Beware of Hansen Builders

I came across www.hansenbuild.webs.com and got in touch with Mike Hansen from Hansen Builders for a quote on our basement project on April 21, 2012. Mike sent me an initial estimate of $12553.91. See chronological details below and on this link

Since the quote was less compared to other quotes that I had from other builders, I decided to go ahead with Hansen Builders. Provided some more details to Mike and asked him to prepared an agreement for us to sign. Mike re-drafted the agreement and jacked up the cost to $18645. I agreed to that as well because it was still less than other quotes that I had.

From that beginning to as thing stand today, Mike increased the total cost of the project to $20958.00 with some obvious lies and various pretexts. Out of this project cost, I paid him $9628 in various installments as security deposit.

I also developed this website for him free of cost, includig registration of the domain name and hosting the site - thinking this will make him do a good job for us.

The construction was supposed to begin Friday, September the 7th with dropping of the material at our house. That did not happen.

Mike was supposed to begin digging on Saturday the 8th. That did not happen.

He was supposed to have all the engineering drawing and reports completed before the project date. That has not happened.

He was supposed to have permits from the City, that has not happened either.

Since September the 5th, Mike has stopped all communication and is not responding to any email or phone calls. He briefly got in touch on the 9th, saying he would be going to the City to get the permits "corrected." Since then, there is a complete silence once more.

I went to Mike's address as mentioned in teh signed contract (Hansen Builders Business #200793669, 5633 Marlene Crest P.O. Box #465, Ottawa, Ont, K0A 2W0, 613-618-8334) and founds that the property looks abandoned for quite some time. There were no sign of life and the neighbours didn't know who lived there.

Will appreciate any hint about Mike's (image above) whereabout and how I could reach him. Also please let me know if any pictures on this site belong to your property and the woork was done by another contractor.

Following are the details of my interaction with Mike Hansen. Any help that you may be able to extend will be appreciated.
Thanks
A. Jan
613-683-3892
creattica@creattica.ca

	April 21, 2012	I asked Hansen Builders for a quotation for basement renovation (See Exhibit 1, page 1) The list I provided to Hansen Builders mentioned everything from engineering drawing to applying from permits, paint and trim except a reference to duct work, which was included at the time of singing the agreement.
	April 23, 2012	Mike Hansen responded and promised to work out an estimate (See Exhibit 1 1, Page 2)
	May 7, 2012	Mike Asked for square footage for estimation (See Exhibit 1 1, page 2, 3)
	May 8, 2012	I sent measurements to Mike Hansen (See Exhibit 1 1, page 3)
	May 9, 2012	Mike sent initial estimates of $12,553.91 for material, labour, Permits and Inspection (See Exhibit 1 1, page 3 and 4) Please note the highlighted text in yellow which shows what is covered in the costing because Mike came back later and tried to increase total cost of the Project.
	May 10, 2012	I suggested some changes, gave some more details to see if they can reduce the cost and asked for adding a closet in washroom. (See Exhibit 1, page 4 and 5)
	May 10, 2012	Mike responds. Adds $375 for the closet in washroom, $150 for removing the steel column, replacing the footings @$100 each plus concrete $200/meter. (See Exhibit 1, age 5)
	May 12, 2012	Mike looked at image #1 at http://creattica.ca/project_details/project_details.html and increased the cost for retaining wall from $3500 to $4200. (See Exhibit 1, page 6)
	May 12, 2012	Mike provided fist copy of the contract for review with a total project cost of $15,736.36 (See Exhibit 1, page 6, 7)
	May 13, 2012	I responded to the first draft of contract and informed Mike that I would like to change the regular door to sliding patio door and to give me a final cost for all the changes. (See Exhibit 1, page 10, 11)
	May 13, 2012	Mike got back and increased the total by $600 and promised to get back with a final corrected total(See Exhibit 1, page 11, 12)
	May 14, 2012	I requested that I should pay just the retainer upon signing the agreement and to delay the rest of the security deposit closer to the closing date of our new house (which was September 5, 2012) (See Exhibit 1, page 13, 14)
	May 14, 2012	Mike agreed to my request of paying only the $2000 retainer to guarantee booking and asks if he could start writing up the agreement. (See Exhibit 1, page 14) Mike wrote: “I totaly understand what your saying about incuring as little interest as possible totaly respectable, so what I can do is if you want to pay a retainer of $2,000.00 to gurantee your booking …., If your fine with the retainer I can write up another paper stating you have chosen to pay a small retainer fee to be followed by the remainder balance say 4 weeks befor the start day.
	May 14, 2012	Mike provided me with a copy of the final contract with a Grand Total of $18,645.00 (See Exhibit 1, page 15-19) Mike wrote: “everything has been corrected & updated.”
	May 14, 2012	Mike shared completed overview and timeline schedule as well. (See Exhibit 1, page 19-21) Overview includes cutting concrete just like any other item on the list which were included in the costs with a special note only for the tiles and fixtures: “All materials except for the toilet/vanity with sink/neo angle shower & exterior door are included. $1.75 per sqft for the tiles are included in cost anything additional will be billed to the homeowner.” This is important to note because Mike later on increased the total project cost, saying I was supposed to pay for cutting the concrete.
	May 16, 2012	Mike asked for the retainer $2000 in advance of signing the agreement. He wrote, he was “speaking with my engineer last night about your dawings for the walk-up and he would like to start on them asap due to the large increase in home building and commercial projects he is getting extremely busy.” (See Exhibit 1, page 21)
	May 16, 2012	Abid Promises to make the e-transfer on the 1th (See Exhibit 1, page 22)
	May 17, 2012	I made the first transfer of $2000 to Mike through interact. Mike acknowledged the payment and promised to drop by to my office on September the 18th at 11:00am to sign the agreement. (See Exhibit 1 page 22)
10	May 18, 2012	I kept waiting for Mike but he did not show up for signing the agreement. There was no communication. No email or phone call to tell why he would not show up. (See Exhibit 1, page 22, 23)
20	May 18, 2012	Mike responds to my messages in the evening to tell me that he had to leave early morning for Burlington – hence he missed the meeting to sign the agreement. (See Exhibit 1, page 23)
	May 24, 2012	Finally Mike and his partner, Shawn Clifford (I believe from the signature), showed up and signed the agreement to do the renovation for $18645 soon after closing of our house with the builder on September the 5th(See Exhibit 1, page 23)
	May 25, 2012	Against the spirit of early understanding that Mike won’t ask for additional advance deposits (see May 14 correspondence), Mike asked for $2250 more to pay deposits to the trades. (See Exhibit 1, page 24) Mike wrote: “I will require $2250.00 for the security deposits on the trades and I can hold off on the remainder like we spoke about to save a fw dollars on interest for you, I will call my guys and let them know Monday will be when I can meet up with them to secure the slots. Thanks for being understanding these little gestures go along way in my books.”
	May 29, 2011	I made the second e-transfer of $2250 to Mike (See Exhibit 1, page 24
	May 31, 2012	Two days later, Mike asked for a third deposit $1300 for the permit fees to avoid any penalties/fines by the city in issuing permits as informed by Mike. (See Exhibit 1, page 25, 26) I complained that we agreed to pay only $2000 as a retainer at least until 4 weeks before the construction date. However, Mike insisted. He wrote: “It is important I get the permits right away to ensure our start date if we start work befor the permit is issued I get a fine and in the final pcture it ends up costing you money out of your pocket and lots of wasted time.” Please note: I did not see the drawings or permit till filing this claim.
	June 1, 2012	I reluctantly transferred another $1300, raising the total to $5550. I thought I was supposed to make $7500 deposit and now that I negotiated on $2000 untill the start of the project, Mike might be having problems applying for permits etc. (See Exhibit 1, page 26) I was not happy and at this point, I asked Mike that: “If you think the contract we signed is not right and would cost you, or me, more than what we signed on, then I am open to terminating it for the full refund or the payments I have made so far. “
	June 01, 2012	Mike assured me that there won’t be any requests from him for more desposits until October 2012. He wrote: “I appreciate you doing the transfer this morning and again I assure you there will be no more costs untill October like mentioned in the contract…” (See Exhibit 1, page 27)
	June 23, 2012	However, 22 days later, Mike came back to me and asked for another transfer of $700 the same day because, according to him, he had to make payment to the concrete cutter. (See Exhibit 1, page 27)
	June 23, 2012	I thought this was the kind of advance deposits which Mike made to other trades in the beginning when he asked for $2250 on May 25th. (See Exhibit 1, page 28) I was frustrated and told Mike: “If you are relying on my payment. Please DO NOT pay the cutter because I can’t pay you anything before I sell the house.
	July 28, 2012	Six days later, Mike came up with identification of other items which he thought required an increase in the project cost. He claimed some things were never discussed, such as 1) removing the wall around stairs, 2) Bulkheads for heating duct and 3) HST was not added to the contract. (See Exhibit 1, page 31)
	July 29, 2012	I explained to him that HST was definitely added to everything except may be the retaining wall cost. I also argued that almost all basement have heating ducts and bulkheads are taken into consideration in all estimates. (See Exhibit 1, page 32, 33) In conclusion, I suggested one more time: “We have not broken the ground yet. Due to the financial situation I am in right now …, I would have absolutely no problem terminating the contract if you think you miscalculated big time and would be in a loss. I don’t want you to be in a loss for me. Nor would I like the quality of work at my place to suffer because of that.”
	July 29, 2012	Mike got back to me: “Yes sorry you are correct about the mentioned and not mentioned except for the bulkheads which exceed the utility room to hide the duct work in the ceiling, which really is only a small increase of $400.00. As to the forgotten miss-sought costs that would be $500.00 for the duct work and the HST for the 3 mentioned items Bulkheads/ Retainer Wall/ Duct Work which would be a slight increase of $1,563.00 that brings the grand total to $20,208.00 HST INCLUDED with everything looked over & numbers added 3 times.” (See Exhibit 1, page 35, 36) So, despite the fact that the contract was drafted by Mike and according to him double checked by his lawyer and his partner (who re-read it in front of me before signing), Mike now raised the total cost of the project to $20,208.00 on July 29th.
	July 29, 2012	Feeling deceived, I complained again: “So far I couldn’t understand what you actually meant by bulkhead. Now I got it. Since duct work is part of every basement, I am wondering how was it not part of the calculations from the get go. As a contractor, I would assume that every ceiling that I do would definitely have duct work and I would have to box it before drywall. And thus would be part of my calculations. REGARDLESS of the amount, I am really surprised that you are adding that cost to the calculation NOW….” (See Exhibit 1, page 36) See detailed message for the argument and cost of the duct work as well. Mike added $500 for the duct work, whereas he and his partner added duct work extensions to the final agreement on May 24th. Please see the hand written notes on the final agreement.
	August 2, 2012	I asked Mike, what if we couldn’t sell our house in time and there was a delay in closing the new house. (See Exhibit 1, page 37)
	August 3, 2012	Mike suggested I should return the vanity and shower that I had purchased and that he would see what he could do. (See Exhibit 1, page 38)
	August 3, 2012	I responded that I was not giving up on the project completely and asked if it was possible to delay the start date just by a couple of weeks so that we are comfortable dealing with the builder. (See Exhibit 1, page 38)
	August 3, 2012	Mike responded that the City permits were dated on a schedule and any delay would cost thousands of dollars. (See Exhibit 1, page 39)
	August 13, 14, 2012	In response to another deposit by Mike, I made another transfer tom him for $2528 with this understanding: “The security deposit on the originally agreed upon project cost was $7500. As per my understanding, with the increased project cost, the security deposit increased to $8128 by the same ratio. This I thought increased the balance that I had to pay to you $2528 – the amount that I transferred to you this week.” (See Exhibit 1, page 39, 41) Mike now had $ 8, 128 from me I sent a message about the calculation mentioned above to Mike on August 11 and 12th. Then I made the transfer on 13 and 14. However, Mike sent no acknowledgement of any message or the transfers until August 16th.
	August 16, 2012	Mike shocked me with yet another request for another deposit of $2250, citing $500 for cutting concrete and slight increase in the security deposit. (See Exhibit 1, page 39)
	August 16, 2012	I repeated my explanation and asked for a meeting to discuss things face to face. (See Exhibit 1, page 39-41)
	August 17, 2012	Mike excused himself from a face to face meeting citing it was the busiest time of the year and added I was forgetting some costs. Contrary to all the written agreement, Mike stated he was not supposed to be covering the cost of permits and insisted yet another transfer of $2250. (See Exhibit 1, page 40-41)
	August 18, 2012	This is when I prepares a chronological detail of all the agreements and communication to make the facts stand out and eliminate the confusion Mike was creating. The findings: Permit cost was included in the grand totals from the very initial cost estimates (See Mik’s email, dated May 09, 2012, page 3 of the (See Exhibit 1, , line 8) Concrete cutting cost was part of the total project cost, just like the cost of plumbing, painting, dry walling, tapping etc.) There has been no reference to separate costing for it neither in the email communication up to the agreement, not is pointed out as a separate cost in any agreement like the doors and fixtures which Abid has to provide or the cost of tiles if they are more than $1.75 per sq.ft. (See all agreements and overview of basement development page 19) The increase in security deposit due to the increased in project cost has already been estimated and transferred to Mike. (See Exhibit 1, page)
	August 25, 2012	Mike took his time and responded a week later, saying he was not sure what I was trying to say and went on to list some costs for which he require $2250 more. (See Exhibit 1, page 42, 43) There was absolutely no new point that Mike raised and all were part of the original agreement. The confusion Mike created about HST and duct work etc led to an increase in the total cost whereas those were already covered. There is where I got really coned.
	August 26, 2012	I responded to Mike point by point with references to the agreement and previous communication to make the point that there was nothing that justified the additional $2250. (See Exhibit 1, page 43, 44)
	August 26, 2012	Mike responded with some sweeping statements and no reference to the points I had raised. He stated that sliding door was not mentioned in the agreement and cutting the sliding door width would cost more. In fact, I had informed Mike before the final agreement that we would be installing sliding door. I did not draft the agreement. Mike did. Mike’s lawyer checked it and his partner also reviewed and signed it. If they missed sliding door, that was their problem. I had pointed out all our requirement and all were acknowledged before signing the agreement. There was no point in coming back after signing the agreement to add various cost as Mike has been doing all along. (See Exhibit 1, page 46.) I did not respond to this message. Instead I moved to consult his lawyer.
	August 28, 2012	Mike offered a deal: “You said you would like to remove $567.00 of the total how about if I take 750.00 of the total and instead of paying $2250 I would accept a even $1500 which would be fine with me.” (See Exhibit 1, page 49 ) I accepted it to avert legal complications.
	August 31, 2012	Mike asked for another money transfer. (See Exhibit 1, page 50 ) I said I would send him the payment on the 5th after closing the house with Richcraft
	September 1, 2012	Mike asked if he would be able to begin excavation on Saturday September the 8th: “I was also wondering if it would be ok with you if I am able to do the excavation and cutting on Saturday the 8th and do you have the patio door already?” (See Exhibit 1, page 51 ) I asked Mike for engineering drawing and City permits. (See Exhibit 1, page 51)
	September 02, 2012	Mike responds: “Now that you mention the drawing and report I just took look at them and they are no longer correct because we had them done up before you had changed your mind on the exterior door to the patio slider, with all the back and forth I never even thought about the drawings and report.” (See Exhibit 1, page 52) This is totally incorrect as Abid explains in his response: See (See Exhibit 1, page 52. )With references to and quotes from Mike’s previous messaging.
	September 4, 2012	Mike repeats that he had the permits from the City (See Exhibit 1, page 54) It is highly unlikely that Mike would obtain permits without drawing at a time when the house was still Richcraft’s property.
	September 5, 2012	I made a quick calculation to make a financial transfer of $300 to Mike to complete the 40% security deposit which went up with the last increase in project cost. (See Exhibit 1, page 54)
	September 5, 2012	Mike responded with angry phone messages and an email insisting that he needed $1500. (See Exhibit 1, page 55)
	September 5th	Thinking that the final total will remain the same, Abid made a transfer of $1500 to Mike, taking up the total payment to Mike to $9628.
	September 5, 2012	I informed Mike that due to Richcraft’s offer, I could delay the closing. However, I agreed to close and pay double mortgage only to see the basement renovation completed in time.
		Mike did not respond to any of my messages and phone call till September 9 which I caught after making a call from a public telephone. Before that I had gone to Mike’s address (Hansen Builders Business #200793669, 5633 Marlene Crest P.O. Box #465, Ottawa, Ont, K0A 2W0, 613-618-8334) and found that the property looked abandoned for quite some time. No signs of life there.
	September 9, 2012	Mike responded: “I have been out of town sorry I havent been near internet or I would have emailed you. Tommorow is a running around day for me I have to go to the city and have the permit changed so everything is in order…”(See Exhibit 1, page 58 ) This was the only communication since September 5th. Since then Mike is unreachable again. I strongly suspect that the permits were never obtained in the first place. Mike pocketed the money and did not do anything. Neither prepared engineering drawing, nor obtained permits, not even purchased any material which he promised to be dropping off on Friday, September the 7th.
	September 10	I tried all evening to reach Mike through email and phone but to no avail. (See Exhibit 1, page 58)
	September 11	I demandws a full refund by the end of the day reserving the option to go to court if Mike failed to respond. (See Exhibit 1, page 59.) No response since then despite calling him several times through my lawyer, Andrew Wilson as wel…