Moosehill Development Corp. Stephen L. Benoit, Moosehill Poor communication, bogus charges, 4 months delay and a big bully attitude. Norfolk, Massachusetts

The builder is a crook.  The completion of our new construction was delayed by about 4 months and we were repeatedly shocked by inflated invoices ($45k in total). 

Towards the end, the relationship between us was so bad that we ended up firing him and completing the project on our own.  

We encountered a lot of issues along the way, on top of the lists were:   

-Poor communication. The builder never responded to his emails unless he wanted money from you. 

-Demanded to get paid before each phase was complete. You would always hear from him the day that the bank disbursed the funds.

-Never provided quotes before extra work was done, then made up inflated numbers later.  He ignored our requests to put the estimates in writing.  His own 'contractor's agreement' stated that all extras must be put in writing.

-Ignored our requests (15+ times) to get the amounts for the basic allowances so that we can shop for the fixtures accordingly. Also, his final invoice did not give us the full credit for the basic allowances. 

-Added a 20% surcharge to all extra work, but he can not show you the original invoices that he's adding the 20% to and did not tell his clients of this surcharge.

-Did not finish the job.  There were about a dozen items on the punch list - with an estimated cost of $10k to complete.

-Did not clean up the job site.

-Big bully attitude.  In any disagreements, he would just raise his voice, talk over you and not listen.

He was knocking on my front door 3 days after his office provided me with the final bill and demanded to get paid in full.  By then, I have already sent him the settlement check to his office via certified mail

with detailed documents to support my position.  He wasn't happy, raised his voice, insisted that his numbers were correct and hasn't lost a lawsuit yet.

I've consulted an attorney who specialized in builder disputes.  Her (very wise) advice to me is to always settle this out of court as it gets very expensive and there will be a lot of he said/she said.

But since I can fully substantiate my position, she believes I stand an excellent chance of winning if this end up in trail.  However, this case will most likely end up in arbitration - but would still would be very stressful and time consuming for both parties. But if he does put a lien on my house and if I win, then the builder pays treble damage under the consumer protection laws - so I'm willing to take my chances and hope this serves as a lesson to the big bully.

I hope this helps other (potential) buyers in their decision to work with Moosehill Development Corp.