Independiente Group

We engaged Alex, owner of Independiente Group, to serve as general contractor and manage a large-scale home renovation project. We were not satisfied with his project management skills and ongoing missed deadlines; in fact, the project was completed 11 months after what was agreed to in our contract. All of the work was subcontracted out, and there were serious issues with availability to complete the work and quality. In some cases, he changed subcontractors throughout the project. As a result, we have a recessed light in one room that did not get hooked up, an outlet in another room that doesn’t work. To fix would require taking down drywall, fixing, putting back up drywall, repainting, etc. The master shower leaked into our kitchen only a few months after we moved in. While Alex and his subs did fix this, it required tile work, plumbing, drywall and painting. The paint job overall was sub-standard. We requested missed spots be painted. We provided a list and tapped the walls to show, yet we still have trim unpainted in some places. We had a new DaVinci roof put on. His roofer took our roof off in July, and didn’t start work until January. While “wrapped,” the exposure to the Chicago winter, rain, etc. resulted in mold that had to be removed. While we did get timely responses to texts and calls, we rarely got actual answers to the questions asked. In the last three weeks of our project, Alex hired a project manager, who worked very hard to complete the project, but despite this positive late-stage development, we cannot recommend this contractor.