MONTREAL- Many homeowners take on a renovation project with hopes of transforming their house into the home of their dreams.
But Maria Pulice says her renovation became a nightmare complete with missing baseboards, drawers, and unfinished cabinetry.
"The stainless steel doors [are missing]," said Pulice, while also pointing out a pail in a cabinet, and wood laminate left setting in her garage.
Pulice found contractor T-Design at her local mall and signed a contract with sales representative Georges Samman.
"I thought that because they were in a mall and set up that it was legitimate," said Pulice.
With contract in hand Samman's father began working in Pulice's home, and she says everything was going well until she negotiated a separate deal with Samman's father -- trading a family dining set for a built-in dinette.
"He loaded it up in truck and I gave them a cheque to cover the costs and I never saw them again," said Pulice.
Pulice says she tried reaching Samman for months with no success.
"Week after week after week. Text messages. Promises," said Pulice, pointing out that the wood veneer then started peeling off her new cabinets.
CTV Montreal researched the company and learned that three other customers had sued the owners of T-Design, Hamzee Tabaa and Georges Samman, in small claims court.
On Your Side made repeated requests for an interview with Samman, and eventually his boss at another renovation company put us in touch.
After threatening CTV Montreal with legal action Samman agreed to meet for an interview.
On the day of the scheduled interview Samman showed up four hours after the agreed-up time, saying he had a family emergency.
Samman said the problems with Pulice's kitchen were the result of changes to the contract.
"She did deals on her own with my father. He said, 'I don't have time, I'm busy,'" said Samman. "Maria was adding work that wasn't there, that wasn't planned."
Samman added that the other legal problems with T-Design were not his fault and he said it's normal for contractors to sometimes end up in small claims court due to the volume of jobs they do.
Pulice denies that she had asked for additional work that was not in any agreement.
"It's not true, it was an easy job, I didn't ask for much," she said.
After On Your Side met with Samman, his father returned to work on Pulice's kitchen.
The renovation is now almost finished, almost a year after work began.
In the meantime, Pulice says she has learned a lesson about choosing a contractor.
"Do your research," said Pulice. "Just because they seem nice and their pictures seem great it's not an indication that they're going to do a great job."
Next week on On Your Side: how to hire a contractor and avoid ending up in court.
