Unfinished Business

<p>My reason for sending in this review is to make people aware of a builder who we had dealings with last year and who is yet to compensate us for a job he pulled out of about a third of the way into it. His name is Tjaart Riekert and he calls himself Tilepro Projects, at least that is what it was at the time. His quote was on a document headed up as Highway Property Rentals(Pty) Ltd t/a Highway Projects. We commissioned him around August 2015 to refurbish our kitchen, total cost on quote was R49350.00, 65% up front on acceptance, the rest staggered over 2 by 15% progress payments and a final payment of 5% on handover. We unfortunately paid the up front amount and the two 15% payments and once the last 15% payment was paid,-our fault for being too trustworthy, the work started stalling. What was supposed to be a 10 day job by his estmates and assurance, had dagged on to two months and was heading into the closing down time for builders over Christmas, not a good time to be without a functioning kitchen, washing dishes in the bath etc. Mr. Riekert was now being evasive abd difficult to contact and when he did respond he blamed the delay on the cupboard company who had installed the cupboard carcasses very poorly and he had to approach another company to have them redone. I eventually contacted Natal Kitchens out of desperation to find out what as going on and was told that they had been trying to contact Mr. Riekert without any success and that they were reluctant to attend to the cupboards until he had paid them for the work already carried out. He also claimed to have had the granite tops cut and ready for installation which proved to be a lie. I did contact the company, Jameson, based in North Coast Road, that he was supposed to have placed the order with and they had no knowledge of any such order being placed. When I confronted him about the delays a raft of excuses were offered ranging from cellphone dysfunction to the cupboard issue etc.Interestingly enough, he did seem to have time and money to work on his own rental units he was building in the adjoining community. Needles to say things got heated and he decided that he no longer wished to continue with our kitchen and would be compensating us for the work that was still outstanding and that we had already paid him for. At this tage it was aleady well into December and we had to find someone to cut and fit granite counter tops, fit the sinks, connect up and finish off the plumbing, fit electrical plug points and complete the floor and wall tiling all before builders finished up for the year. His reason for playing the victim and not continuing and making it sound like we were being unreasonable was because as he put it, he couldn't work with someone who was intefering with his people. The real reason was that he had been found out and he proceeded to take the easy way out. The remaining outstanding work cost us in the region of approximately R18000.00 rand and needless to say he hasn't paid us a cent yet a year later. His response to our reminder about 2 months after he absconded, despite the threat of legal action, was short and typical, "cool". This about sums up his character. We did contemplate pursuing the matter with the small claims court but the thought of a long tiresome process caused us to rethink and we decided against it and to write off ever receiving any recompense from him. The problem is that he lives in our community and I see him almost on a daily basis driving around plying his trade and this is infuriating to say the least. He also has a van with a NHBRC sticker on it but a check with them disclosed that they had no knowledge of any registration with them at all. The last contact number I have for him is ********** 080. He is a lying, ********* individual with not much of a conscience so I would expect nothing less than another bunch of untruths from him if contacted As mentioned before, the idea is to prevent others from making the same error we made in trusting an individual like Mr. Riekert. </p>