ARIZONA REGISTRAR OF CONTRACTORS IS FAILING ARIZONA HOMEOWNERS

 

   WILLIAM MUNDELL, 

DIRECTOR OF THE ARIZONA REGISTRAR  OF CONTRACTORS (ROC),                

SHOULD BE FIRED

 

It was reported last year by Arizona State Auditor, Debbie Davenport, that the ROC is failing the Arizona Homeowners.

 

The audit determined that the ROC is failing because:

 

1. An extremely slow process which can take more than a year to resolve a homeowner's contractor complaint.

 

2.  Extremely poor follow-through which often wrongly closes homeowners' contractor  complaints before the contractor's required repair work was properly completed.

 

3.   No verification that required contractor reimbursements were ever paid to the homeowners.

 

4.  High rate of staff turnover which causes additional delays of having the homeowner's contractor complaint reassigned to a different staff member.

 

5.  Failure to escalate discipline remedies against bad contractors that have a repeat number of homeowners' contractor complaints.

 

6.  The homeowners are not getting the relief they are entitled from the Recovery Fund. The state lawmakers drained the fund last year of $8.5 million leaving only $220,419 to pay approved claims of $3.9 million.

 

Source:  "Contractor registrar faulted for inefficiency" printed July 27, 2013, HOWARD FISCHER CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES.

 

WILLIAM MUNDELL - ARIZONA ROC DIRECTOR

We are very familiar with a bad and dangerous contractor that is praying upon the elderly in the Sun Cities Area, PALMER'S PLUMBING dba BEN FRANKLIN PLUMBING and PALMER'S KITCHEN, BATH, & BEYOND LLC.  Both companies are owned by Robert Freund and the quality of work has plummeted since the death in 2007 of his father who owned the business and the 2013 resignation of the co-owner T.J. Myers.

 

The ROC failed us by:

 

1.  Not properly updating its website with contractor license information.  Freund's plumbing company license was expired and his contractor company did not have the required Qualifying Party the entire length of our home repair job from  May 28, 2013, to when they were fired on August 08, 2013, for Breach of Contract. In fact Freund's contractor companies were Unlicensed Contractor Companies.

 

2.  Our contractor complaints (2014-250 & 2014-251) took the ROC Inspector, Stephen Lawton, over 5 1/2 months to process. Mr. Lawton told us he was overwhelmed with 85 contractor complaints, the fact that he had no support staff, and that the ROC has the inspectors working from their homes while not providing a proper office location.

 

3.  The ROC declined our complaints on June 30, 2014 based on a technicality because we refused to allow Freund back into our home after we were threatened by his employee, his employee refused to return our house key and alarm fob, and we found intentional criminal sabotage to our home (waterline to kitchen sink was crimped). Mr. Freund was not entitled to have any Contractor Rights because he was operating without properly approved license and was in fact an Unlicensed Contractor.

 

4.  The ROC ignored our rights to protect ourselves when we feared for our lives. The police told us in our three criminal damage police reports that the Arizona Castle Law gave us rights to deny their access to our home. The ROC Inspector, Stephen Lawton, even blocked their access to our house to protect us. We even hired a policeman to protect us in case they showed up at the inspection of our home.

 

5.  The ROC Inspector, Stephen Lawton, told us that our 60 documented problems of substandard workmanship, intentional sabotage of our plumbing, and harassment was the worst the ROC had ever seen.  Judge Gerald Williams agreed and on May 09, 2014, he issued Injunctions against Harassments against Robert Freund (contractor company owner) and Derrick King (contractor company employee).

 

6.  Our ROC Inspector told us the Freund is no longer using the Ben Franklin Plumbing Franchise advertising because his plumbing license has expired. However, our research shows that Freund is still in the plumbing business which is illegal.  Freund still lists T.J. Myers on has website as his contractor company co-owner which verifies his continuous false advertising.

 

7.  Freund hired a new Qualifying Party, Derrick King, and he was the employee who threatened us stating he would do anything thing it takes to collect the remaining $3,800 after we had already paid nearly $14,000 for substandard and safety failing work (mold was not removed properly). After Mr. King threatened us we had our electric lines to our sprinkler system cut, motion detector lights disabled, and all four tires slashed and nailed in such a way to cause a blowout if the car was driver at a higher rate of speed.  The judge agreed that this was attempted murder and "went to pattern" because of Mr. King's violent criminal past and the threats he made to us. The ROC never should have allowed Mr. King to be a contractor.

We wrote the below letter to Arizona Officials but we have received no response.

 

July 14, 2014

The Honorable Janice K. Brewer

Governor, State of Arizona

1700 W. Washington

Suite 504

Phoenix, AZ 85007-2812

To The Honorable Janice K. Brewer:

This letter is written to inform you that the Arizona Registrar of Contractors (ROC) is doing less and looking for ways to not perform their duties of protecting the public from bad contractors. We need your help to require the ROC to properly enforce our legal rights and prosecute the bad and dangerous contractors, Robert Freund (company owner) and Derrick King (qualifying party).

We filed two complaints on January 17, 2014, against Palmer’s Plumbing dba Ben Franklin Plumbing (ROC complaint #2014-250) and Palmer’s Kitchen, Bath, & Beyond (ROC complaint #2014-251). We received Complaint Dismissals dated June 30, 2014, stating that we violated the contractor’s rights to inspect our property and have the opportunity to repair the damages. A Police Report was filed on August 08, 2013, (#2013-151570) for telephone threats and refusal to return our house keys. MCSO Deputy Dias told us that we had the right to forbid them from our home under the CASTLE LAW because we were afraid for our lives.  The ROC Inspector, Stephen Lawton, waived that contractor inspection and repair rights in order to protect us because of the threats and intentional criminal damage sabotage in our home (a crimped kitchen waterline).

Our ROC complaints have listed over 60 contractor problems and poor workmanship with pictures due to an under slab water leak and kitchen flood.  This contractor mess has cost us nearly $14,000 in payments to the contractor and now he is suing us for an additional $3,800 plus legal fees (Lawsuit #2013-222467RC) even after when we cancelled the job on August 08, 2013, for BREACH OF CONTRACT. We have had to pay new contractors thousands of dollars to clean up the mess. This poor workmanship also exacerbated my wife’s transplanted liver rejection because the toxic mold cleanup was not correctly done.

 

We filed a complaint with the Arizona Attorney General on February 10, 2014 (AG Complaint #14-01841) for the following violations:

1. ARS 32-1151 – Not having a valid contractor’s license,

2. ARS 13-2002 – Submitting forged documents to the court,

3. ARS 32-1129.01 - Breach of contract,

4. ARS 13-1202 -Threatening and intimidating phone calls, and

5. ARS 13-1602 – Intentional criminal damage. 

We wrote the ROC on July 09, 2014, disputing its decision, and to date we have had no response. We listed that at least Six Citations should be issued in accordance to ARS 11-3254, which are violations of:

1. Section 7 – Contractor Committed Fraudulent Acts with court documentation forgeries, filing a baseless lawsuit, and hiring a qualifying party who has a criminal record,

2. Section 8 – Contractor Committed a Felony with threatening phone calls and intentional criminal damages,

3. Section 9 – Contractor made unapproved contract changes and failed to complete contracted work,

4. Section 12 - Contractor failed to follow safety laws by not containing the toxic mold cleanup and failed obtain the required Mold Remediation Certificate,

5. Section 17 – Contractor failed to have the proper license since he did not have a qualifying party at the time of our job,

6. Section 24 – The Contractor’s employee made several telephone threats and refused to return our house keys and alarm fob.

Our contractor problems went beyond a contract dispute to a criminal matter with the telephone threats and suspected criminal damages of the electric lines to our water system being cut, motion detector lights being disabled, stalking, and the slashing and destroying of all our four automobile tires (two more Police Reports were filed -  #2014-004271). We had to hire private police protection and install an expensive security camera system.

The Court approved Injunctions against Harassment on May 09, 2014, against Robert Freund (#CC2014-080145000) and Derrick King (#CC2014-080186000).  Judge Gerald Williams stated: “Our criminal damages went to pattern because of the telephone threats and Derrick King’s violent criminal past.”

We find this ROC dismissal a TRAVISTY OF JUSTICE and need your help to get the ROC to properly do its job and enforce our rights, help us recover some of our losses from the Contractor Recovery Fund, and REVOKE Robert Freund’s contractor licenses.

The Public needs to be protected from these bad and dangerous contractors who use Elder Abuse and Fraud to run their home repair/remodeling contractor companies.

Sincerely,

Mark and Carol Fairall

cc: Tom Horne – Arizona Attorney General – AG Complaint #14-01841

      William Mundell – ROC Director – ROC Complaint #2014-250 & #2014-251

      Chris Mueller – Justice of the Peace – Hassayampa Court – Lawsuit #CC2013-222467RC  

      Deputy D. Burke - Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office – One Police Report #2013-151570 & Two
                                                                                                     Police Reports #2014-004271
       Jacob Mueller – Private Investigator – Global Eye Investigations Owner

Sabotaged kitchen waterline

 

Fairall Cabinets falling apart

BAD AND DANGEROUS CONTRACTOR - ROBERT FREUND



Fairalls Tires slashed - attempted murder

 

 

 

 NOTE:  To answer the many questions on why we hired Robert Freund's companies was the facts that my parents were personal friends with Palmer and Helen Freund, they serviced our plumbing needs since 1978, and they were members of our church. Robert Freund has destroyed the companies after his father's, Palmer Freund, death in 2007 and after losing his co-owner, T.J. Myers in April, 2013.