Hou Tex General Contractors

Do you work for this business? Unlock this free profile to update company info and see who's viewing your profile.

• By Jaret R.

  April 15, 2019

  Home Addition

  $104,500

  Avoid this company!!!!!!. Hou-Tex, Nino Silvestre, owner, is an untrustworthy company that operates unethically. We signed a contract supposedly to finish out an addition to our house. The contract stated that all materials would be provided, yet into the project Mr. Silvestre repeatedly began requesting that we get certain items and that he would credit back these items at the end of the project. Also into the project every single small change was called a change order and had to paid up front. Mr. Silvestre thrives on making a contract that is not specific enough such that any difference in his mind costs extra.

  One of these "change orders" was done without our consent and we were charged after the fact. The final straw came when despite the contract calling the project turn key, and despite the fact we informed him ahead of time, the water and gas connection to the addition wasn't "included". He informed us that this change order would be $5,500. We decided at this time that we needed to get other estimates and running these new lines. We received 3 bids from licensed plumbers to pull the permits and run the water and gas connections to the addition. Each of the three bids came in at $2,400!!!, needless to say more than twice what Hou-Tex said it would cost.

  We knew at this point that we were being taking for a ride and that Mr. Silvestre was not going to honor the reimbursements properly or finish the project without claiming another dozen things that were not included that are now change orders. We needed to be finished with him. We asked by phone and email for a total account detail and balance at the current time, basically an invoice for the work done and credits for each of the payments received, and materials purchased. A week goes by nothing, Mr. Silvestre had every excuse under the sun, including its tax season and his accountants are busy, it was spring break, etc. We went back on forth with emails, still he refused to produced an overall account statement and provided little or no detail as to what and how he was owed. He produced a few invoices, one of them for tile labor was laughably ridiculous. According to him the labor alone for tiling three small showers and a back splash was $9,000! Thankfully the bank had made us create an itemized list of repairs that put the labor at $1800. Once he realized he wasn't going to coax us out of paying these ridiculous invoices without giving us a list of all invoices to date and payments, and that the bid of repairs provided to the bank he signed and was itemized. He stopped communicating and sent us demand letters. Luckily the agreement the bank made sign had an arbitration clause in it and we are waiting for that process, luckily we didn't let him get ahead of us. Also when we sent him a termination letter, he blacked out the address and wrote no person exists and returned it. Yes he is that guy who think he can avoid things.

  Please trust me when I say this, this guy is scam artist. He will try to smooth talk you out of paying for things that should be included and will thrive on trying to get you to sign a contract with little detail so he can nickel and dime you to death. Avoid Hou-Tex and Nino Silvestre at all costs!!!!

  Read more