Our story featured on
MSNBC Undercover: Homewreckers, October 24, 2007
The Renovation Trap
Someone You Can Trust?
You are listening to a radio ad produced by the National Association of Reators, aired in 2006. To view National Assn. of Realtors TV ad, click here.
This is the story of what happened when we put our trust in a Windermere Realtor.
Meet our former Realtor, Paul H. Stickney, licensed to Windermere Redmond in Washington. Windermere, the Northwest's largest real estate firm, boasts of "the highest ethical standards" and that "uncompromising honesty and integrity" is its hallmark. As you read, be reminded that Windermere is defending Mr. Stickney in court.
Is your Realtor as trustworthy as Windermere's Mr. Stickney?
To watch Mr. Stickney explaining his case to MSNBC, click here.
If you have an opinion you would like to communicate to Windermere, the head office may be reached at:
5424 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
206/527-3801
wsc@windermere.com
To see the letters we are currently sending Northwest Realtors, click here.
Click here to see house as it was
* Welcome to Our Story * Welcome to our home *
8209
172nd Avenue, N.E., Redmond, Washington, 98052
“The Cottage”
We are Mark and Carol DeCoursey, and we live in Redmond, Washington. We are making our renovation disaster known throughout the country because we've discovered grave public policy issues are at stake, not just for the people of Washington, but for homeowners everywhere. However, we must WARN you ...
You are entering a world of ...
- Electrified bathtubs — that's right, our bathtub was electrified at 110 Volts AC. Automated Home Solutions of Redmond claims to have been the electrical subcontractor when the bathtub was electrified.
- It's a world of upside-down kitchen cabinets, sagging cantilevers, swayback roofs, and drive-by city inspections ...
- It's a world were our trusted Windermere real estate agent, who put together the home purchase and renovation package, tells us that if we have suffered damage, it is our own fault.
- It's a world where homeowners are prey for predatory contractors ... where repeat offenders — incompetent and unlicensed tradesmen and contractors — victimize homeowners again and again. A world where well-written consumer protection laws don't seem to work.
- It's a world where city inspectors don't do required inspections> ... In our case, a city inspector signed off on a roof inspection without even looking at the roof, claiming he "remembered" inspecting it nine months previously. When we told him the roof had problems and offered to show him a report written by an independent expert, he was disinterested, and said: "We're not Quality Control." The roof does not even meet City code ...
- It's a world where contractors file untruthful and malicious liens, and their lawyers file frivolous lawsuits to intimidate homeowners to pay money they don't owe ... A world where lawyers commit perjury, extort homeowners, and attempt to fabricate evidence ... and where the Bar Association is taking more assertive steps to protect lawyers caught offending against the Bar's Rules of Professional Conduct.
- It's a world where a top real estate company, Windermere, learning of our betrayal by one of its agents, takes a "so sue me" attitude and turns its back on our offers to negotiate.
Our story in a nutshell
Brand-new in the state of Washington, we wanted to buy a home and sought out an experienced real estate agent from a good company to help us. Paul Stickney of Windermere Redmond told us he specialized in helping folks buy houses and renovate them to increase equity without over-investing. We put our trust in him.
Stickney put together a house-purchase and renovation package for us, but did not tell us the construction people were unlicensed, unregistered, unbonded, and acting unlawfully in the state.
On October 12, 2004, Paul Stickney's associate, Richard Birgh of Sammamish, operating under the name "Home Improvement Help" offered to do the work for $90,565.27. But when work ceased (five months behind schedule), Mr. Birgh gave us an invoice for $211,166. Some of the work he'd promised had not been done, and much of it was done so badly it will have to be redone. Despite the $90,565.26 offer, we had been coerced into paying $163,000 on threat of having the house left a ruin in the middle of incomplete renovation. Much of the work was done unlawfully, without required permits or licenses, in violation of building codes, and bypassing required inspections.
For us it was a terrible betrayal and a financial disaster.
After the harm was done, we discovered that in early October, 2004, Paul Stickney was registered as the Vice President of Home Improvement Help, Inc. ... He'd left out that detail, too. Stickney has been associated with Birgh's operation for a long time, and should have known (and in fact knew) their spotty performance history, as this affidavit by a Bellevue attorney will attest.
We started this website in September 2005, hoping to show it to the responsible parties, hoping they would make up the damage without litigation. We were just a few weeks from approaching them, when Automated Home Solutions filed a lawsuit against us.
Contents
In the interest of fairness, we are making it easy for others to respond to this web page through hot links. We also provide links to highly topical consumer interest websites. Visit our links page.
Meet the top consumer
protection advocate in the State of Washington, Attorney General Rob McKenna, a man who is courageous enough to go after guppies, but has no appetite for sharks.