Vector Exteriors

I copy and past the state AGO filing over here:
Our house is a town house, one of the 6 townhouses built in 2019. We have 3 1/2 bathrooms, but all dark and have no windows, we started to look into the possibility to add windows in August this year, we felt even small windows will add light and improve ventilation. First of all, we tried to reach out to the architectural firm for the blue print, Secondly, we tried to find a contractor, we came across Build zoom, Yuriy Karabut from Vector Exteriors LLC was one of their recommendations.

He stopped by our house to understand the project, and gave us a bid proposal on 8/31, the quoted price was 7800 plus taxes, 30% down, it was for four small sized windows, one for each of the bathrooms and a replacement window for our garage. The impression we had on him was good, he sounded very experienced as he said he has 20 years of construction experience and he built houses so adding windows is a small project to him. In the proposal, he indicated there is no bearing wall touched so no city permit required. He said 30% down because windows cost is around $2000. We think the bid was reasonable and felt lucky that we were able to locate a good contractor that quick.

The architectural who built the town houses in 2019 got back to me on 8/23, they provided me the links to the architectural plan, and also asked the details of the project as they would like to see any impacts it might cause. They said a structural analysis needs be done beforehand. They engaged the structural engineering firm who also did the work when the house was built. On 9/18, they came up the first draft with the specifics on the location and dimensions of the windows as well as implementation details.

I sent over the draft to Yuriy to see if he feels comfortable with the new specifications, he stopped by our house again with the printout of the 9/18 draft, and remeasured accordingly and assured us all can be done, but will give us a new quote. He also said that he will help us on the city permit too as he knows a company just does that, the cost is $300 for submitting the application, but we are responsible to pay the application fee from the city.

The structural engineer put a package together ready for city permit on 10/3. After that, Yuriy and I came up a contract together, and went through it one by one. The contract amount was $8500 plus taxes, we signed on 10/5, per contract 35% due at the signing, so I wrote a check to him in the amount of $3280.

The check went through on 10/6. And things started to turn sour after that. In the contract, we specifically asked that the city permit submission should start right away after signing. when I started to inquire the progress on that, feedback from him was always positive but couldn’t provide me a submission number. Finally I pressed that if I don’t get a number, I would like to start on this myself, so on 10/11, he forwarded me an email from someone (Irina Baranchuk ) with a help request number from the city, and said feel free to call the city myself with that number to find out details. I called on 10/12 and the city told me that number doesn’t mean anything, it’s nothing to do with the submission So I told him what city told me and he got really angry at me for that.

On 10/17, he told me to check with Irina myself although I don’t know her at all, but I did, I sent her an email to inquire the status, but I haven’t heard anything back. So on 10/19, i sent Yuriy an email to inform him that in am not able to get any feedback from her, and asked him to follow if he can after all she is his contact, and if by early next week (10/24), still no feedback on that front, we have to cancel the project.

We anticipated the worst scenario that in the case that city won’t grant us a permit, it is rare but it’s not in our control, so in the contract, it covers the case, the project will be cancelled and our deposit will be returned to us minus the $300 for the submission effort. In this scenario, it can’t even get it submitted. And it’s getting cold, we have to resume it next year.

We called him on 10/24 to inquire about how and when he would like to return the deposit to us. I emailed build zoom to inform them on the cancellation of the project and the reason for that. And on 10/26, I sent him email to let him know that we are ok to take a $300 loss if he paid her for the submission effort. He returned $1400 on 11/3 and said he will return the other half by next week 11/10. On 11/10 we checked with him again, he said by the end of the month. On 11/29, I wrote him another email to remind him tomorrow is the end of the month, and we are average American family, $1400 is a big amount to us, so please return it back to us, otherwise we have to take actions.

I received an email on 12/1 morning from him, he sounds apologetic for the first time, but he said if he can’t return the money today or tomorrow although he has full intention to do that, he will give me money on 12/8 instead. I responded that we can’t postpone it again without conditions as we postponed many times already. if he can’t pay the full amount right now, at least pay a few hundred dollars, if he does that, we can wait for the rest by 12/8. But nothing so far, so this is it. I am disputing the whole amount of $1,880 here, this is what he really owes us.