Jaf Group

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

• By C.goins S.

  March 22, 2017

  Home Remodel

  $150,000

  45 days

  I have struggled to get to the point of writing this review of JAF Group Incorporated and GRS 203K Consulting because I typically do not have the time or energy to sit down and write long reviews. However, my recent frustration with these two so-called businesses has hit an all time high and I do not want anyone to ever go through what my partner and I have experienced. Furthermore, it hurts that there are people out here disguising themselves as professionals that are attempting to disrupt people’s lives and their livelihood. The owners of JAF Group and GRS Consulting are Gerald Stewart and Corey Baker. My saga begins in the summer of 2016, when my partner and I decided to invest nearly $150K in rehabbing a beautiful Chicago greystone that was built in 1888. Obviously, we were soliciting a general contractor and Gerald quickly answered the call. He met us and we were impressed with his professionalism and knowledge of the property. We were novice to the rehab process and were only HGTV experts. He calmed our fears and made us feel safe because he was a FHA Inspector and Consultant as well. Nonetheless, we chose him/JAF Group as our general contractor and were happy that we had closed the deal very soon. The beginning was truly a short-lived honeymoon and the only time that we were happy with Gerald’s service.

  From the onset, we noticed an issue with communication from Gerald. He was always vague and slow to respond to requests for meetings to discuss the project with our architect, my partner and I. His excuse was that he couldn’t meet with us because he was an assistant basketball coach for a girl’s basketball team. In fact, we never held a meeting to review the budget, develop a timeline, discuss expectations for communication, nor talk about what our (the customer) wishes were for the project. All the while Gerald had his team in our house doing demolition. After a few weeks of demolition, we finally got him to meet at the property to do a walk through and this when things got ugly.

  We surprised him and brought our site certified architect along with us to do the walk through. This meeting wasn’t pretty because we started to notice some striking inconsistencies with what Gerald was saying about the scope of the work. He mentioned that we would have to dip into the contingency fund to pay for new piping that was in the basement. Even though our drawings and plans state that all piping should be replaced, Gerald said this was false. Although our plans state that all ductwork should be replaced throughout the entire house and in the basement where we are adamant about building a new bedroom, Gerald stated that it didn’t’ include rerouting it and that we would have to pay for it. Despite our plans conveying that the tile in the basement would be replaced, Gerald said that he wasn’t going to do it or we’d have to pay for it. Our plans show multiple light fixtures throughout the house; however, his response was that he was only going to do 10 light fixtures. He also mysteriously removed painting from the proposal too and said that he was only going to prime the walls. At this point, we knew that something was wrong, but we were willing to give him another chance to turn things around. I now see, that this was the point when he new we were hip to his shenanigans.

  After the meeting we followed up, in writing, with specific action items and documentation to demonstrate that he was wrong about his claims to make more money. We gave him several days to respond and even went on vacation, but heard nothing from him. Meanwhile, we decided to seek counsel from some friends in the contracting business and the plot thickens. On the day that we decided to take our friends by the house, we received a strange call from Gerald saying that ComEd had come out disconnected the power. He asked for us to call ComEd to see what happened. I called them immediately, only to discover that they did not disconnect anything at the house. Once we arrived at the house with our friends, they noticed that someone intentionally cut the electrical wires throughout the house. Since then, I have learned that contractors will do this in an effort to make more money. Our friends then noticed that the demolition was only 50% complete, but Gerald had started building the new stairs and cutting into the floor. Furthermore, it was confirmed that he had installed ceiling joist incorrectly, which would have caved in our floor once we moved in. Due to the lack of response on our action items, the electrical lie and the joist being installed incorrectly, we decided to fire Gerald Stewart and Corey Baker immediately.

  Gerald Stewart and Corey Baker are crooks that do know what they are doing but they use this knowledge to take advantage of people who do not know. Please avoid working with them. At our exit meeting to decide what they should be compensated for, they were still trying to get paid for services they did not render.

  Read more
• By Joshua H.

  March 21, 2016

  Home remodel

  $34,000

  120 days

  It was a fight to get them to complete the jobs I contracted them for. The contractor would have the workers do the work and never come by to check to see if the work was complete or even done right. He would just send me a bill saying the work was complete even if it wasn't.

  For example, I had brick repair done and afterwards I was repairing an internal wall and I could see daylight from inside my house through the "repaired" brick.

  Also the contract said that all work would be up to building codes. But when the workers didn't do something up to building codes the contractor would just say that the missing work wasn't explicitly stated in the contract and wanted to charge me more to get the work up to building codes.

  In the end I paid them just to get rid of them out of my life.