Northwest Georgia Contracting

Beware of Andy Ledbetter!!! Run don't walk and never let him build anything for you!!! I would not hire Andy D Ledbetter for dog catcher.This man has stolen $38,369.18 from me. I hired him to do an addition on my home and signed a contract 7/5/16 to be completed in 90 business days and as of Nov. 18th the structure still had no roof. I fired him for non-performance, lack of oversight, and shoddy workmanship. I have documentation from the beginning detailing problems and unresolved issues with this charlatan who was totally unresponsive, unavailable, and without the where withal to manage his crew of ragtag so called carpenters. The county inspector came out and said this work would not pass inspection and I needed to hire a Professional Engineer to inspect the structure. This structure is unsafe, not to code, and the recommendation is to tear it down to the ground. There are so many code violations there is no repairing to make it fit for habitation. Andy Ledbetter is a crook. I gave him many chances to make it right and he has just ignored all efforts at this point to man up, be the Christian he professes to be and return what he owes me. I am going to do my best to have his license before this is over. I don't know how he sleeps at night or looks at himself in the mirror.

I am attaching a letter that I wrote to Mr. Ledbetter on 11/17 and sent certified/registered mail and through regular mail to his home and his business. He has yet to reply. This letter has been sent 3 times.

November 17, 2016

Mr. Andy Ledbetter
Northwest Georgia Contracting, LLC
2033 Sweetwater Church Road
Douglasville, GA 30134

RE: Home Addition at 825 Cohran Store Road, Douglasville, GA

Dear Andy,

The purpose of this letter is to notify you that as of November 15, 2016 I am discontinuing our contract, per my right in the contract due to lack of progress, lack of supervision, and poor quality workmanship. The notification is in accordance with Article 6, section Termination or Suspension, of the contract which states that “The Contract may be terminated by the Owner or the Contractor as provided in Article 14 of AIA document A201-1997”. No crew should attempt to come onto this property upon receipt of this letter. I would like to explain the three main points resulting in this decision.

First, Article 3.3 of the contract states that “The contractor shall achieve Substantial Completion of the entire Work not later than 90 working days from the commencement, or as follows: (Insert number of calendar days…..). There have been no amendments to this point by either party prior to my request on Oct. 15th. In my letters of September 28th and Oct. 15th I have expressed my concern with the progress of this construction. In the last 6 weeks, very little work has been done and no one shows up regularly and makes progress and I have not seen you supervising the project. I have given you 3 times as the professional to get this job back on track and get it completed. On Oct. 15th, I requested a timeline be submitted by Oct. 18th. It was received on Nov. 9th with a completion of this project not until January 20, 2017! This is totally unacceptable! It is unacceptable to be 90 days late on a 90-day project. This means you missed your own time line by 100%. I also worry even this timeline is not going to happen and I must move forward and protect my home and investment.

Secondly, Supervision/Oversight. Your lack of supervision has led to a lack of progress. Over the course of the work there have been 2 site managers and 3 different groups of workers. The first crew with site manager, Toby, had a revolving door of different day laborers to work including one man named Rick. And you indicated that you didn’t know who he was. This revelation clearly shows that you have not had any concern for what has been happening on this job. After threatening to fire you then, I demanded that Toby be fired for you to continue with a commitment to move forward with more skilled workers. Unfortunately, your inability to be available to inspect and/or manage the people you have hired to work have convinced me that my home addition has never been a priority for you even with the conversation, letters, and meetings.

Third, Non-performance/Quality of Work. You committed to have someone working every day for the duration of this project. There have been less than 7 total weeks with someone on site. July 7th to November 7th is 4 months and adding 1 more week makes 17 weeks. This means that only 7 out of 17 weeks has work been performed. This project has been dormant more than active under your supervision!

Additionally, most of the time this was without a site manager. Coupled with so many different day laborers without constant supervision the quality of work has been greatly sacrificed. The integrity with which this construction has been built has resulted in an unsound structure. You continue to make promises to fix mistakes and/or complete unfinished work, yet you keep moving forward with new phases leaving mistakes in place and not corrected. You’ve known this has been unacceptable to me and has forced me into this decision.

I want you to know that I had the Paulding County inspector out to see the quality of work completed by Northwest Georgia Contracting, LLC. He is requiring that I hire a PE to do a home inspection. Additionally, he stated this work will not pass inspection in its current state, having many code violations. I will share a copy of the PE’s report with the recommended changes. I expect you to compensate me for all additional costs needed to address poor quality and non-code compliant work.

Andy, again I am asking that you provide the following:

1) $-Cost of grading – what did you bid
2) $-Cost of footings
3) $-Cost of foundation and vents and waterproofing
4) $-Cost of framing and sheathing to date; including floor joists, outside band, outside walls, and 2 interior walls
5) $-Cost of sheathing

These costs must not reflect any additional costs incurred for required replacement materials you had to purchase due to poor construction by your workers. I also expect a full refund of all payments from me to you in access of completed code compliant work.

Article 5.1.4 states that “Application of Payments shall be based on the most recent schedule of values submitted by the Contractor in accordance with the Contract Documents.” Further, this schedule is to be supported by such data to substantiate its accuracy. Andy, in good faith I paid you the sum of $38,369.58 as the first draw for work to begin. I want an accurate and itemized listing of all your expenses to date supported with the appropriate documentation to reconcile this business transaction so that a reimbursement of funds can be returned to me.

I am so sorry that it has come to this, however, due to the ongoing issues of poor quality coupled with the ridiculously slow progress than promised and contractually agreed to, I cannot continue with NWGC. Empty promises no longer mean much. A resolution is required by Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016 to bring this situation to a close. I want to believe that I can set a date for your response and that you will honor it to avoid legal action in the future. I pray that we can work through these current situations.

This letter is also being sent by registered, certified mail as well as regular mail.

Sincerely,

Freida St. Germain