We R Builders - Trabuco Canyon, California

High Techtransport

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY FOR YOUR CONSTRUCTION PROJECT!!!!
I feel it is my responsibility to leave this review because what this company did to me and my family I want to make sure never happens to anyone ever again.
In 2019 we met nezar who is the owner of this company and for 3 years we worked on drawings for our home addition and adding a pool to our backyard. We gave him a budget since day one as everyone does when bringing on a contractor. Throughout these 3 years we made sure time and time again to confirm these drawings were within our budget and he continued to assure us that it was. During these 3 years anytime we would ask him for a price on the work he kept making excuses saying he is waiting to hear back from the city because there might be some changes and another excuse he often used was he was waiting to hear back from the structural engineer to know the exact material needed for the project and basically told us that he can't give us a price until the city approves the plan and there are no more changes to be made because every change affects the price but he assured us it's within our initial budget. After pulling permits and paying city fees, plan check fees, paying for the architectural drawings and 3D renderings and for the soil engineer etc. which all costed us about $100,000 and was all stamped and approved by the city and now ready to begin construction, I asked nezar to provide me with a contract that had a break down of the price and phase payments that way I can shop around and make sure he was giving us the best price for the construction portion, I was yet again met with more excuses and more promises that it is within the budget but he is just shopping around to get us the best discount on materials. Long story short Nezar broke ground on the pool portion of our project in September 2023 without us signing a contract or us seeing any prices in attempt to corner us into having no choice but to work with him and finish the job. He also violated city rules by not calling them to do a site inspection THAT IS REQUIRED BEFORE BREAKING GROUND ON ANY CONSTRUCTION PROJECT. 2 weeks after breaking ground he sent us a contract with a quote that is 4x more then the budget we gave him to work with and we asked him to immediately stop the project, he began threatening us with letters that said he would put a lien on our home, he went to the city and lied to them saying he never broke ground and that he wants to put a hold on the plans as he owns the designs and no one can use them except him (mind you we paid for these designs and have invoices and emails to prove it) we got bids from multiple contractors and finally found a company to go with and when they went to the city to inform them they are taking over the project the city told them there is a hold on the plans. After briefing the city on the situation they sent their top supervisors to come out to see what he had done. The city assisted us in filing a formal complaint with CSLB and informed us on how massive this responsibility was for us to take these actions to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else. It was in that moment I realized that it truly is my responsibility to make sure others are protected from contractors like this. Mind you our backyard is on a slope so having a hole this size on a slope during the rainy season is a huge safety risk not just for us but also the neighbors below us. We are now $100,000 into this project and are left with a huge hole in our backyard and constant threats from Nezar. I will not sleep until Cslb holds him accountable for these damages because someone who works like this shouldn't have been given a license to begin with.
IF YOU ARE THINKING OF DOING ANY CONSTRUCTION ON YOUR HOME PLEASE LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE AND DO NOT TRUST ANY CONTRACTORS THAT GIVE YOU THE RUN AROUND ON PRICING AND ONLY VERBALLY CONFIRMS TO YOU THAT IT IS WITHIN YOUR BUDGET. MAKE SURE YOU SHOP AROUND FOR MULTIPLE BIDS BEFORE MAKING ANY DECISIONS!