Hilikar Company

Hired Hilikar in January 2022 for a full basement remodel and construction of a carport at a cost of $105,745.50. They have been paid $52,159.02 and now abandoned the project. The only things that have been started are architectural drawings, partial demo of the basement and excavation of the backyard despite being paid for work to begin on I-beam, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, concrete, and framing and to date, none of this work has been started.
Throughout the project, he made empty promises of showing up and was a “no show, no call” dozens of times. We would follow up via calls, texts and emails with no response.
The carport permit had to be resubmitted twice because the drawings did not meet the easily available requirements set forth by the City of St. louis and available online and we still do not possess the permit.
From April to September, absolutely nothing was done to either the basement or carport. In September, they hired a one man “crew” to remove a section of load bearing brick wall from the basement that was holding up our 3 story house. The temp 2x4 supports they used were not designed by an engineer or inspected by the city so we have no idea if they are sufficient. The cracks we are starting to notice in the stories above it, indicate they are not. This sub-contracter took his tools and left town.
Even as recently as 10/14/22, Hilikar had the nerve to ask for more money even though they were not doing anything on our job. They tried to double bill us to start the basement plumbing, which we already paid in September.
The GC, Jay Johnson, refuses to take any accountability for the issues. He told us that subcontractors showing up to the house for consultations, constitutes “starting”, it does not. He claims that we kept making changes to the design, however we have made zero design changes since 7/8/22.
Hilikar has now abandoned our project, with our money, and left us in a potentially unsafe condition for which they are liable for.