Welcome to my blog. In my blog, I will be discussing about Howard N. Abbott III that we have hired on September 2009 in Burlington, Iowa. Mr. Abbott is a 32-year-old man that works with a contracting business called Midwest Builders in
Ottumwa, Iowa. At the time, we were given very little information about this man.
We hired him to replace both of our back porches. The cost for the front and back porches would be $2500 per porch. Once he had started the construction, he changed the price for the back porch from being $2500 to $3600. So he continued his construction. He was hired to work on the porches, clean up the mess that he left, and plant some grass seed on our front yard. Unfortunately, he never came back to finish the job.
As the weeks gone by, he skipped more and more days to come to work. Eventually, he stopped coming all together, with very little information of where he is exactly. He told us that because he doesn't have the money to pay some of his things off, he wouldn't be able to come down. He also mentions that he moved into Richland, Iowa. That story, however, wasn't true.
Once he stopped coming back, I began doing some research of where he is exactly. I came across to where he is living, where he is working, etc. Afterward, I filed a 2-page complaint, with evidence to the Better Business Bureau. I have gotten calls back and forth from the bureau and gave me some updates and asked me some questions. Around late February, I received a letter from the bureau stating that they will give him until the 8th of March to respond. When I called on the 8th, the person in charge of the case told me that they will give them another week to respond. After about a week, I called them back. The person told me that Abbott wasn't working there anymore. The problem is that he is the owner of the company. Last Thursday, I received a letter from the bureau telling me that they have contacted them multiple times and that they will drop the case because they cannot be contacted. So I have decide to leave a message to them about it. There was no response from them the next day. I decided to call the number again to see if it works. The number doesn't seem to work at all and yet the website was still up. Tonight, I got a phone call from an unexpected person. It was Howard Abbott himself. He told me that he will be down here next week to tear down the back porch and re-build it. He never mentioned about me reporting him or having to finish the other jobs and to fix the damages. Oddly enough, the number that he called here on was from the exact same town as where the business is located.
In the months that lead up of him working on the porches, he had made numerous damages on our kitchen wall, failed to finish both the porches, left a huge mess of wood, nails, and bricks all over the yard and sidewalks, and a number of different things. Here are the photos that shows the damages that he has done.
Some old boards from the old back porch laying on the ground. Part of his job was to remove all of the junk that he left behind. He has though took some of it, but left a large portion to rot.
In this photo shows our old steps that he did not move.
Here is where a large portion of the wood was. There were many bricks, nails, pieces of wood, etc. Some of the dirt wasn't put back from underneath the porch. He was suppose to also plant some grass seeds in this spot.
This shows just part of the damages that he made on our kitchen wall. This was caused by him forcing the roof off by jerking it up and down. I told him to stuff as it would damage the house. He refused to listen and continued anyway.
Here shows more junk that he left behind.
This was a piece of the board that he left on the house to protect the window from being smashed.
Here shows one of the spots that he hasn't filled the bottom part with dirt.
All of these pieces of wood that is laying against the house, except for the largest piece, I have picked up from the sidewalk shortly before it snowed.
Here shows the back porch with a huge gap that he left behind.
Here shows the unfinished back porch.
