Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/08/2023

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We hired the NIP DESIGN GROUP and **************** ****************** through our general contractor in July 2022. ****************, who claims to be an AIA member, was hired to provide architectural design services and apply for a construction permit application for addition/bump out to our house in NW, DC. **************** took our money for the design services and the permit application. After seven months of making false promises that everything had been filed in a timely fashion to DOB, we realized after placing a phone call to DOB that he still needed to submit some of the requested documents and had lied to us on numerous occasions, falsely claiming that he was doing everything he could and that it was DOB who was causing the delay in reviewing our paperwork. On confronting him with this information, **************** said he was overwhelmed with his work and personal problems and would get to our application immediately. He kept making these false promises and stopped taking our calls shortly after. Please do not hire ********************************* or NIP Design group for an architecture or permit-related work. He is unreliable and not trustworthy.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/08/2023

  We don't have a contract with this client. We delivered a complete set for the proposed project to his contractor. Unfortunately, **** is not accepting the proposed work due to a neighbor filling a complaint about the project we have proposed. We can't unfortunately control or overpower government official decisions on a project.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/12/2023

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
  
   Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  
  **************** is incorrectly blaming the *** (formerly known as ****) and our neighbors, who are good citizens. The *** has clearly stated in writing that this project doesn't require any neighbor notification, and there is no record of any complaint filed by neighbors. According to the *** project files, Proposed work does not contain any of the conditions laid out in Section 105.4.4.4 or 106.2.18.3 of the 2017 DC Construction Code. Neighbor Notification is not required.  Please see attached Exhibit 1- Evidence 

  I reject this response because :

  **************** is incorrectly blaming the *** (formerly known as ****) and our neighbors, who are good citizens. In fact, the *** has clearly stated in writing that this project doesnt require any neighbor notification. According to ***, Proposed work does not contain any of the conditions laid out in Section 105.4.4.4 or 106.2.18.3 of the 2017 DC Construction Code. Neighbor Notification is not required. Please see attached evidence.
  
  **************** filed the original permit in August 2022 but did this incorrectly despite there being clear instructions by *** on its website on how to file a permit.   Please see attached response from *** to NIP Design Consultants, telling him that he has not followed instructions. Please see Exhibit 2_Response from ***
  
  ****************, on being asked to refile the permit, had to submit a Survey PLAT as part of the pre-screening process but did not do this despite repeatedly telling us that nothing was pending on our side and incorrectly blaming the *** for delaying this project.
  
  Unfortunately, because of Mr. ******* unprofessionalism and tardy work, we've had no choice but to hire another architect and get in touch with *** to resolve this.