Fraudulent Interior work Contractor
I am an NRI , Native place Kerala , Trivandrum district. I have given advance Rs.1.8L to a Trivandrum city based contractor to do the interior work of my 2 BHK flat .This person initially met us in the Apartment premises & approached us when we were in Kerala for Annual Leave. He told & convinced us that he can do the complete interior work in our flat and he agreed to do the interior as per our design given to him (My wife is an Architect). Thereafter we signed an agreement on 23rd January 2019 with him and as per his request and per the agreement, I have sent him the advance money 1.8L (40% of total contract value) bank transfer from abroad to his SBI account to do the work & we got receipts from him for our payment. As per Agreement the work should finish in 60days (2months) from Jan-23. But, after receiving the money, he started to behave irresponsibly to us. He dragged our work and got in to other contracts. Since me and family were living far away abroad he used that chance also by not picking our phone calls or not replying our messages and not giving timely updates. He used an outsourced Engineer who took wrong measurements from our flat and send to us abroad which we could not approve. After all these we came to Kerala and enquired with him and came to know that he doesn’t have a proper Office & he said he is doing these jobs from his home for the time being. After that by June when we were in Kerala on vacation we pushed him to do our work, he send few very bad electrical labors to our flat who doesn't knew the work and they spoiled my flat by doing wrong measurements & faulty electric works etc. I have the photographs of it taken. Finally, we had to terminate his service from doing further work on 28th June 2018. He only did electrical wiring in my flat so far that too in a very bad way (from June 10 till 23rd June). One of his electrical workers he send to our flat was drunk and later started asking money from my flat caretaker and outside security which was another main reason to terminate his work in my flat. Sir, now we are having hard time to get him connected in phone. What he told me 1st week of July 2019 after my repeated calls that out of 1.8L which I paid to him, his accountant calculated an amount of Rs. 1.27L as refund to me. After that there is no update from him until today. Later I realized that he has blocked my phone number in order not to call him for my refund. Sir , I lost my money and it's bank interest for 1.8L I paid to him, I lost the rental income if this flat would have been rented out otherwise. I'm really in a very pathetic situation now sitting far away abroad. I send an email complaint on 15th July 2019 to NRI cell Police HQ, Kerala . After a series of inquiries from Abroad with Kerala Police HQ NRI cell, I have been informed that a case file Ref # 54067/2019/TC has been registered to concerned station. Till now no luck.
Note : Meantime I completed my work with another capable contractor.