Rafael Prado
1/5
Contracted Elite Renovations for a roof replacement in September of 2023. We worked with Dean who, while at first seemed very nice, turned out to be unprofessional, disingenuous and threatening. After not hearing back for a month, we contacted Dean to inquire about the sates "My Safe Florida Home" grant program. Dean was totally unaware and responded unprofessionally with messages like "lol" and "I don't know what that mean bro". We requested to have a Secondary Water Barrier installed on our home to lower insurance costs. Dean later contacted us stating that the city requested an engineer letter. We expected this was a normal part of the process but did not hear back again for another month. In November, we began to worry as our insurance company required a new roof installation and the project had not moved forward. We contacted Dean and there were no updates and Elite Renovations was unable to receive approval from the city. I asked to speak with other people at Elite but nobody knew what was going on. We went to City Hall ourselves and found that the Engineer letter was not required, as we were maintaining shingle roofing on our property; this mistake cost us months in time and there was never any concern shown for us, just confusion on Elite's end as they did not take the time to understand what was going on. By going to City Hall, we were able to clear things up and get the permit approved, without even a simple thank you from Elite. When contractors finally showed up, we were surprised Dean was not onsite and learned that Elite had sub-contracted work. We became suspicious of Elites permit application and reviewed their documentation in detail. I called Dean after noticing the Secondary Water Barrier was not on the permit and told him we needed this permitted for insurance purposes before any work began. Dean called back and threatened that they would leave the property immediately if I needed the permit updated; my roof was already peeled off at this point so I could not have them abandon the project with my roof exposed as our insurance company was coming to perform an inspection that week and it was hurricane season! Now, it's on us to navigate getting our insurance updated without city permitting for the secondary water barrier to show as proof of work.
We received no update or change order to our contract at any point in this process; we had to ask for billing details/invoices but Elites default was to send a payment link with no details.
On the first day of the roofs replacement, our A/C stopped working midway through the project, presumably from all the banging, which then required an A/C inspector and then an electrician to come by costing us $500 and a weekend in the heat. Later, Dean demanded we pay $650 for an engineer letter and we let him know we did not agree to this and that the engineer letter was a mistake by Elite Renovations. Dean called/messaged me non-stop demanding money. His sub-contractors also started contacting me, as well as other numbers.
Dean finally showed up to my property on 12/12 dressed in all black like some sort of hitman, making menacing gestures towards our surveillance camera. We called the police and continue to have them keeping any eye out if they should be so foolish as to return. This is Florida, we will not be bullied, we will stand our ground.
