Customers pursued in plumbing payments tangle

When Kelly Mior paid a Hamilton contractor for plumbing work under a city-subsidized program last summer, she thought it was a done deal.

Months later, a letter from the contactor saying there was no record of her $2,200 payment left her bewildered — but not swayed. “I’m not giving them a cent.” But Mior is concerned other former customers of Ontario Contractors Network might be less firm.

“Well, if they’re doing this to everybody, there are a couple of people on my street who are in their 80s.”

Indeed, others have received notices about outstanding bills.

The city estimates it has fielded between 50 and 100 complaints over letters asking customers to settle accounts for backwater valves and scans of basements.

Last June, the city’s licensing tribunal banned Ontario Contractors Network (OCN) from plumbing jobs in Hamilton after complaints about poor quality jobs, incomplete work and questionable advertising practices.

OCN installed the valves, which are meant to prevent sewage backups, under the city’s $2.5-milliona-year protective plumbing program.

The program — since revamped with a roster of five pre-qualified plumbers — allowed homeowners to hire contractors to do the work and receive municipal reimbursements of up to $2,500.

Last year, the city disqualified a slew of grant applications for Ontario Contractors Network jobs. That meant some work didn’t go beyond initial video surveys of basements.

It also meant no payday for OCN, which in turn, meant money out of the pocket of Polaris Capital Group, its Vaughan-based lender.

OCN’s approach was to do the work up front and then collect grant cash from homeowners afterward.

Now Polaris is trying to settle with customers, hence the letters, its principal Martin Heppner said this week. “They may or may not owe that money. We don’t know. We do know that there are yearend accounts outstanding.”

Heppner also says Julian Davis and his wife, the Hamilton-based couple who operated OCN, owe him a “six-figure sum.”

Contacted by The Spectator this week, Davis suggested he was in the dark about Heppner’s complaints.

“I don’t know anything about it. I don’t know anything. I have to call Martin and talk to him.”

Davis, who ran the business out of a Frid Street warehouse, said he hadn’t talked to Heppner in “a long time.”

“So I don’t know, I mean, he took over the company, so …”

Heppner confirmed he’s “exercising his right” as lender to assume control of OCN. He also described his relationship with Davis as “contentious.”

During last June’s hearing, Heppner said OCN had about $2.6 million in outstanding work with its applications in limbo.

The city said OCN landed $515,270 worth of business in 2015 via homeowner grants.

This week, Heppner said the city has declined to provide a list of grant claims that didn’t meet the program’s requirements.

That makes it difficult to know which customers to contact about money owing, he said.

“So the result is that one has to laboriously send out an account statement to everybody.”

Customers who received grants must pay, but those who didn’t, don’t, Heppner said.

The city has reached out to homeowners contacted about outstanding payments, public works says.

Residents whose grant applications didn’t pass muster have been advised to tell the contractor that the work wasn’t eligible for city reimbursement, spokesperson Jasmine Graham said.

The city is supporting residents, Graham said, but the “matter is largely between the homeowner and the contractor.”

“As per the details of the program, property owners are responsible for all costs incurred that are not eligible for reimbursement through the program.”

But would-be customer Pat Ciarmoli — whom Heppner contacted about $500 purportedly owed for a video survey that didn’t qualify for a grant — blames the city for the billing “fiasco.”

The city should have done its homework, like any homeowner does before hiring a contractor, he said.

“If we can’t trust the city, who can we trust?”

Like Mior, Ciarmoli doesn’t plan to pay Heppner, but he too worries that more vulnerable customers might just sign over a cheque.

“This is ridiculous … Where’s this guy going with this thing?”

Heppner says he doesn’t plan to send a collection agency after customers.

“Because of the situation, everyone will be patiently and assiduously contacted individually.”