Ba Clark Construction

Brandon seemed eager and agreeable (almost too much so) without really discussing limitations or technical details. We were in the lurch after the contractor we planned on using suddenly ghosted us (we later learned he was in the hospital with a serious illness) and saw that Brandon had a basic license registered with the ROC so we decided to give him a shot as he seemed honest. However, from day one of the two days of work done it was clear he was in over his head. He had just gotten his KB license and started his LLC the same month we hired him and while his eagerness may have been a sign he was wanting to tackle more challenging jobs, we did not want to be his testing grounds.

For the $13,000 down payment we sent him cash, he hired an unlicensed handyman who took two days to install just a 13 ft. transition strip between carpet and tile (something a professional could've hammered out in 2-3 hours easily). He then left the handyman on his own the second day to cut a hole in our tall ceiling and run a wire where we wanted to relocate a chandelier, relying on us to try to guide him on where to fish the wire while he was up in our crawlspace. When we saw how disorganized, chaotic and unprofessional things were (Brandon mostly had his brother and wife to help out but the only one who did any work was the handyman) and the handyman didn't know where he was supposed to report to and often showed up waiting around with neither of us able to get a hold of Brandon, we terminated the contract on the third day. The handyman himself told us he doesn't like working for Brandon as he is disorganized and hadn't been paid in a while. Since then we have learned he has quit working for Brandon.

Unbeknownst to us and even many contractors we spoke with (but not to Brandon) once you terminate a contract you have ZERO recourse with the ROC so the license is worthless if someone doesn't refund your money. ROC doesn't care about integrity, honor, or fraud -- just the quality of the work.
And even though Brandon used unlicensed people he left unsupervised (against ROC rules) they said even that they don't have the resources to investigate -- so a license does not protect you against any of this. Brandon made sure the first thing we did was put it in writing that we were terminating as he knew this already. He then made off with our $13K and though we hired him over a month ago we have not seen a penny yet, so we consider this theft. We will now have to pursue him in court unless BuildZoom does the right thing and forces him to refund us everything but the value of the little work that was done which didn't even scratch the surface of the total quoted $26K major construction job.

HIRE BRANDON AT YOUR OWN RISK for small jobs only -- and only if you don't mind someone disorganized who uses unlicensed amateurs and family while he tests the grounds on your home or project. There was no way we were going to let him tear down walls and proceed with all the major work planned when we saw what a fiasco the first two days were for the simplest handyman job that would have cost us about $400 had we simply hired a handyman ourselves. We didn't hire a contractor to send us a handyman at 20x the cost. Now we are out precious money which Brandon apparently spent because his "check is in the mail" claim to both us and BuildZoom a month ago was bogus, as expected. What a nightmare this all has been!