maurice gilbert DBA msi construction heating & air

WARNING- USE THIS CONTRACTORY AT YOUR OWN RISK I had a terrible experience with MSI construction and the owner Maurice Gilbert. I hired him to remove an interior wall in my home for about $4000. He inspected the area thoroughly and insisted that the wall was not a load bearing wall. Once he had removed the wall, he saw a problem with the ceiling joists, and gave me another estimate for $3500 to fix that problem, still insisting the wall was not load bearing (he said the ceiling joists had been cut, which makes no sense). He demanded the $4000 for removing the wall, even though I still had a big hole in my ceiling. But the worst of it was that he left the joists unsupported and didn't say anything about the fix being urgent or that there was any risk of collapse. In fact, he thought for a long time about how to fix the ceiling joist support problem, and I got the impression he had no idea what to do! Then, a few days later I was moving in to the home and saw that the ceiling had started to sag and looked like it could collapse any minute. It had dropped several inches and there were cracks in the ceiling in both directions going across the room. I texted Maurice immediately and sent him pictures. He said he couldn't come look at it for 3 days, but I could pay another $1500 to have someone look at it right away! Then he blamed me for not signing the contract to have the joists fixed! He took no responsibility for leaving the ceiling unsupported! So, I fired him. I didn't want him anywhere near my house after that. Then he had the nerve to tell me that I would still have to pay him $1800 on a contract I had signed to have him finish another part of the job. I was willing to just walk away and finish with another contractor, but he insisted on getting paid for work that hadn't been finished. He botched the wall removal, left my ceiling to collapse, and then demanded more money! Multiple contractors now have told me his mistake may have caused structural damage to the rafters and roof. It's going to cost me up to $20,000 to get it all fixed. Meanwhile he's taking me to court for $1800! I'll have to countersue to get my money back and hopefully get enough to fix his mistake! I would advise avoiding MSI construction and Maurice at all costs! I've filed a complaint with the state contractor's licensing board, so hopefully he'll have to answer for his mistakes.