roof we were instructed to pay $4,439.25 when we signed the contract and we were to pay an additional $3,087.00 upon completion of the roof and then they would proceed to make the other repairs. These amounts were paid and are reflected in the contractor's billing statement (bottom of this page).

AFTER the roof was completed they moved on to the next phase of the job - blunder after blunder!

I went into the garage and was stunned to see what they had done. They had not moved anything out of the garage nor had they covered anything with tarps. Everything including the floor and the inside of my washing machine was a mess. I could see white shoe prints on our tables and workbenches where they had been used instead of a ladder. The popcorn was not completely scraped off of the ceiling, the water-damaged drywall had not been replaced, there was no orange peel finish and the ceiling was not ready to paint. They had spread drywall mud on the joints without first taping the joints. As they were leaving they told me they couldn't paint until the drywall mud had dried so they would paint the ceiling when they came back. I immediately called the office and told them that I would not pay them for the disaster they had created. I demanded that they issue a credit for the balance of the contract.

Section 3 of Chapter 489

The contractor's job has been completed, and it is shown that the customer has had to pay more for the contracted job than the original contract price

**Note: According to a representative of the Attorney General this is NOT price gouging. I was told by a member of his staff that it is only price gouging when the event takes place within 60 days from the date the area is declared a disaster. I wonder how many hurricane victims were able to get their repairs completed within 60 days of the event? I think there were probably very few.