Have you ever had a contractor leave your home in worse shape than it started in? Have you had work go uncompleted or been scammed out of money? You are not alone! Many homeowners have been the victim of untrustworthy contractors.

There are some real horror stories out there, and we’ve collected some testimonials from the good folks of Reddit under r/HomeImprovement to give you a laugh (and maybe a cringe or two) on what real homeowners have experienced out there.

“We had your standard issues with how long it took them to get the job done and general craftsmanship. But the oddest thing is one day we came home to find cut-off blue jeans legs sitting in our bedroom. We couldn’t figure out where the heck they came from until we realized the contractors made jorts in our bedroom and left the legs. I learned how to do drywall myself soon thereafter.”  -darwinn_69

“Got several quotes on putting an addition on the house, went with the lowest which was thousands cheaper than the others (red flag). Guy came, excavated for the foundation, and poured them. Never came back. Like, disappeared. They made the mistake of giving the guy ALL the money upfront, and they never saw him again.” -joeroloff

“My parents were ready to do a full reno/addition on our house. About midway through the project, after putting an entire second floor on the house, before electrical, plumbing, insulation, or sheetrock could be put in, my parents noticed the invoices were way off from where they should be. They get an itemized list of the supplies ordered. There’s a ton of stuff not needed for the project that my dad knew wasn’t even remotely being used in our house. He brings this up to the builder, and the guy dismisses him, telling him if his guys ordered it, it must be getting used. My dad argues with him about it, the dude pulls his team off of our project, and my parents end up having to go to court over it. It turns out the guy’s crew would moonlight independently and would order extra supplies for people’s projects that weren’t needed, then take them to use in their other work.

The judge ruled my parents didn’t have to pay for the materials not used in our house but that the builder was not obligated to finish the project, beyond making sure what was done was up to code.

The building inspector came in and made a list of what needed fixing. A couple of weeks later, he calls back and says everything is magically up to code. The builder paid him off, so my parents were left with about 1800 sq feet of unfinished house, with really shoddy work, and no money left to finish it.

The house is still unfinished 15 years later. The builder eventually went bankrupt from multiple lawsuits. Somehow he re-opened with a smaller crew.”  -Raviepooh

“My grandmother was going to have the paving stones in a pretty long driveway picked up, removed, and then paved. She paid, and he came with a crew that lifted all the paving stones, leaving them in stacks of 5-6 along the driveway.

Then disappeared. Left a muddy pit full of impassable rocks instead of a driveway.” -rehtulx

“Called in a plumber to work in our bathroom. Came home, and there was a huge crack in the middle of the bathroom floor and scratches all over our bathtub. The floor was a mess, and it honestly looked like the plumber, and the apprentice had been in a fight. Left a handwritten note saying ‘could not finish b’room due to underlying problems’. It was a small plumbing service, and when I tried to call many times, no one answered. Tried to get in contact and report the event, but after months we gave up because we just always came to dead ends. Luckily our lovely neighbors pitched in, and within a year, we ended up with a renovated bathroom. Still baffled about what actually happened that day and have never gone out while service people have been in my house since.” -owlette23

There are some shady characters out there, which is why The Good Contractors List was founded. We’re here to protect you from bad contractors by only recommending the BEST in the business! All of our contractors have been personally vetted and come backed with years of service and sterling customer reviews.

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