The Borough Chose to Line the Pockets of Their Vendors, in Front of Our Physical and Financial Well-Being.
Notorious for pushing their way into numerous municipalities, T&M Associates are over-priced and admitted to knowing zilch about house-lifting. Wonderful — sign me up. don’t all homeowners want to experience that type of service? Um, NO!
The new town engineer from T&M, ordered geotechnical testing for our project – soil drilling to 40ft. The test went into overtime. It took 10 hours, due to broken drill-bits and their ability to only drive one bore to 30ft. In the end, T&M didn’t even obtain what they requested. Nor, did they drill in the specific areas of our property that we were told was requested.
In another “money-wasting” display, her structural engineer was under our house confirming (and then and she too, repeated), “all sills to be replaced,” — just as it is indicated on the plans. However, as the house-lifting got underway, the house remained lifted in the air, as a major discussion was being held on what sill plates are. They actually tried to redefine a construction standard – “Sill Plate,” to garner additional funds, in order to make up for the under-bidding of a project that was front-loaded by T&M Associates and the Borough of Sea Bright. Unbelievable! The Builder wanted to drop our home down on rotten sills (because he never inspected house nor knew how to read the plans). THEN, we were pressured to come up with additional funds to pay for what he required to supply in his contract! Really?
The new Sea Bright Engineer pushed her way into our project — ultimately pushing us out — after we did all the legwork.
But, I guess that’s why Sea Bright hired her. T&M couldn’t even fill out our Elevation Certificate properly, yet were paid for doing it twice! It took a while to find out from the NFIP and our insurance agent what was wrong. All the while, we are still paying full flood insurance, as if our house had not been lifted. It’s amazing that we, the homeowners, have no access to provide updates to their own NFIP data. It was like a secret being kept from us about why we were still required to pay full flood insurance. We filled out what paper work we were allowed to on our end, but when T&M was contacted about their mistakes, they said they would fix it, yet never did!
UPDATE: It’s 2019 and this Flood Insurance problem is still not fixed! Eight years after lifting the house, we continue to pay full flood insurance and receive letters in the mail from FEMA, regarding the benefits of lifting our house, since we are in a high-risk flood area are. NJOEM is well aware of this and has done nothing to fix this on our behalf. How can this be possible?
Below is the letter to The NJOEM, where T&M and the Borough requested changes to the contract we signed, without notifying us. Once this 52K dollar money grab was completed, T&M began telling us that there were not enough funds in the grant to do the construction work. We asked that they resubmit the grant, but they refused — saying it would never be allowed. Later, FEMA’s representative told us otherwise. In summary, the Borough put lining the pockets of their vendors, in front of our physical and financial well-being.
All frauds, like the wall daubed with untempered mortar… always tend to the decay of what they are devised to support.
Richard Whately
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