Ecowest Renovations-No Longer in Business

Ecowest has declared bankrupt with 183+ home owners and suppliers and others owed over 2.3 million dollars. 88 home owners are listed on the bankruptcy documents with many of them doing TD financing and left with nothing but tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

If you are an Ecowest victim, contact the trustee through the link below to their website. That page has full details of the bankruptcy in the downloadable PDF. Also, contact Mitch at mitchums@live.ca as he is helping to organize the homeowners and providing a lot of information. As a group, there is a potential for further action.

http://mnpdebt.ca/en/corporate-insolvency/corporate-engagements/Pages/details.aspx?title=ecowest-renovations

Note to Homestars: You might want to take a look at that link and documents and take down the Awards and ratings. As many people hired Ecowest based on your site's recommendations, it would be a good idea to leave the profile up as a source of information for people who have not heard the news. It appears Ecowest has not filed all the homeowners that gave them money on their creditor list. It keeps growing every day.

This is just my experience.

I paid a deposit and have not heard back in many weeks. All forms of contact go unanswered.

Are any of you formally complaining to the BBB. Surely their A+ rating cannot be right.... and their CHBA and Renomark affliations... do thiese organizations allow this to happen to us??

Last August 2013, we made a commitment with Ecowest to do our home renovation. We paid deposit and has a 1 year no interest loan to our name. We were told February as the start date. It is now March and after trying to contact them several times, we are now told to wait another 4 to 6 weeks. Very very disappointed about this delay. Our next door neighbour, who we saw Ecowest truck at, when they were giving them an estimate, chose a different contractor, their project is now all done. While I am still hoping we can start this month....at the earliest.

In August 2013 we contacted EcoWest to come give us an estimate to have the front of our house done. When Aaron came to see us we liked him a lot, but we thought his prices were way to high so we had him come back and went over them with him. He came down roughly 10K in the estimate. He told us that the reno could start as early as middle of September but more likely October 7th. We kept contacting him to keep on the time line. This was the first hint of a problem. We were always the one contacting him, He never voluntarily contacting us with any updates. We had initially told him that we needed reno done before end of October as we were going away at the beginning of November to visit out son. They did not start the reno until October 28th when they sent two fellows over to start. When we had originally spoken with Arron he told us that they would cut the stucco. This was especially important on the soffits as the stucco was only coming off the soffit, not the side of the house. It was necessary to cut to keep the integrity of the angle to the side of the house. Well, this did not happen and as a result the stucco on the sides of the house became all chipped off unevenly and is very noticeable. The two fellows removing the stucco where not careful in their removal. They cracked all three window frames on the front of the house as well as a chip out of one of them. These windows had only been replaced a couple of years ago. We had told them we wanted to keep the screen door and frame from the front door to use it on the back. Well, they bent the frame and were not careful on its removal.With the removal of the stucco, it all ended up all over the garden on the front of the house. We had been led to believe that they would be putting down tarps or some such thing so that the mess was minimal and that it would be cleaned up on completion of the job.The guys doing it arrived without any tools so they used some of ours to pry, hammer, cut and smash the stucco off the front of the house and the soffits. There was damage done to the shingles on the roof when they tore down the old facia board. For some reason when they replaced the door they put a smaller door in. The had to come back and take that door, plus the new framing they had done, down and put in a larger door. This was the only part of the job that was done with any expediency. They also put a very large hole on one side of the house where they leaned a ladder up against the stucco and told us that we were responsible for the damage as it was something that could not be foreseen. They did repair it (telling us we needed to pay extra for the repair) but made a terrible mess of the repair, leaving stucco mud everywhere, even all over our ladder that they used to reach the hole. This mess was also never cleaned up. Ladder was left up against the house with mud all over it. We had our front stairs redone at same time, they put slate on them, but unfortunately, not sure if this was done right as there are several pieces of slate that have large indents in them where the water collects. The railings finally got installed this year. There were issues with removal of the old stucco which eventually got dumped into a bin in our driveway. All the mess that they had in the drive way, dust, dirt, stucco caused the drains in our driveway to clog up. We have heard noting from them since the railings where installed this year. The night before we were leaving we still had a bin in our driveway that needed to be removed so that we could move vehicles around. We had to threatened to have it towed away ourselves so they had a tow truck come at 9:00 at night move it from our driveway to the street until the next morning. We left for vacation on November 7th and someone was supposed to come the next week and clean windows and siding from the stucco dust. they never showed up and as we had someone staying at the house they expected to hear from them as to what day. no calls and no cleaning. when they finally showed up we had not turned on outside water. we had to ask them to come back as my husband was just about to go to an appointment and didn't have time to bleed lines. we hadn't done so prior as we thought they were supposed to be there between 8:30 and 9:30 and to be honest, we were going on past history of Ecowest not showing up, that we fully expected this would be the same story and weather had been so cold we were not going through the process for nothing. If they had shown up at time given us then there would have been plenty of time to turn on water. So, job started october 28th still not completed to our satisfaction. It is now left up to us to clean up the mess they have left behind. we have heard nothing from them in two months. What a disappointment. We started out with a very good feeling about Aaron and his company but have been truly, truly disappointed in the job. It looks great from a distance, but when you get up close, you can certainly pick out the problems. Unfortunately we would not recommend Ecowest to anyone else.

I hired Ecowest, based on the reviews I read here on Homestars.
There are some serious issues going on here with getting any work done. I've been waiting 31/2 months and still nothing.

If you do decide to go with them, or any other company, under no circumstances, advance them any money before the work is complete.

Run away from this company as fast as you can!!!!

During the recent cold weather, condensation formed between the panes of the french door Ecowest installed on my home. This problem recurred over several weeks. After contacting them by email and phone, I was told this is "normal" and "no problem". When I disagreed, I was told someone would come out to my home to look at the door. That was 2 weeks or more ago and no one has visited or called. The impression I am left with is that once they have your money you are on your own. I would not use this company again.

In Nov. 2012 we spoke to Ecowest about replacing our windows, hot water tank, and furnace. They spoke to us about interest free home renovation loans and we signed a loan for $39 k. In January 2013 the work was done and we were pleased with their products and service. We then decided to have them do our bathrooms, and we signed another loan application for $35 k. We did not really need loans as we had a line of credit, but the fact that the loans were interest free for a year and we could pay them off at any time, seemed like a good deal. It took us a while to choose all our bathroom products and we didn't order all our products through Ecowest until the beginning of May. At then end of June we asked for a start date on our project, but they couldn't give us one. Eventually our bathrooms were started and completed in Oct. 2013. We were pleased with the qualify of the products and the work actually did get done in a timely manner, once it started. What's the problem? We did not realize that as soon as we signed the loans, Ecowest received all of our money, although there is a clause, item 12 on these loans that states that all goods and services have been received and that the client authorizes for the funds to be released to the Dealer (Ecowest). When we took out the loans, we did ask what would happen if we reduced the scope of work to be done and Ecowest owed us money. We were informed that, "we will just write you a cheque." Well, now the work has been completed and we are owed money. We have been trying to collect it since Nov. 2013, and have been consistently told they need another month. Unfortunately it is our understanding that the company is now in a financial mess. We believe the company engaged us prematurely in these loans, putting us at risk. Ecowest had 100% of our money, months in advance of when the work began.