Bernal Block Fences & Masonry/Rick Bernal Worse fence contractor ever, fences fell down, stole money from me Phoenix Arizona

I cannot stress enough how BAD of a job this contractor does. I hired him along with 2 of my adjoining neighbors to build 2 full block walls, add 1 course of block to an existing 141' run of block wall, 2 pony walls following the slope of the grade of our land and a new planter box attached to the front of the house.

Initially things seemed OK but on the 3rd day of the job the problems started. Rick Bernal was unable to build a pony wall that followed the slope of the grade of the land. His footers were only about 4-8 inches deep, re-bar was absent, he chopped blocks in half instead of using corner blocks, wire mesh was in many pieces instead of being solid pieces where needed.

I watched him use sand that had been contaminated with cat feces because he dumped it in my front yard without a tarp about 2 weeks prior to starting the job.. He left the sand pile uncovered the entire time. I also watched him add 19 shovels of sand/cat crap to 1 bag of cement in the mixer. When I asked about the sand to cement ration he lied to my face. He didn't know I was watching him from my office window, Needless to say, the cement never firmed up and all of our block walls came crashing down within 2 weeks. (Rick never finished 1 wall or item on our project list.

When I addressed my concerns with him he walked off the job. He then called me the next day demanding payment in full before he would come back and finish the job.I told him that was not happening and that I would persue other means of resolving the issue. 

I had approximately 6 discussions with Rick prior to his starting the job about the need of a building permit. Rick kept telling me that it wasn't needed. At the time Rick attempted our fences he was contracted through the Arizona Registrar of Contractors. When Rick quit on me I told him that I was not going to be extorted for the rest of the money as his performance up to that point was not good. When I tried to address my specific concerns Rick hung up on me.

I ended up taking Rick Bernal to a formal hearing through the ROC (Registrar of Contractors) in Arizona. During the hearing I, acting as my own attorney, showed Rick a pamphlet that the ROC issued on when you need a building permit. Rick was shown this during his questioning. One of the followup questions I asked Rick was, "Now that you have seen the pamphlet on when you need a building permit, if you did the job over again, would you now get a permit"? Rick's response was, "No". I could not believe he said that with a straight face. Our building project absolutely 100% needed a permit.

Rick lost the case/hearing, and the ROC double revoked his license permanently. The double revocation was 1 revocation for me and 1 for the damage he did to one of my neighbors. They fined him over $3,000 payable to us and to this day he has never paid us a dime. The ROC will reinstate his license IF he pays us what he is owed. Rick chooses to just keep building walls without a license. It took a total of 18 months for the disaster to be over and only then could we clean up the disaster area Rick left for us. You can't touch anything until the ROC makes their decision.  I had to hire a dumptruck and backhoe to remove all the block, footers, sand and trash Rick left on my property.  He also left a bag of concrete dye on a vehicle parked in my back yard and the dye stained the pain on the car permanently.  

Things were so bad that our local news station channel 3 (3 on Your Side with Gary Harper) came and did a story on the entire situation because no one had ever seen a block wall sway and move like ours did. Rick did pay up a portion of what we pre-paid to him but only because the news station had a camera on him. They did a total of 2 follow up stories.

Stay away from this nightmare of a contractor.