SHARE with us your worst Reno nightmares!!

[TCLW 0]

Currently going through delayed renovation with a forgetful, egoistic and emotional contractor, with massive attitude problems, giving us headaches in every single conversation.  I didn't do my due diligence checking on him via renotalk before selecting him. Turns out someone on renotalk did mention about his attitude problems of late. Now i want to do my part in providing this feedback so that no one else needs to go through this nightmare like us! 

ALAN TAN - AIAN Furniture & Renovation Contractor  

Based on feedback from 2012 - 2015 his quotes were quite competitive and he received decent reviews. But recent reviews has started showing that he is very forgetful and has attitude problems, and that his quotes are no longer as competitive. Details aside, he will always insist he is right and that due to his many years of experience, his way of doing things is the best, hence very close-minded to homeowners preferences. Once he is unhappy because you prefer certain features to be done your way, he will become hostile, arrogant, calculative, very forgetful on what was discussed earlier and emotionally threatening. He also prefers to have total control over the renovation, so that you don't get to have a say in the overall quality, design and outcome. 

I've even heard him multiple times complaining about his other projects to his sub-cons - " this home-owner so particular on fengshui now want this and that, just anyhow do for them la'. I was shocked to hear it because this shows that he only wants to execute based on his own preferences and conveniences, not with serving the interest of the homeowner in mind !  Someone else on renotalk did say that to be satisfied with his work, you've got to be a client who's very easygoing and perhaps ignorant about details. Thinking back, this is so true... 

For now, we still have to 'make him happy' and appease his attitudes in every single conversation so that the house renovation can be completed. Totally avoidable, just don't even consider the contractor mentioned above! Many other decent contractors to consider ! 

Edited July 23, 2018 by TCLW

[ZAYA0530 0]

My Reno started on 18th June.

Reno scope includes: 

1) hacking of toilet and retiling, doing up a new toilet again 

2) redoing 2 bedrooms including extending the floors to the balcony, varnishing the floor and doing all carpentry  in the room. 

Till 24/7, things done were

1) toilet only retiling, glass partition done with defects like 2 tiles crack, glass panel chipped at the corner (ask the contractor to come down to rectify, he says Reno not 100% no defects.)

2) toilet door fixed (before things like cabinet, toilet bowl, basin goes in), toilet bowl and rain shower were put in after he put the toilet door in

3) windows done with poor quality without checking which quality we wanted 

4) floor varnishing done before painting works and wiring completed 

5) all the defects were told by us, he did not come down and check at all, only send his workers down to do work.

Told him to stop everything after doing the toilet portion. Called him to ask him to rectify the problems, he said reno not 100% without defects. Ask us not to be so picky and pick on all these when payment is due. After asking the contractor to stop the works, one day he told the workers to come down to rectify problem (as we refuse final payment without rectification, he just send email saying will be coming down without any time given) without our approval and knowledge enter the house. Called him just to check if he came down to fix as no one knows and saw the workers but the contractor sounds like a gangster and say: the workers enter through the main gate, what’s wrong? What do you want now? Call the police? 

 

Super terrible experience with the contractor. Glad we didn’t continue with his work. He quoted $10K for carpentry, found another carpenter charging only $6.2K and the quality is good! Thankful I didn’t proceed with the previous contractor as his workmanship is really bad! 

 

[Tiler Seng 57]

Becareful of ID firm that provide cheap packages,

they will bait you with:

Cheap Package, free gift, free door gift, free 3D, last day sales, and they will promise you with life-time warranty, they are Castrust and nothing else can be trusted with RMCA logo.

1st meeting, you will feel nothing better then just to pay any amount of deposit to get into their Package contracts, follow by a discussion.

They will cut and paste free 3D for you to feel during the 2nd meet up, and a new Quotation that "requested by you"

the new quotation seems reasonably high, and you may want to reject them and ask for deposit return to you, but sorry they have already done 3D drawings and Package contract has to be continue since you have signed it, you will not be able to take back the deposit in anyway you are just one of the lots, the deposit to them is already enough to cover their "losses"

So you will have to just continue with them and your "sincere" sales person will let you feel that they were just doing their job, OK discount have been given and both couple are happy to continue with them.

Renovation carried out and everything seems on the track, another tactic is payment after one another, and 95% of everything you have will be collected by them for sure before everything has done.

You will then received a shocking "VO" because you "did" asked them to add quite alot of things along the way, example: Drill a pipe hole for $400, and they will really make you and your life partner High-Blood, end up settled with a Good-will discount of $200, not to mention the rest of the items.

End up: they will go through defect list one by one, and you're going to sign on it for full payment after they have done everything in the list.

Thinking to get your lawyer? They are protected by those association where you thought you should be the one being protected, after negotiation,  you will be advised not to write anything about the case on line or even to your family because you have agreed to settle outside court.

These ID film are normally had 30-60 salesman and you can see them everywhere in the newspaper or facebook etc,

the Boss are laughing behind these 30-60 salesman and hundreds of Home Owner, this is the way to do Renovation business nowaday, Copy this write up and forward to all your friends and family cause this type of scam has to be stopped immediately.

 

[Angryowner123 0]

Very very bad experience with my ID. Company ruled by a bunch of inexperience ah bengs and ah lians who banged tables at me when he couldn’t convince us of his illogical thinking. Simple carpentary works took 2 months. And even after 2 months there are still multiple defects which they have been refusing to fix after one month of negotiations. Utter ridiculous. PM me if you want to be careful of such ID. Their office is located inside a pink building in Singapore.

[Tiler Seng 57]

On 10/20/2018 at 10:47 PM, Buns222 said:

Just for sharing!

 

COMPANY: RENOHUB, UEN: 53363614X

PREVIOUS COMPANY: S ILLUSION DESIGN & BUILD, UEN: 201421649G

PREVIOUS COMPANY: S. ILLUSION DESIGN PTE.LTD, UEN: 201310442D

ID: XXX, YYY

please contact me at bunsdance@gmail.com

We are aware that she has been serving her victims with legal letters as follow:

1. instalment plans to settle outstanding refund without any payment done through a law firm

2. threats of legal action on any communication on any public forums/social media on their wrong doings

3.  issuing bounce cheques/future dated TT Transfer

4. Continuously lying and empty promises to clear the debt 

5. Imcomplete works after receiving full payment

we have seeked legal advise and need all affected victims to come together to pursue legal action against them and ensure that justice is being served.

 

I'm sure you are equally affected by this matter emotionally and financially, do let me have your contact details and we can work together to ensure that they get what they deserve and not let others be affected/scam by them again.

I look forward from hearing from you on this.

 

More and more these scammer in Renovation/ ID trade, simple reason:

1. they learned from one another

2. the ID company recruit tons of new Blood every now and where, most 80% of them couldn't survived, part of them turned to be scammer like this, 20% of them retained, part of the genius continue working hard, and part of the genius also turned to be the smart scammer than this.

3. Police couldn't do anything to them and even organisation can't, the most disqualify them as a member

4. They could be suspended by HDB but yet they can "borrow" license from Back Source.

So, is better to check your ID back ground, and even their company & Bosses back ground before you signed the contract, because they can come back to you that their company policy doesn't allow this and that, and hey, is very common   

Edited October 23, 2018 by samkee
Names & photos removed to protect privacy

[Buns222 1]

Common or not, it is wrong and people need to be aware of it.husband and wife duo did not deliver as per contract and had lots of delays.They have been doing it for years and will still continue to do so if nothing is done. No one should go through this emotional frustration and losing their hard earned money.

[ethansee87 0]

Settled with Allterra Design Pte Ltd

 

Edited October 30, 2018 by ethansee87
Case settled

[Tiler Seng 57]

5 hours ago, ethansee87 said:

Engaged this ID alvin 90939959 of Allterra Design Pte Ltd  to do the renovation in July18. Beside some workmanship problem and delay, everything is ok and full payment is made. However 5 days ago, i received a letter from a showroom selling sanitary saying that all the WC,basin, tap and kitchen hob and hood used in my house is not paid. How can that be, i had paid full amount to the ID. I call up Alvin immediately and he said is misunderstanding and he will settle it. Yesterday a debt collector came to my house and wanted to know where is alvin. I call the police to safeguard my family and showed them the invoice and receipt which indicating that all payment is made at my point. He then infd that i am not the only victim. He is collecting debt for another 3 cases. In these cases the ID Alvin had ask for full payment from the house owner and he will settle all the expenses. This is crazy, another SCAM! Will be heading to make a cheating case report. Anyone get into this **** before? 

 

You are considered very lucky that had your house done up, it clearly shown that he did not troubling home owner beside his own finance's problem.

My advise is to wait for awhile for him to settle the sanitary himself since he left you a statement saying that he will settle it, no point wasting your time doing those report, for now.

[stuart 0]

Please do  not ever use EightySeven Studio. They are the most  expensive company arou8nd and  they  100 %  money money money . In the end they will  cheat you  blind  Worst  experience of my life . WARNING USE AT YOUR OWN RISK ... 105k for 3 bed HDB in the end after 70+ initial quote

[Firefly 0]

My advice when choosing contractor which I learned the hard way. Google them to see if got bad reviews. Next check their physical office. If they do not have an office, raise red flag. How to look for them when there is dispute? The registered address in ACRA is only for service only. Think twice using a contractor who has no physical office. 

[Machiam 0]

deleted........

Edited November 3, 2019 by Machiam

[Hayden 0]

My only comfort is knowing that there are so many bad experiences like ours that we can share in. That's a real shame that there is not a proper accreditation body for interior designers in Singapore and there is no quality benchmarks and proper training and ethics in this field... which you would think necessary, for an intimate job as handing someone's home. We reported our interior designer to the police for fraud and cheating and the police said they receive more than 100 calls a month regarding renovators alone. Our mistake was to put too much weight and value on the reviews, the "amazing photography" and the number of Facebook likes. Good reviews and likes can be bought.  Go by word of mouth. Do your homework thoroughly. Be suspicious if they haven't done a job for a while. Check in the CASE website for resources. Don't be afraid to spend time interviewing Ids and dropping those that seem "nice". They are doing a HUGE job for you!  I made a mistake to ignore some bad 2016-2017 reviews about Flipside Design (about their low quality renovation, i.e. doors fell apart, and rude communication, refusal to rectify renovation work) and hired them. I have too many dissatisfactions to list.  Their contract terms are vague from the start and did not include many of the recommended aspects of a good contract, as listed in CASE, such as clear timelines, and spaced out instalments. They had demanded full payment upfront, which CASE had indicated as a big red flag. Please go to CASE for some ideas on what makes a good renovation contract. Their design work was poor and unfinished, resembling a template of sorts, despite our repeated feedback.  Obviously, it was not only money gone down the drain for us, and lots of time and mental health spent chasing them. It was a horrifying experience and I would highly recommend that no one would use them. They are a terrible business in every way, and has no ethics whatsoever. 

[Tiler Seng 57]

1 hour ago, Hayden said:

My only comfort is knowing that there are so many bad experiences like ours that we can share in. That's a real shame that there is not a proper accreditation body for interior designers in Singapore and there is no quality benchmarks and proper training and ethics in this field... which you would think necessary, for an intimate job as handing someone's home. We reported our interior designer to the police for fraud and cheating and the police said they receive more than 100 calls a month regarding renovators alone. Our mistake was to put too much weight and value on the reviews, the "amazing photography" and the number of Facebook likes. Good reviews and likes can be bought.  Go by word of mouth. Do your homework thoroughly. Be suspicious if they haven't done a job for a while. Check in the CASE website for resources. Don't be afraid to spend time interviewing Ids and dropping those that seem "nice". They are doing a HUGE job for you!  I made a mistake to ignore some bad 2016-2017 reviews about Flipside Design (about their low quality renovation, i.e. doors fell apart, and rude communication, refusal to rectify renovation work) and hired them. I have too many dissatisfactions to list.  Their contract terms are vague from the start and did not include many of the recommended aspects of a good contract, as listed in CASE, such as clear timelines, and spaced out instalments. They had demanded full payment upfront, which CASE had indicated as a big red flag. Please go to CASE for some ideas on what makes a good renovation contract. Their design work was poor and unfinished, resembling a template of sorts, despite our repeated feedback.  Obviously, it was not only money gone down the drain for us, and lots of time and mental health spent chasing them. It was a horrifying experience and I would highly recommend that no one would use them. They are a terrible business in every way, and has no ethics whatsoever. 

Hope you can get it over soon and move on 

[Jamesjanise 0]

Hi all,

Need help to deal with irresponsible ID boss who over-promised and under-delivered. After receiving my deposit 15% and first progressive payment 25%, he barely completed hacking/plumbing/electrical/tilling and wet works but was already chasing for second progressive payment of another 25%. On many occasions he cut down on the works promised, threatened to increase price, demanded for full payment and stopped works on site when agreement could not be reached. Not to mention the multiple re-negotiations and delays of more than 3 months. Typical smooth talker who agrees to everything in the beginning just to get you to sign. Once he knows you are locked in, will show true colors. Fired designer halfway without replacement, tells all sorts of sob stories for work delays, didn’t provide work schedule despite chasers, only provided a few 3Ds which were never finalized.

Of course I did not agree to his payment demands but now he turned the tables around and accused me of not making progressive payments on time despite his many reminders and initiated to terminate the contract. Absurd prices were also quoted for the current state of work he deems as completed - amounting to almost 80% of the overall contracted rate. Consequently the work site is left in shambles and open to the elements. Stray cats have entered the premise as it is not cordoned off properly and left faeces behind and mosquitoes have bred. My neighbours have complaint and tried contacting the ID to maintain/clean the work site to no avail. 

The contract/quotation signed is skewed towards his favor. No handover dates and compensation for work delays.

We are no longer on talking terms and I have lost all trust in this particular ID and do not wish for him to continue on my house anymore. Is there any way to seek liquidated damages in the form of delays, loss of use, compensation?

On the other hand, I am having trouble finding another contractor willing to take over the half baked project at reasonable rates. Most are either unwilling to take it on due to the risks involved, or charged rates as if starting from scratch (most of the works especially electrical have to be re-done).

Edited January 6, 2019 by Jamesjanise
Grammer

[shsh 0]

Hi all,

I have a story too and it's still ongoing. ID is not even afraid of small claims tribunal.

 

TL;DR - Ken Tan (Tan Ken Liang, 9***8226) delayed our renovation of a 4 Rm HDB (2 bedrooms without furnishing) by almost 6 months. This delay might have stretched further had I not intervened and paid the carpenter and electrician myself on his behalf. Till today, more than 1 month since we moved in and almost 2 months since I paid on his behalf, he still owes us $7350 in total with no concrete promise of repayment, only delay tactics. Please exercise caution with him if he has approached you as an ID. He switches companies so I have no idea which firm he is with now, but he has a termination record from my investigations.

 

My wife and I were contacted by Ken Tan in early 2017 when we made a request for IDs on renotalk back then. He was representing Se7en ID (no longer). Eventually, because of the *****, we decided to go with him in March, paying the first 15%. We prepaid 2000 for the first 40% out of good will on 6 Jun 2017 because he claimed cashflow problems, and then $15000 as the rest of the first 40% on 28 Jul 2017 to commence works. In 29 Jul 2017 we received the keys to our house and wanted to commence screeding for laying of vinyl flooring. This met with delays and only ended on 11 Nov 2017 which was attributed to HDB's appointed screeding contractor. We took it well, but expected Ken to begin work immediately. Nevertheless, he made excuses that workers were out of town due to the holiday period. We only signed the HDB permit in January 2018 for Ken to begin wall hacking works, meaning from Nov to Jan nothing was done.

 

Then, Ken requested a downpayment of $2040 for electrical works to commence, which we promptly paid on 10 Jan 2018. In the days following, we selected just the master toilet tiles and some water fittings and Ken claimed to have to go for reservist. This brought us to early Feb 2018 already and the hacking was still not done. On 6 Feb, Ken projected completion in end Mar/early Apr. 9 Feb, Ken claimed hacking would be done on 12 and 13 Feb. but when we followed up on 15 Feb it was still not done. He cited 'being busy and held up' as reasons. Hacking works were only confirmed to be done on 23 Feb 2018. We asked him for a schedule of works on 12th Mar, which was never fulfiled. On 13th Mar, he requested for an advance payment of $3000 despite not having done the masonry works yet, which we turned down. 31 Mar we went down to see the house, only to see that nothing much had been done, only the tiling of the master toilet and some minor masonry works. 

 

April came, and the platforming was still under progress on 17 Apr. On 19 Apr we asked about the 3D drawings, which were never shown to us even after the renovation was finished. And on 19 Apr he asked us for the second 40% saying carpentry work was going to start. However, a lot of the flooring and the masonry works were still uncompleted then. We asked him for the schedule again on 19 Apr, which he delayed until 22 Apr and finally only sent on 23 Apr. This schedule depicted that all renovation would end by end May. Seeing this we paid the second 40% on 25 Apr 2018, and asked for a receipt which never came. The vinyl flooring was not completed all the way until 21st May, despite his claim that everything would be done by end May. On 21st May he claimed carpentry was already in progress. On 2nd June we went down, and saw no carpentry. When we confronted Ken, he finally admitted that another carpenter was taking over the work. On 6th June, he said that carpentry would be coming in on the 14th. When we came on 15th, the carpentry was half done and things looked abandoned and untouched for some time. On the 29th he told us his carpenter disappeared. On 2nd July, we met Ken and his new carpenter at the house. We were reassured the work will proceed quickly and yet by 15 July carpentry was still unfinished. When we went up on 18th, we realised virtually nothing was added compared to 2nd July. And Ken still had the cheek to ask us to leave him alone that day. This dragged until 7 August and still the work was not done. On 14 August he said a new carpenter was taking over, yet by 27 August the carpentry was still in shambles and then he said the earliest handover would be Sept 3rd week. On 8 Sept, still not much movement at all and on 17th I was still unable to see good progress and then on 21st October he said carpentry delayed till 1st week Oct. On 24 September, windows were still missing, not a single piece of carpentry was completed and toilet vanity table was not even installed. One week later still nothing done. 

 

October came, and 4th Oct he sent us some pictures of carcasses at the carpenter's factory. Still nothing moved after that and on 7th Oct he asked for the last 5% payment. . By now we had no trust in him and refused to pay. 17th October, still incomplete. On 21st he claimed that the carpenter still couldn't start because he was shifting offices. By now the carpentry had already dragged 2 months. On 24th October he finally admitted that things are not moving because I refused to pay the last 5%. At that point we gave up and through a bit of investigation we found out the carpenter and contacted him directly through phone. This led to the explanation that works were stalled because Ken owed $7000 and by right the works had been possible to be done much earlier before his office moved. But because of this $7000 deficit this work was delayed. Angered by this and Ken's lack of transparency with us, I arranged to meet the carpenter, the electrician (who referred  the carpenter to Ken) and Ken himself on 26 Oct 2018 at my apartment. 

 

Ken brought along a friend, presumably to act as the witness. With all present, I gave my word to the carpenter that I will personally pay him $3000 to restart works, and $4000 when carpentry works have been completed. I would also pay the electrician for the electrical works myself, bypassing Ken. Ken would then reimburse me $3000 first the following week and then $4000 for the carpentry works. Ken will also continue to supply the other missing items, such as timber for our TV console, partition creation, glass works etc. Carpentry works eventually ended on 12 Nov 2018, and electrical works ended soon after. Once again, Ken delayed the supply of glass for my half open kitchen and mirrors amongst other items. He also could not pay up the $3000 despite saying he would do so, and even when the carpenter issued the final invoice for 17 Nov 2018 Ken still refused to pay up. On the 18th, my wife and I had no choice but to move into a semi complete apartment with missing glass works. In the interim, we had to pay the general cleaners $200 on Ken's behalf on 14 Nov as well. This general cleaning was notably done without first having an acid wash as stated in our quotation. Even today our master toilet tiles have unremovable stains which contrast greatly with the tile colour. 

 

On 23 Nov 2018 we got Ken to get his plumber over to take a look as the master toilet vanity table showed some leaking below. The plumber believed that the copper pipes hidden behind the vanity were leaking and this incurred $150 from the carpenter for services rendered to remove and fix back the vanity. During the removal the plumber Ken engaged was unhelpful and late, leading to a lot of unhappiness and lost time. In any case, Ken agreed to bear responsibility for this defect, and rightly so. By now the total amount owed by him was $7350. Originally we had given him till 31st Nov to pay up, but out of goodwill we extended this to 15 Dec 2018 as a hard deadline, failing which we promised to file small claims against him, and also include financial damages due to rental paid because of the 6 month delay (we were staying in a rented unit) to the nominal sum of $2500. 

 

Between 18 Nov and 15 Dec, I had to take it upon myself to correct the numerous defects due to horrible partitioning, plastering and painting. I had to scrape paint droplets off the vinyl flooring, buy wall putty and sandpaper to fill up and smooth out pitting on the walls, and repaint entire walls due to peeling paint and overly thin coats of paint where the white wash beneath could be seen. My decking wood stain was also not done properly, resulting in mutliple dull patches, but out of worry for my unborn child I could not afford to restain the wood.

 

15 Dec came and went and Ken never said a single word nor tried to work out a concrete repayment plan. He showed no remorse in delaying again. So on 15 Dec I filed a case against him. Despite presumably receiving an email and snail mail of the case, Ken said absolutely nothing and remained silent. Meanwhile, we kept having strange beetles appearing in the master bedroom where there were some dried bamboo used as part of the deco. On 25th Dec morning, we were awoken by a relatively loud repetitive snapping sound. I found a beetle biting out a 5mm wide hole in one of the bamboo and trying to crawl out. At this point i contacted Ken to show him the photos and asked him for the contact person of the bamboo supplier, which he ignored. I also asked about the payment, which he just kept brushing aside, saying he would give me a date next Mon. A quarrel ensued over the phone, and he progressively extended the date to "before Chinese New Year" despite me telling him that this amount was saved for my daughter's delivery fees in January. Yes, my wife was pregnant throughout this horrible renovation and yet there was no extra effort from Ken to expedite it. And now he still owes us money and never showed any signs of wanting to pay it, from his lack of initiative to work something concrete since beginning of November when I first paid $3000 on his behalf.

 

I am not sure if I ever will get my money back, but I would like to warn those who have engaged him to be extremely prudent about the renovations. I have heard from his sub-contractors that he may have gambled away our money during the course of renovation, resulting in delays. While I cannot confirm this myself, it seems like a plausible reason for all these delays in renovation and repayment. Ken switches companies and he has been terminated before, so for those who are looking for an ID, please be careful with this person.