In late November 2009, I (Tom) signed a
contract with Mr. Peck to gut and remodel a small 35 sf bathroom in our house.
A deposit of $2500 was paid at contract signing, approximately 1/3 of the
contract amount. Mr. Peck started the work within one week, and
promised to complete the project by Christmas. Work progressed slowly,
sometimes days would pass with no one showing up to work. Debris from the
demolition was piled in the driveway out in front of the house.
In early December, Mr. Peck showed up
and requested another draw, which was paid. Note to the reader: On days that
Marshall wishes to be paid, he will show up with a crew of workers and there
will be a flurry of activity to impress the homeowner, and lull him into a
false sense of security that something is happening. Another $3,000 was
paid to Mr. Peck and he promptly disappeared for another week.
In late December, it was apparent
that the bathroom was not going to be completed by Christmas. There was a pile
of dirt in the corner. All of the drywall had been removed. The plumbing had
been roughed-in for the new shower. New materials had been stored in the
garage. And the pile of debris in the driveway remained. He showed up on
Saturday, December 23, in true form with a crew in tow. He asked for another
draw. Another payment of $2500 was paid to Mr. Peck. This was the last day that
we saw Mr. Peck in person and the last day that we spoke to him.
In early January, one of Mr. Peck’s
workers showed up at our house on a Sunday evening, and informed us that he had
not been paid for work done on our house and that he was going to file a mechanic’s lien
against our property. I paid the worker what he said he was due. We told the
worker that no one has shown up to finish the bathroom and we could not get Mr.
Peck to return our phone calls. The worker said that he was told by Mr. Peck to
not return to our house. The worker said that he and his brother could finish
our project in two weeks if we hired him, which we promptly did. The bathroom
was eventually finished, but it took three weeks.
After several months of attempting to
reach Mr. Peck by phone, requesting the return of a portion of what he was
paid, and receiving no response, we sued Mr. Peck in the District Court of
Prince George’s County. Mr. Peck was duly served but did not appear in court on
the appointed court date. A default judgment against Mr. Peck was awarded for
the amount requested. We hired an attorney to assist us in collecting the
judgment. We discovered that Mr. Peck has nothing in his name. The house
in which he lives, in West River, is in the name of his wife, Tamra Peck. We
also found that Mr. Peck has 16 judgments against him, which can be discovered
by searching the court records which are posted online. He
has duped just about everyone from an electrical supplier to a roofing and
siding company to other homeowners like us. Of course, he never responded
to the correspondence from our attorney. We filed a motion, signed by a
judge, compelling Mr. Peck to respond to the attorney’s letter. No response. We
subsequently appealed to the Maryland State’s Attorney’s Office -
Consumer Protection Division, the Better Business Bureau, and the Maryland Home
Improvement Commission, not necessarily to seek their help in getting Mr.
Peck to return the money, but with the hope that they would take note that
this guy was operating in the state and ripping people off. All of our
correspondence to these resources was returned; these agencies have no interest
in shutting this guy down and prevent him from operating in the state.
So we are posting this blog. If your
Internet search has brought you here, beware of Marshall F. Peck. He is known
to be operating in the Bowie and Potomac areas of the State of Maryland. In
addition to operating under his own name, he is also conducting business
under PARSONS DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION
MANAGEMENT, LLC. When we knew him, he was driving a late model Ford pickup
truck, maroon color, with Virginia plates, with damage to the rear tailgate.
We recommend that you do not engage him in any home improvement project.
No comments:
Post a Comment