Upset customers say builder bails - but his attorney denies it

FOX 2 - A Metro Detroit builder's customers say he takes their payments and leaves them with work that won't pass inspection, and that often isn't even finished.

Meet Andrew Giles.
      
Rob Wolchek: "All of these people that I've talked to, tell me you start jobs and then bail out on them."

Andrew Giles: "No. No that's not true. I don't start jobs and bail them out."

But customers all say something different. 

The backstory:

Handy Andy runs a remodeling business.

Giles has a builders license, a nice website he's got a nice office. 

He has piles of complaints, including lawsuits, an "F" rating with the Better Business Bureau, and more.

One woman, Karina, says she was victimized by him.        

"I told my husband something is not okay," she said.

This is John Bernard who owns a business called BBB3 and said Giles left him hanging.

"He never finished the doors," Bernard said. "He just abandoned (me)."

Bernard hired Giles Remodeling and Restoration to renovate his testing laboratory on Eight Mile in Detroit. He says he paid Andrew Giles hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"When he said 'I need this for this,' here's $20,000. 'I need this for this,' Here's $50,000," Bernard said. "He'd start a job and then disappear for two or three weeks at a time."

But worse than that, Bernard says a lot of the equipment he paid Andy for, was never delivered.

"(I) paid him for the freezer, I had to go to Lowe's and get that one," Bernard said. "Paid him for the other freezer and the refrigerator. Paid him for that. Never delivered it."

After more than a year of excuses, Bernard says his business partners confronted Giles. 

"He guaranteed them that he'd be finished by the end of April and never came back," Bernard said.

Bernard's company filed suit. But Andy Giles is fighting back with his attorney, Paul Stoychoff filing a counter-suit saying Bernard's company owes Giles money.

But Bernard says Giles is the one who jumped ship, and their dispute is still pending in court.

"I had to bring in other people to finish the work," said Bernard. "He didn't finish the electrical, he didn't finish the plumbing. He didn't finish the outside of the building."

Bernard isn't the only one claiming to be jilted by Giles. Karina and her husband, Sebastian, paid Giles $25,000 last year for an addition for their Livonia home.

"There's no floors, there's no tile, there's no walls, no electric, no plumbing," Karina said.

The work was so bad, with photos nails protruding, it wouldn't pass inspection.
      
They say Giles himself never lifted a hammer. He subcontracted the job out, even though he said he had his own crews.

"He came here three times, when he picked up the check," Karina said.

And then, he and his subcontractors bailed.

"I think he was never intending to finish, to tell you the truth," said Sebatian.

Giles' attorney says Sebastian and Karina wouldn't let Giles' workers do the job and finish the house. He says they gave him unreasonable deadlines and that the couple ordered the inspection before he was ready. 

He says Giles offered to refund them a few thousand dollars, but the couple demanded a full refund.

They filed a complaint with the state against Andrew Giles' license.

"It almost seemed to me like he was hiring his crew as he went," said Dan, another former client who considers himself a victim.

Dan says Andy Giles made his kitchen restoration project hell, with incomplete and bad work -- including a dishwasher hose hanging out of a cabinet.

"Literally eight months of misery," Dan said.

Dan says Giles never finished.

Giles' attorney claims the job didn't last eight months and Dan owes Giles money.

Richard Liggett is the attorney for a family who says they were victims of Giles.        

"When they came to me, the contract was 20 months old," Liggett said.

The clients told Liggett that they paid close to $200,000 for a job that was never completed. Liggett said all they wanted to do was fix up their house.

"They are really a lovely family," the attorney said. "Really just good people.  It was heartbreaking for me to tell them, to say to them, you've been ripped off. That it's done. It's over with. The money is gone, you're not going to get it back."
      
Liggett urged the couple to drop the suit because it would just end up costing them more money, and they'd already lost a lot.

"As the lawsuit progressed, I realized this guy is not collectible," he said.

Giles' attorney says the lawsuit was dropped because it was without merit. Prior to dismissal he had filed a motion to compel and for sanctions against Liggett.  

But take a look - Andrew Giles does have a past, filled with financial problems.

He's filed for bankruptcy twice. In his latest bankruptcy, in 2019, he had a bunch of accounts with suppliers and customers that ended up listed as "liability on business debt."

The vast majority of debt from Andy's company at the time, Giles Contracting, LLC, got written off.
      
Andy bailed on Giles Contracting according to Michigan Incorporation papers, and in 2020 he started a new company - Giles Remodeling and Restoration.

A new start, a new name, but already an 'F rating' from the Better Business Bureau.

Dig deeper:

On Giles' nifty new website, it says free estimates. Let's get one.

We contacted Giles for an estimate where he said that he doesn't use subcontractors.

"Naw. This would be all me. This would be my guys," Giles told our customer.

That's opposite from what other customers told Wolchek. They claimed they never saw any worker in a Giles truck or anyone working in a Giles shirt.

Remember, all of the customers told us that the jobs took way longer than promised - and were never finished.

"This would be five days. Yeah, this would be quick," Giles said.

With the estimate back, we wanted to try to meet up with Giles' crews at his Highland office. But it looked like Giles bailed on the space.

He did tell our undercover customers that his office was in Waterford, so that was our next stop.

We thought we found it - but it's a State Farm office (despite the signage in front of the building). He wasn't at his office in Waterford, either, and Wolchek was told he hadn't been there in years.

The other side:

It was time for Wolchek to ask Giles a few questions.

"Why do you want to ask me questions?" he said.

Wolchek wants to figure out if Giles is a legitimate businessman but Giles was evasive and not interested.

"I'm done talking to you," Giles said.

Instead, he gave his attorney's name. When we asked about the BBB3 job, he wouldn't comment.

"That's the one that's going back and forth. That's the one that's in litigation," he said.

We asked about Bernard's claim of him taking money for equipment but he never gave it to him.

"No," was all he said.

He also denied that he didn't finish jobs.

"That's not true. I do not start and bail out on them," he said. "I don't know (why they're saying this). I don't know who's telling you this."

As for Karina and Sebatian, he said that work was done.

"That was legitimately what we got paid. We did the work," he said.

Andrew Giles: "I'm not ... talk to my attorney."

When we asked him about Dan's 8-month job, Giles slammed the door in our face.

Another one for the files. Andrew Giles, you're in the Hhhhhhalll of Shame!"

In an email, Giles' attorney, Paul Stoychoff says Giles Remodeling and Restoration LLC has been "doing business for 33 years."  

That's not true. The company was incorporated in 2020. Giles Contracting was incorporated in 2013 but it appears Giles walked away from that business after filing for personal bankruptcy.

Stoychoff says he didn't represent Giles in his bankruptcy but believes most of the vendors were paid. According to the bankruptcy itself, it appears most of the vendors were given a fraction, if any of the debts.

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