Malaysia Bad Contractor

   BEWARE OF BAD CONTRACTOR Ben Chuah Eng Lock

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Just want to share some bad experiences on the house renovation of my two fellow colleagues. There are two cases here. Both are very unlucky that they meet this Chinese guy below.

Name: Ben Chuah Eng Lock

H/P: 017-2604042

Car plate: WNG 6808
Address: LOT 15050, HS(M), 5782 JOHAN SETIA, JALAN KLANG BANTING, 41000 SELANGOR.

Address: LOT 765-B-10, JLN SUBANG 4, SG PENAGA, USJ SUBANG.

Private FB:  https://www.facebook.com/englock.chuah

Company FB:  https://www.facebook.com/ZANOTTASTUDIO

Company website:  http://www.zanotta.com.my/

Additional Info
I/C: 730805105622
 

Case I:

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In the beginning of 2013, my colleague, Mr. A, has engaged Ben Chuah to renovate his current house. Mr. A plans to do a big renovation on the house, e.g. extending the house, modify the staircase, change the entire roof etc. Ben Chuah makes a lum sum quotation of RM180,000. He said that by end of year Mr. A can move back into the fully renovated house.

Before Mr. A agree on anything, Ben Chuah brings Mr. A for a site visit. In which, he claims that he just completed the renovation for this house. The house looks OK and so Mr. A has agreed to let Ben Chuah renovates his house. So Mr. A and his family has move out, temporary rented a house for RM1,000+ monthly.

During their earlier discussions, Ben Chuah seems to be very confident saying this OK that OK. Mr. A does seriously highlight that if something cannot be design in such a way, please be honest. When Mr. A pay a site visit, he found that the roof is not build according to what have been discussed. The staircase being modified in a horrible way, causing the Master Room on 2^nd floor being downscale, part of the room need to give way to the staircase. Ben Chuah extended the house extension without getting approval from the authorities.  

Every time visit the house, Mr. A only see 2 to 3 Indonesian working there. The progress is so slow and it is already September 2013. Mr. A has already paid 80% money to Ben Chuah, but the work has been done is less than 50%. When I visit the house, the walls have not proper cement. I see some big holes on the walls. Windows has not been fixed. The electricity and water supply piping are still pulling from outside the street as a temporary solution. The roof has not fully constructed, water will comes into the house if raining. One of the main pillar of the house being hacked down. Extension approval still pending. This is a total disaster. I ask the Indonesian workers, you simply hacking down the pillar, will the house collapse later. The worker answer me, “Tak apa, boleh tahan punya boss”.

Ben Chuah keeps dragging the progress, in 2014, price rising for building materials, he requests for more payment. Mr. A, of course, very unhappy and refuse to pay. It ends up Mr. A brings along his brother to deal with this Ben Chuah. Even after CNY holidays 2014, Ben Chuah still could not complete this project. I feel so sorry to Mr. A. This is a terrible experience in the life.

I think Ben Chuah is not a professional builder. He only hires some Indonesian workers and depending on them. Due to this, I think he is using the payment of Mr. A to cover his earlier screwed up project somewhere, which eventually causing the current renovation progress to be so unreasonably slow.

A lot of times the photos on his website and FB looks attractive, but in fact it is all fake. Now to think again, the completed project that he brought Mr. A to visit, I doubt it is actually work done by him too. So if you think to engage a contractor to renovate your house, please be aware, learn from the story.

Case II:

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After Mr. A engaged Ben Chuah to renovate his house, Mr. A has passed Ben Chuah’s contact details to another colleague of mine, Mr. B.

Ben Chuah has requested RM5,000 for interior design fees. The 3D design drawings that Mr. B received was not up to standard. It has no sense of design, looks like it has been drawn by some college dropout students. Mr. B has did a lot of comments and ask them to change the design to suit his preferences.

Hearing this, I remember I told Mr. B that you are more like paying RM5,000 to teach a designer how to complete a 3D interior drawings. What I feel is that Ben Chuah does not contribute any sound ideas to his client, which is completely unprofessional.

One day, Ben Chuah went missing, the drawings not completed yet. Mr. B unable try various ways to contact him but Ben Chuah was unreachable, e.g. call, sms, whatsapp etc. This ends up that Mr. B feels paying RM5,000 so expensive for nothing.

Anyway, Mr. B already put the case to police and planning to file the case to the court.