Novatec Construction, Novatech Enterprise, Jay Gozlan, Eli Hamer Contractor promised beautiful, professional construction and provided shoddy work without proper business license and permits RIPOFF Sherman Oaks California

Jay Gozlan and Eli Hamer showed up on 9/14/04 with brochures. I showed them what all needed to be done - alot of termite eaten wood needed to be replaced, and lots of other things, and we agreed on 26,000 to do it all, including Tex Cote which they claim is better than paint. They did not itemize, claiming I was getting a much better deal as package. The termite damage is all along the eaves or facia boards where the roof ends at the edges of the house. We have a comp roof over a wood roof, the wood roof being at least 20 years old, and more likely it's the original roof that came on the house from 40 years ego. The edges are all rotted and termite eaten.

Jay (the leader) and Eli (supposed "manager") said they would replace all the rotten would with new wood. All of it. It would look perfect -- and I would be so pleased. They wrote up a contract to do all of the work. I signed it.

Other things needing fixing that we agreed they would fix:
- back door to garage
- garage door itself (any door or brand I want, and I want Martin, and made this clear. They said that was fine).
- new water heater - and they said it needed to be up on a pedestal off the ground and they would take care of that.
- new water heater closet door
- new window on front of garage (1 big piece of glass - not an opening window - a picture window)
- new back door from kitchen to outside
- new front doors (we have a double-door front door). Made from wood - I think it was oak.
- 2 new side yard outdoor gates
- Tex Cote entire house
- break down pocket door wall near bathroom. Check inside of wall for mold, and replace the wall. Replace pocket
door with regular door.
- Floor in other bathroom has black mold growing. Remove mold and rotted wood, replace wood, and replace vinyl floor
in bathroom.
- Replace kitchen faucet with new faucet and possibly a water purifier - osmosis type perhaps, although I would pick out and pay for these items on my own and only the installation was part of the package.
- Poor some cement on the side of the house to extend the walkway out into the front yard.
- Reinforce the shelves in the garage.

The above is all described in the contract.

We agreed on $26,000 for all, with a $1000 down payment, two payments of $7500 and two of $5000 to be given to them
in stages along the way when I was satisfied with their work. I gave them my father's visa card info and signed a Visa card slip for a $1000 down payment.

Two days later when they called I told Eli I was unfortable with our arrangement. I was thinking the package was too big. He assured me again that everything was going to be fine and I would love what they were going to do to the house. I was going to love it so much that I would want to hire them to do the interior next.

Jay later called and said he couldn't get the Martin garage door, and the one I wanted was clearly marked in the Martin brochure as $1100, so we agreed I would buy the Martin on my own and we would subtract 1100 from the 26,000. He tried to sell me the Able garage door saying it was much better than the Martin. I've seen both - the Martin is the only garage door manufacturer in the US with ISO 9000 rating and the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. The Able does not, and costs less than half of the Martin.

On Friday Jay and Eli arrived with 2 or 3 others and a new Rheem water heater. They installed it very quickly and it looked very well done to me, although it wasn't on a pedestal. I didn't say anything about it. I figured perhaps it didn't actually need to be on one since it was in an outside closet. I was very pleased and impressed by their quick and nice looking work. I never saw the guys again who put in the water heater. They did tell me they were plumbers.

Later I found out that the heater should be up off the ground at least 3 inches, and that they were suposed to pull a permit with the city for it. The hose for the gas is too short, and if it were to move in an earthquake has no room to give and will instead break. I have the city coming out on Oct. 5 to verify this.



Also that day one of their crew tore out more of the old gates to make way for the new ones. That day Jay and Eli came by to see their work. They lit up cigarettes in the back yard. I found a glass jar for them and told them it was to be their ashtray and to please use it when they need to throw their cigarettes out. (The following week I gave another worker another glass jar for the front of the house). I signed another visa card slip for the next payment of $7500 on my father's visa card.

The next time they came Joe came with a Mexican worked named "Otto" (I think), and started building the gates. They also worked on reinforcing the garage. I was happy with the water heater and the fast tear-off of the old gates, so I was glad for them to proceed. They did an ok job with the garage although what they did made it a little more difficult to get a long car into the garage.

The first gate went up and at first glance seemed ok, except that it didn't have a handle like the one we used to have (and like most of the ones in our neighborhood). I couldn't reach over it to unhatch it. Joe said he was going to drill a hole throught it and put a wire. He eventually did drill a hole and put a very flimsey looking string. The latch on the gate sticks out a eye level for a 5ft tall person and looks quite dangerous and needs to be removed. There still is no handle. Later I noticed that the back of the gate looks like a hodge-podge of wood pieces arrange on the back, ostensibly to hold it together: however, this type of gate is usually done with a Z pattern of wood on the back, not a hodge-podge. I also noticed the 2nd gate was 6 feet tall in an opening 5 feet tall, replacing a 5 foot gate, next to the neighbors 5 foot gate. I complained to Joe, then later to Jay and Eli, and they talked me into keeping it 6 feet because it's the "new" style offering more "privacy".







I also noticed that the gates opened out instead of in the way they used to. This means that on the side where we keep the trash cans the gate can't open very widely because it hits the roots of a vine that has been there 30 or more years. With the gate opening out the huge trash can needs to be dragged through the plants on the other side of the walk to make it through the gate. When I complained about this, and offered them the opportunity to fix it, they insisted that city fire codes required that fences open out. When I called the City of Long Beach to inquire about this rule, they told me there was no such rule.

Other gate problems: One gate has a bolt on the side that hits the wood on the gate when it closes. The other gate has screws that should be lined up across but instead are spewed at random.



That same day I called the Long Beach City business licence office and asked them to check to see if Novatec had a business licence in Long Beach, and I was informed that they didn't. According to Title 5 of the Long Beach Municipal code, it is a misdemeaner in Long Beach to operate a business such as this, punishable with a fine up to $1000 and/or jail time.

I also suspect that the people working on my property - Joe and Otto, were not really employees in the legal sense of the word, but instead some kind of contract workers. In other words possibly not covered by their insurance.

When my handyman Scott came by to see their work, he noticed that they had ordered the wrong size window for the garage window, and this was later confirmed by Rob DePass of Windor (they installed our other windows). You can easily see lite coming in all side of the installed window. There is only caulking on one side of the window, the bottom, and when it rains it looks like it will leaks. This also was not the window I requested - the picture window, but instead as a horizontal, two-piece slider. They again sweet-talked me into keeping it, saying that it was really much better than the picture window because you could open it. Also, if a child's ball ever broke it it would be cheaper to fix. I hence agreed to keep the window that I never really ordered.

Scott also noticed the door on the garage had visible light coming in on all sides of the door.

The next problem was the door that arrived to replace the back kitchen door. This door was clearly a super-cheap door made out of particle-board. One person that has seen it said it looked like it was torn out of a mobile home somewhere and brought over here. It was scratched and had brown spots on it. I was furious. It looked like a used-door, a reject from another site. Plus, it had no dimension to it - no moldings, just flat. I complained to Jay and Eli about this. They explained to me that it was better than the door we had (a real wood door) because it was stronger and could not be easily punctured with a kick from the foot or fist. They eventually wore me down and I allowed them to install it.

While he was working on the back door I went back to check his progress and saw the black pry bar I had brought with me from my house in Santa Clara. There it was on the ground near the back door. It had been hanging in the garage where they were working. I knew it was mine because it had the same coloring - dark new back paint and white caulking smears. I never saw my pry bar again. It's disappeared with them that day and I haven't seen it since.

They cut the door to fit, and ripped off some wood from the bottom in their haste. They also ripped off some of the particle board near the door handle drilling that hole. Then to get it to fit right, they had to sand the top a little. Except they sanded the wrong side -- and made a big gap in the top where the door closes. Then they replaced the sash with just a big piece of wood, not a real sash. They put the cheapest door hardware on that they could find. They also messed up the hinges on the door - two pins push down, one pushes up.

They attemped to replace some of the facia boards on the house. They cut parts off, replaced them and they look very hokey. It's a mess and needs to redone by a real professional. On Weds. Sept 29 when they were leaving, Joe told me he was all finished with the outside and only needed to paint the bathroom wall, and he was done. I was incredulous -- the facia board work wasn't even a third done in my mind. I took him around and showed him. This was the third time I had shown them where it was rotted and need to be replaced. He assured me it would all be taken care of and left.

The bathroom wall was ripped out. They let me look and I saw no mold. Then they plastered the wall up and said it would take 24 hours to dry. As it was drying it started turning more and more orange. No white paint is going to cover that orange. Also, it's very uneven and dips inwards. The walls we have are thick plaster walls, and he replaced it with a big piece of thin, cheesey drywall. He threw away the molding from the bottom edge, and didn't bother to replace it.

The door that was brought in to replace the slider was also the cheapest thing around. All the rest of the doors in the house have a wood veneer layer. This things is plain. No wood veneer. We have had the interior doors replaced before, and contractors have always known to replace them with doors that match the other doors in the house.

While gardening, I started finding cigarette buts everywhere - in the dirt, in the plants, everywhere except for two places - the two glass jars I gave them for the cigarette butts.

After the handyman came by and gave his opinion, I had a licenced home inspector come by as well. They both agreed that I had been taken. and that I shouldn't allow them to do any more work. The next day when the guy arrived to install the linoleum (a day early - no appointment that day) I sent him away. I also called Novatec and asked that my stolen pry bar be returned.

At this point in time everything they've done at least has problems - some larger than others. The gates need to be fixed and maybe replaced altogether. The back door definitely needs to be replaced. The water heater needs to be reinstalled up 3 inches, with a new gas hose of proper length. A permit needs to be pulled for the water heater. All the facia board work probably needs to be redone because the wrotten wood above it wasn't removed. The door in the garage is ok but needs to be sealed all the way around. The window *might* be ok - I need more professional opinions, but if it stays it needs sealing.

The bathroom wall needs to be redone altogether and an appropriate door needs to be put in. A permit needs to be pulled for that too.

They've stolen my property (he knew that wasn't his pry bar) and littered our property with cigarette butts. I gave them several opportunites to fix things (the door, the window, the facia board, the gates). Each time instead of fixing the problem, they sweet-talked me into keeping what we had.

My Mother just died in Febuary. We ran her obituary in the Long Beach Press Telegram in March. I started getting calls from Novatec just after that in April. I suspect these guys prey on people with recently deceased family members, knowing they are overwhelmed and easily persuaded by people pretending to be helpful. That's where I was when they called.

Jay told me his father is the one with the contractor's licence but I never got the feeling the father was at all involved in the work on my house. The father's name is Judas Gozlan. I asked how many employees they had and they said "85". I seriously doubt this now.

I offered to let them put a sign up in front of the house advertising their business while they work. They declined my offer, saying that it would be a hassle for me because people would knock on the door and want to see their work (I didn't have this supposed problem when Windor put up their sign, or my roofers up north). Anyway, later I figured out they didn't want to do that because they had other unhappy customers in the neighborhood.

Everything was supposed to be as nice or nicer than what we had. They assured me it would all be beautiful and I would love it, and I would be so pleased that we would want to hire them to do more work inside the house. I don't want them touching this property again, and I don't want to talk to them either -- because they are such superb con men.

I don't have a problem paying them for whatever part of what they did that we want to keep. So far, that perhaps the work in the garage, and the water heater - minus the installation of the water heater because it looks as though that needs to be redone. They can have their silly looking gates back, the ugly-ducking back door from the trailer park, and the window that neither fits nor is the one I ordered. I haven't gotten estimates yet on what they did to the bathroom wall. Perhaps it didn't really need to be torn out completely to check for mold - I suspect a real professional would have had a different solution.

Nancy
Long Beach, California
U.S.A.