During the course of your involvement with a crooked contractor you may have instances where the contractor makes statements about what they will do for you. You hear about how it is important to have things in writing, when it came to our dealings with Brian Darnell of Prodigy Restoration Group (now doing business as Darnell Construction, or Darnell Group, or Design Build St. Louis, or simply Brian Darnell) having things in writing did not matter much, at least as far as Brian Darnell was concerned about when it came to keeping his word.
During the phase where we were deciding if repairs would be performed on our roof Brian Darnell stated that we would not pay any out of pocket expenses during the roof repair, to include our homeowners deductible. Shown below is his communication to us asking us to sign the “Authorization of the Insured” and restating that he would “work with us on the deductible”. Note that this is on August 24, 2015, we’ll see how long Brian Darnell’s word is good for.
While asking Brian Darnell to clarify the roof repair paperwork he reaffirmed that there would be no out of pocket expenses along with no deductible costs.
To be clear, the homeowners deductible is normally an out-of-pocket expense that the homeowner would pay when making an insurance claim for a roofing repair. We found out later that for Brian Darnell to offer to waive or work out a deal where we were not paying the deductible is against Missouri Law.
Soon we would have paperwork signed and we would be stuck with Brian Darnell, and then these promises would start to be broken by Darnell. When I try and get reassurance about the “No out of pocket expense” promise made to us during the contract signing here is how Brian Darnell responded 10 weeks later:
Having it in writing did not matter to Brian Darnell, remember that at the time he was in bankruptcy, this ‘protection’ makes collecting on any lawsuit win very difficult. So hard that most people would probably not want to undertake the effort. What this meant for us was that “breach of contract” would not be a strong deterrent.
The following day Brian Darnell was demanding payment for the homeowners deductible, the very same thing he had said we would not need to pay.
What is the lesson that crooked contractor Brian Darnell teaches us? You must get everything that is going to be done in writing. A slippery snake like Brian Darnell used every angle to his advantage to get out of doing what he had promised. Even if you have the promises in writing, as you see above that will not prevent a dishonest person like Darnell from going back on their promise. While the act of breaching a contract may concern a reputable general contractor or roofing professional, Brian Darnell demonstrates how there are people running businesses who will breach a contract, and if they are in bankruptcy as Darnell is, when the judgement is passed and the party is ordered to pay damages, they will simply refuse as Brian Darnell told News 4 Investigative Reporter Chris Nagus, “Darnell says Prodigy Restoration is out of business, and he has no plans to pay either homeowner at this point.”
