ADE Construction/Anthony DiSimone/John Gregor Kohn THUGS & RIP-OFF ARTISTS Ft. Lauderdale Florida

Let this be a warning against hiring ADE Construction (Ft. Lauderdale) for a home remodeling project!! When we checked on ADE's reputation, everything seemed to be in order and aboveboard.  Since then (Fall 2013), the Internet has been peppered  with complaints just like ours.  (For example, see the South Florida Better Business Bureau site.  Although most of the complaints to the BBB are now deleted, it states that it has revoked ADE's accreditation due to a large number of consumer reports against the company.  http://www.bbb.org/south-east-florida.)

ADE and the people behind it -- license-holder Anthony DiSimone and contractor  "John" Gregor Kohn -- deserve to be put out of business and behind bars.  ADE literally took our money (thousands borrowed from the bank, no less) and then failed to perform the work for which we had paid.

Our trouble began with daughter Chelsea Kohn who made up some feeble excuses regarding the delays in obtaining permits.  We never had confidence in her "design", which looked like a childish drawing.  Getting ADE to schedule our two projects -- each a bathroom remodeling -- was close to impossible. In several instances, the work was shoddy and the workers made a mess of our home and patio  -- a mess they never cleaned up.

Our written "agreement" specified that the 1st project would be completed by Thanksgiving and the 2nd by Christmas.  We were very specific about this with "John" Kohn and explained that we had out-of-town company coming for both holidays and thus would need all facilities available.  ADE simply ignored us after it took our checks.  We had to put our visitors up in hotels.  Our holidays were ruined by ADE and its fraudulent, lying ways.

ADE is the most uncooperative and dishonest company we have ever dealt with.   We had to call every morning to find out if we would have workers on site.  The office staff often told us to expect a worker but then no one showed up. It was a big brush-off.  Coordination was completely lacking.  The so-called "project manager", Tony Petrucelli, was arrogant, rude and bordered on threatening.  When he came to our home and demanded more money -- in advance of  what our written "agreement" required -- we refused because so little work had been done in 3+ months.  In retaliation, he pulled the entire crew off our first project just one week before Christmas and left us with a huge and horrible mess, including a toilet sitting next to our pool and no outisde door to the cabana bathroom.

Needless to say, we had to hire another contractor to finish the 1st project and to do the 2d one.  This piled more expenses on us, including new permits and the cabinets for which we had paid but ADE never ordered. 

We alerted Anthony DiSimone via certified mail on two occasions as to what Kohn was doing under the auspices of his license.  He signed for the letters but ignored us.  DiSimone holds a General Contractor License from the State of Florida which is up for renewal in August 2014.  We have filed a complaint with the Florida Dept. of Business & Professional Regulation, seeking the revocation of his license.  If your experience is similar to ours, you may also file a complaint.  See www.MyFloridalicense.com.