Customers claim remodeling company reneged on renovation commitments

More than a dozen Calgary families are crying foul and say a local renovation company cost them more than $3M when it went bankrupt.

The Remodelers Ltd. hosted the television show "Remodel It" and filed for bankruptcy two weeks ago leaving homes unfinished and bills unpaid.

Colin Paddington contracted The Remodelers to renovate his townhome last year and put 50 percent down.

He invested $170,000 in renovations and now will have to pay a second time to finish the job.

“There’s a lot of anger there, anger and frustration and I still don’t have a house to live in and it’s a long way away before that happens,” said Paddington.

To add to his troubles, subcontractors hired but the Remodelers are now coming after him for money they say the company never paid them.

Dave Reynolds hired The Remodelers before he learned about post-bankruptcy victims like Colin and was given an estimate of $600,000 for the work.

Reynolds says he paid $450,000, but the company’s owner, Bruce Hopkins, started trying to squeeze the rest of the money out of him before the job was done.

He says Hopkins demanded payment in full this summer even though many things were unfinished.

Reynolds says incomplete work, like a deck with no railing and a hole in the garage wall that allowed car exhaust into the house and 80-other deficiencies were listed in an independent inspection report.

The Remodelers bankruptcy filings show company liabilities outstrip assets by $4.5M.

It isn’t the first time the company has had issues.  Bruce Hopkins filed for personal bankruptcy in 1999 in Cranbrook, and efforts to contact him by CTV News went unanswered.

Calgary police and Service Alberta have received a combined 17 complaints so far and they are reviewing them closely to determine if the matter is purely civil or whether some of the activity crosses over into the criminal sphere.

For consumer information and complaints, visit the Service Alberta website HERE.

(With files from Lea Williams-Doherty)