Benefect was approached by Jim of Aramsco Corporate to share the unbelievable story of Ben & Erinn. In partnership with Jay Dargatz of CanStar Restorations DKI in British Columbia in Canada, some relief was provided to them through the Benefect Community Fund. The following excerpts of the communications involved tell the story….
Ben & Erinn purchased an older multi-story home recently and have been bombarded with a series of events that can only be described as a horrible real-life version of The Money Pit movie starring Tom Hanks.
They are a family of five with one more on the way. My concern is the children in a healthy environment. Ben and Erinn are a deserving couple. They prefer like most of us to stand on their own and not ask for help of any kind. All the while contributing to their community and church with no expectation of any reciprocal return.
Do you know of any contractors or organizations that would be interested in helping put Ben and Erinn’s home back to a safe indoor environment?
All the best,
Jim
We are a young family…we have been married 3 years and have 3 children and one on the way in February. We were very excited to purchase our very first home. When we took the children to look at the house they were so excited. They told their classmates that they were moving into a beautiful house and that they would have their own bedroom. I work 3 hours away at the Princeton Mine as a Welder and have to stay in Princeton as my shifts are 12 hours long. We bought the house because it had an apartment in the basement that we could rent out to help pay for our mortgage in case of a downturn in the mining industry. We had an inspection done on the house; everything seemed ok. We moved in New Years Eve!
Within a month everything fell apart. I lost my job (the mine I was working at closed) and we had to spend $5,000 to repair a leak in the roof, which we put on our credit card. Another month later we had the sewer back up in the basement. We put in an insurance claim for the first back up and had a plumber snake out the pipes…then a week later we had a second back up. So we call the city to see if there is a clog in the main line on their end. They come in, dig up the alley behind our house. Run dye and a camera through everything in the house but found nothing. And then the basement flooded again! We call our insurance again and a restoration company came to review the claim. They tore our basement apart and told us that there was no point in redoing the bathroom downstairs as they had found mold, rot, puddles of water and several areas where the foundation had leaks. They advised us that we needed to fix the leaks in the foundation, have all the plumbing checked, and the electrical was not safe so we should have an electrician to check everything in the house. The bathroom in the basement is completely torn apart.
We feel really let down and don’t have the money to hire all these people in order to fix everything that needs to be fixed and insurance doesn’t cover these repairs. We feel extremely cheated and ripped off. We have lost our faith and trust in so called professionals to fix these things for us anyway. We are pursuing legal action but are forced to live in serious health hazard of a home in the meantime and hoping to find justice in the legal system. We just want to make it a safe home and a healthy home.
We would be so grateful for your involvement and expertise…
Ben
Hope, BC Canada
Their water heater located in the basement burst yesterday and do to the prior issues there are insurance issues.
One of the major concerns are the sewer lines in the basement. As you know it’s an older house and so of course there have been many alterations and renovations over the years. There are drains that have been capped off, some have been re-routed and with others it’s not clear where they tie into the main sewer line if they tie into it at all. The other issue is the rain water leaders and gutters. Once the sewer lines have all been scoped we will know if there are drain lines that the rainwater can be diverted in to and if there are separate lines for the storm sewer. This repair may require the removal of the concrete floor in the basement and replacing some underground plumbing. Unfortunately I think the permanent fix will also include installing a proper coating to the exterior of their foundation wall, lowering some grades that are too high, and dealing with perimeter drainage issues, all of which are costly.
CanStar is going to contribute to the cause as well.
Jay Dargatz, CanStar Restorations DKI, Coquitlam, BC
The story is on-going but through such partnerships & leadership that Jay & Jim showed, The Benefect Restoration Community Fund was able to direct some much needed financial assistance to help Ben and Erinn get their house into a safe living condition for their young children.