Bell Tile

WHAT A NIGHTMARE!

Bell Tile ABANDONED the job in my home. After weeks of pleas for them to return, I was forced to hire a correcting contractor at substantially more than Bell Tile’s bid. Now Bell Tile has filed a lien against my home for their shoddy work that had to be redone. Bell filed an exaggerated lien even though I had offered to place the disputed funds into an escrow account while the State of California (CSLB) investigated. An investigation where Bell refused to mediate through the CSLB. Now the case moves onto the investigation phase.

In a nano-second this company became belligerent and left me with a mess to clean up after them. Tom Bell never responded to my pleas for help, never responded to the picture I texted to him outlining the defects. Instead Bell’s attorney wrote back in a nasty vile letter saying I MADE IT UP in an attempt to avoid paying them. I am paying, you bet, Bell promised to do this work for 3,800. To correct the mess Bell left, I have one bid for $16,800, them two more for 4,800 and 4,100.

LESSONS LEARNED
I thought a license check CSLB.ca.gov was sufficient, it is not. The CSLB recommends checking your local courts to see if a contractor is litigious.
A couple of quick checks on the SD Courts and SD County online databases and I would have never considered this company.

In 2004 because so many homeowners were being ripped off by Home Improvement Contractors, the state took away “freedom of contract.” Since 2004, any contractor doing work on your home exceeding $500 is required, by law, to provide a highly specific WRITTEN CONTRACT signed by both parties. Some of the highlights of this contract; 72 hour right to cancel, deposits cannot exceed 10%, lien warnings, no t&m work and more. The state even went so far to require the font and point size! Search “CSLB HIC” for more info. Bell Tile, violated my rights. This is the real kicker: I emailed their attorney an offer to correct their failure to provide this written contract and enter into a compliant HIC contract so they would return and clean up the mess they made and finish the job; under the advice of counsel no less; they refused. Think about that for a minute.

CSLB
With the correcting-contractor cooperating as the State’s primary witness, my complaint against Bell Tile has moved to the investigation phase. They are already in violation of :

7159(d) – Failure to provide a written contract.

Threats
Bell Tile’s attorney, Wendi Santino, sent a letter threatening me with “civil harassment” and more. Ms. Santino made this threat because she states sending a letter using the address for Bell Tile registered agent of service recorded with the California Secretary of State constitutes harassment. Ms Sartino also threatened me with filing a false complaint with CSLB. I had every right to file a complaint against Bell Tile’s license, its is up to the CSLB to determine the validity; NOT Wendi Santino. Ms. Santino and Bell Tile are attempting to silence me with these threats.

My husband and I highly recommend Bell Tile. Both Tom and Theresa were so helpful and professional. We hired them to tile most of our house as well as install new baseboards. Our house presented many design challenges, and they guided us on every step of the process. Believe me, we had so many questions, because we wanted our house to be upgraded while working with a house built in the 70’s. They were always there to help us make decisions. Bell Tile’s crews were polite and so hard working. Their attention to every detail on the job was handled beautifully. They also went above and beyond to help us juggle the furniture and boxes, so the work could progress quickly and smoothly. We were in awe of how they beautifully transformed our house. We plan to use them again in the future and highly recommend them.

I have never written a bad review for anything before, but these guys very much deserve one. They were hired by my property management company to replace the shower floor and tiling in my master bathroom. The process stretched out over a week and a half (about 5 or 6 visits), during which time their two workers left pieces of broken wire on the carpet floor (discovered while being stepping on/drawing blood), splattered dirt/plaster/paint/? all over the walls in the bathroom and along the halls leading to our front door (with no cleanup after), broke our front door screen (magnetic net) in several places and chipped wood off the door itself, and walked in several times without giving notice (ie. at 7:35 in the morning while my girlfriend was getting out of the shower…unprofessional is an understatement, look anywhere else but here.