Kirk Ruark dba American Excavators LLC proposed work not finished per written contract Tecumseh Oklahoma

On 5/31/16, Kirk Ruark, owner/opr of Amercian Excavators, LLC, made a written contract with my wife and me to do work on our property at 36162 CR 1440, Sasakwa, OK.  The work was to include removal of approx 20 large dead trees, removal of stumps also, and dead trees to be disposed of on property.  Gravel road up to house was to be re-graded and smoothed due to deterioration from water runoff after storms.  Total  price agreed upon was $7,900.00;  $3,950.00 was paid at that time, with the balance to be paid when work was finished. Work was to begin on 6/6/16.  On June 22, 2016, Mr. Ruark contacted us saying that there were 10 more trees which needed to be removed, steel culverts, french drain, and additional rock to be added to work for an additional $3,200.00. He came to our home in Sherman, TX, and we paid the additional $3,200. to him at that time. 

On 7/24/16, my wife and I met Mr Ruark at our home in Sasakwa to view the work that had been done, and we were surprised that trees, and stumps had not been fully removed per the contract.  Also, the road work was not finished off properly, with a large culvert at the front gate left half way uncovered, making it impossible to use the right side of the gate/road.   Mr. Ruark explained his wife had been very ill, and in the hospital.  He also explained he could not remove the stumps from the rocky terrain, and it would be better to let the stumps rot for a few months, and then pull them up.  As we certainly understood him being behind because of his wife's illness, we went along with this proposal to finish the work at a later date, and paid the final payment of the original contract of $3,950.00.  We also had a 3rd contract to finalize all the work remaining. He also asked us to go ahead, and give him a good review in Home Advisors;  as we had no problems with him until this point, we sent a very good review, which we later had to rescind.

In September, the road began to fail, and he had not straightened out the culvert area as promised to do, so we began calling him.  He finally came back to clean up the debris he had left from the summer, but did not correct the culvert area.  Off and on all through the fall of 2016, and then in 2017, we exchanged calls and e-mails, many which he did not respond to until he finally just told us he couldn't come back to finish the contracted work.  We offered several different options to him to at least make the work complete, i.e., give part of the money paid to him back so we could hire another contractor, he could hire someone to finish the work, or we would work with him to finish the work.   He finally just told us to "Do what you have to do", that he did not intend to come back, and was going to file bankruptcy, and would send us the paperwork.

As we are elderly, and I am a 100% disabled combat veteran, we feel that we were taken advantage of because Mr. Ruark was very nice, congenial, and tried to be a concerned friend before all the payments were made to him, then completely turned against us afterward.  As our property in Sasakwa was being developed as a Christian camp, he also played on that, stating he was giving us "a break" on the costs to help with expense of the camp development.  Needless to say, we have not been able to continue much work until this undone project is completed.   All we want is the work done correctly as per our contract, or reimburse us for work he promised but did not do so we can hire someone else to finish.   What should have taken a few months, has gone to almost two years.  The stress Mr Ruark has caused both of us was uncalled for.  I have been in the hospital 4 times since the first of this year, and am no longer able to deal with this person.   We do not want anyone else to be taken in by him.