The contractor was RVH Construction, Inc. of Fredericton, New Brunswick. The president of the company, and the person with whom I initially worked, is Jason Friars. Most of the actual hands-on work - the poor craftsmanship you see here - was done by his employee, David Primrose, of Geary, NB.
Because Jason Friars developed some personal problems, his brother, Darcy Friars, took over the project in early November 2008. On 22 January 2009, Darcy Friars agreed to a variety of completion items (e.g., parging of the foundation) that couldn't be done until spring and to a variety of repair items (e.g., the bathroom tile). That afternoon, Jason Friars said that they would do none of those things, presented my lawyer with a false invoice for alleged extras, and placed a lien on the house. In addition, at that point he owed 6-7 sub-contractors, one of whom has also filed a lien that has since been withdrawn.
They walked away leaving many things undone. They left the materials for finishing the entryway tile right in front of the door. They left the special caulk under the stairs for "later." They left the porch light sitting in its box. And, they left lots and lots of debris.
There appears to be no protection for the homeowner. Contractors and subcontractors have the Mechanics' Lien Act, a statute which, while good in theory, can easily be abused to the disadvantage of the homeowner who, in theory, it is partially meant to protect. Even a lawyer told me that we had little chance of recovery because, after all, "You have a house."
Yes, we have a house. We have a house on which we pay a mortgage, for which the builder received 96.7% of the funds. What's left in trust does not cover the thousands of dollars of completion and repair items. We have a house that, if we don't find the means to complete, will suffer premature degradation of product.
We spent three years waiting for permanent residency visas so that we could immigrate to Canada. We visited Winnipeg, Victoria, Thunder Bay, Vancouver, Kelowna, Toronto, Halifax, and Fredericton. We chose Fredericton. We have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the economy of New Brunswick. The photos on this site show you a sample of what we've received in return.
Welcome to New Brunswick.