BELFOR Property Restoration

Mar 2023

Be aware!A fire occured at an adjoining property on 09/27/2022 resulting in damage to my condo. Due to this event, I had to file a claim as the property was inhabitable (claim filed with my home owners insurance on 09/28/2022). My property was never apart of the fire investigation and I was told to proceed with my home owners insurance who would then suborgate, by the fire marshall the day of and again on 11/15/2022 when both insurance companies and the county came out to view the properties. Despite this fact, Belfor is still trying to push a narative that they are waiting for a fire report (which the County Permits office has comfirmed does not exist). Regardless of...read full review

Mar 2022

Background: Belfor is the company Fairfax County Government uses as a 3rd party vendor for water damage restoration. If you ever have sewer water damage to your home, this is the company Fairfax contracts with to provide you the service. WARNING: If you don't use Belfor, the county will only reimburse you the costs Belfor would've charged. The county claims it's in their documentation that they cover the costs whether or not they accept liability, but this isn't true. It's written nowhere in the packet they give you on the date of your incident.Our sewer water damage happened on 11.9.2021. The issue: Belfor NEVER contacted my husband and I throughout our 4 month process of waiting for the county to accept liability and offer us a settlement amount for damage. Our county adjuster gave me the name of the company and said numerous times "Belfor has a large project and that's causing delays" as to why Belfor didn't provide them with a timely estimate of our renovation costs and damage estimates. The company we used for water mitigation sent them detailed pictures of the water damage and clean up process, but Belfor still couldn't process the estimate in a timely fashion. I called the front desk of Belfor and got the name of the man who is responsible for Fairfax County's cases (starts with an S, I think) and he wouldn't even tell me if they needed to come to our home as part of the estimate to see the damage. So my husband and I delayed the renovation work for months, to be safe, because we didn't know if they needed to lay eyes on our home. After that I never spoke with anyone from Belfor unless I called them, because remember they had another big project the county claimed they were working on. Fast forward: It's March 2022 and the county FINALLY offers us a settlement amount. My husband and I are going back and forth about the amount and look at what the county rep says: ""It also did not take a month for Belfor to reach out regarding the inspection and none of the reconstruction started when Belfor arrived on site. I am not sure why they were turned away and not allow(ed) access to you(r) home for inspection even if you had already agreed to go with a different contractor as this would have assisted in the evaluation process". Belfor lied to the county and said we denied them access to our home, which is dumb because we wanted them to come to see how much of a mess it was and how destroyed our lives had become. We hadn't even done any work on our home when I last spoke to Belfor. Just a bunch of nonsensical, ridiculous, and inflammatory lies. I'm disgusted by them and their lack of care for the customer, because we were a Fairfax county resident, which meant they would be receiving our business through them. Lastly, this was a horrible lie because it affected the chance of us hiring them for the renovation work. DO BETTER BELFOR!

Oct 2015

A tale of caution... On September 9th, a professionally dressed and English-speaking Belfor estimator came to give an estimate for a bathroom ceiling drywall repair (due to a water leak). There was a ceiling sprinkler head involved, so I was sure to communicate how important it was that whoever did the work was experienced and knew the particulars about working around it. This included a requirement to notify the community's superintendent to shut off the water prior to commencing the repair. If the sprinkler head is hit, or disturbed, while the sprinkler system is still on -- there is a high probability of setting the system off throughout two buildings -- thereby causing more damage to multiple units and resulting in significant personal liability to the homeowner. The estimator assured me that Belfor had crews ready to do the work and would assign my job to a crew who had the necessary work experience. The actual paperwork estimate arrived via email in a timely manner and was meticulous in every detail. Although the cost of the job seemed high, we'd had no luck getting bids from other contractors because the job was too small, or because the sprinkler head was involved -- so we signed off on the job with Belfor. About a week later, a crew supervisor and a laborer came out to do a "pre-job walk-through." The supervisor was young-ish, but seemed experienced enough to spec out the job -- but I did have to provide him with a hard-copy of the actual estimate itself because he didn't have it in hand. He said it would be no problem for his laborer to do the work and be careful of the sprinkler head. However, it proved difficult to get the job scheduled. There was lots of telephone tag involved, along with various excuses about trying to fit my "smaller" job into their busy schedule. Finally, the work was scheduled for October 5th. The same crew supervisor shows up but with a different laborer -- 90 minutes late. Then the supervisor tells me that the laborer (who doesn't speak English very well) has to run to the nearby Home Depot (5 minutes away) for materials but will be back soon. [I'm thinking, why show up without the materials -- or tools -- to do the job? Surely, this is not a good sign. But I try to give them the benefit of the doubt.] Two hours later, I call the supervisor to find out where the laborer is. He tells me the laborer had to go pick up another guy because he felt he needed help doing the job. I'm told he'll be back at my job soon. It is not clear whether the laborer made the run to Home Depot or not. Another two-and-a-half hours later -- I was ready give up and leave, after waiting a total of SIX (6) hours with no work done yet -- the laborer finally showed up again. Alone. He was very apologetic. However, he refuted everything the supervisor had said. I asked the laborer if he was ready to work, but he said he still needed additional help and drywall. When I asked what was going on, he explained that his car was too small to carry drywall. I saw his vehicle in the parking lot, and it was indeed a small car. No room for drywall. It was unclear whether he was waiting for the drywall to be delivered, or if he was waiting for someone with a bigger vehicle to pick him up so he could go get it. Furthermore, he was completely alone. He said he was waiting for help -- which I took to mean that he was waiting for someone to arrive at the job to help him -- not that he had been sent to pick anyone up. I told the laborer I was leaving and that I would call Belfor to cancel the job. My last call on my way out was to let the building superintendent know that the sprinklers could be turned back on because my repair job wasn't happening after all. He asked me, "Why not?" Then he said, "...the guy just came down here and [borrowed my] ladder." Incredibly, the laborer had borrowed a ladder from the superintendent because he didn't even have one! Belfor's idea of a competent crew and my idea of a competent crew are polar opposites. Cl