Fourteen Estates

Rick, Shawn and their team built us a beautiful home 5 years ago and my wife and I are completely satisfied and continue to love our home built by one of the Premier builders in Durham Region, Fourteen Estates. The quality of workmanship and attention to detail was second to none. If I was going to custom build again, I would not hesitate to get Fourteen Estates to do the job!

Nightmare experience with Rick and Shawn Rondeau & Fourteen Estates home builders by Ramin Building my dream home, Rick and Shawn Rondeau & Fourteen Estates did a quotation of approximately 1.4 million + HST for the extension of the old home. I thought that was already beyond what I was willing to spend but Shawn Rondeau, VP and the son of the owner Rick Rondeau told me that “they are a big builder and their big discounts with trades and material will cover their hefty $300,000 management fee and more. They also said it is possible that the final costs will be even less. It started in July 2015 and according to our contract it would be completed in 10 months which would bring it to approximately April 2016. As I type this October 10th 2017 the house is still incomplete with over 50 items that either not complete or requires correction. In fact one estimate I just got is asking for over $500,000 in cost just to correct their mistakes. So Rick and Shawn Rondeau & Fourteen Estate have blown the budget to TWICE the original quotation (approximately 1.6 million dollars), with very poor quality. In short, approximately 18 months late, 1.6 million over budget, tons of issues and I didn’t even get all the items that were on the original quotation. Rick and Shawn Rondeau make recommendations that “benefits” your project and of course building your dream home and perceive them as experts you agree to some of those minor changes that you expect not to be changed or very little increase over the original estimate. Month after month you realize that their invoices are eating your budget quickly without much progress and eventually you have a grossly over budget project that you either cannot afford or refuse to pay because the costs are not justified. Fourteen Estates made promises that were not delivered. Eventually when you refuse to pay their invoices and demand to see detailed proof, they walk out of the job and place a lien on your house. Shawn Rondeau & Fourteen Estates even admitted to me several times that they didn’t have enough trades or the right ones to do the job right and in a timely manner when I complained. They never however took any responsibility for the delays or the costs associated with it. With many projects to go in the real estate boom in GTA the last couple of years, they would move the same trades to different properties in ONE DAY to keep the owners calm. My property was abandoned more than half of the time over the past 2 years with no trade working on it at all. At times it was pure ludicrous as they had no trade working in my property yet they had a supervisor on site charging me $50 an hour doing nothing or cleaning garbage or they would have ONE guy on site on a 15,000 SF project and have a supervisor at $50 an hour to supervise him. I could never make sense of their billing and they did not provide the detailed backup when I requested it. They even left out $200,000 payment I had made and had I not questioned it