[quote=craig kolk]i bought a new home in toll brothers
i hired PEC construction (Nicholas Escobar) to do my landscape.
Please save your money
BAIT and Switch
un-professonal
breach on contract
Un-preformance
Had to Pay $$ k to other contractors to fix his work.
Very cheap company
Warning !! Do NOT HIRE[/quote]

Please do other consumers a favor and file a complaint with the contractors license board.

If you want to recoup some money – you should look at his bond company. If he truly had a breach of contract and you can prove it – you can collect against his bond.

I’m a big believer that you need to go after the bad contractors to drive them out of business… otherwise they can financially harm the next consumer. It’s a hassle, full of stress, and you don’t get back all your money or time… but it’s worth it to protect the next guy.

If you want to know more about the process of filing a complaint…
http://www.cslb.ca.gov/Consumers/FilingAComplaint/

It’s not a fast process… In our case it took almost 2 years before the complaint showed on the website. But it’s the right thing to do.

Also – I’ve said it before – I’ll say it again. Due your due diligence! This specific contractor raised red flags for me because of a 10 day gap in his bonding history. That suggests (but is not absolute) that it’s possible a bond was paid out – and he needed to come up with money to restore his bond. (There are other explanations – but I know that is one possibility).
You can see it here on the license info:
https://www2.cslb.ca.gov/OnlineServices/CheckLicenseII/LicenseDetail.aspx?LicNum=964971
(click on the contractors bond history link)

To recap my diligence steps:
– Check the license: look for complaints, look at bonding history (looking for gaps), look at workers comp (if they don’t have it – yet you know they have direct employees… ask them about it. It opens you up to lawsuits from the workers if they should have it and don’t.) https://www2.cslb.ca.gov/OnlineServices/CheckLicenseII/checklicense.aspx
– check their civil court records for both the individual and corporate name. http://www.sdcourt.ca.gov/portal/page?_pageid=55,1&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
– check to see it the individual or company files a lot of mechanics liens, or has a lot of judgements against them. http://arcc.co.san-diego.ca.us/services/grantorgrantee/search.aspx
– and if they still look ok – check their corporate status at the Sec. of State website: http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/
If they are signing a contract as a corporation – and don’t have active status – the contract is invalid.