Buyer Beware
If there were negative stars, that’s what I’d rate. Absolute nightmare dealing with Greg Donofrio, Ariana (Conte) Donofrio, and Stephen Bulla. FACTS:
1. Should have had a house built in May ‘25 after signing contract stating this in Nov '24, yet still trying to get them to complete foundation and framing!
2. They built our house out of proper sequence (framing decks, balcony and garage over dirt rather than putting foundations in first, put shingles on roof prior to framing and installing skylights and chimney, etc.).
3. They completely trashed our property inside and outside.
4. Poured garage slab ignoring ANY plan (both permitted prints and additional detailed architecturally approved plan aimed at compensating for their UNWILLINGNESS to properly compact dirt that could have later settled and caused cracking issues); failed to call for inspection prior to pour resulting in 3 issues we couldn't accept - potential settlement/cracking, too shallow needing out of code step height or 2 steps effectively making planned 2 car garage into big 1 car garage, and settling for 6'9" garage door rather than 7' called out in plan because of #2).
5. Our township building department issued them 4 building violations (unsafe structure, property maintenance, failure to follow plan, failure to call for inspection) that they’ve mostly ignored from mistakes they won’t or can’t correct and are going to court with our township over related fines over $120k and counting since Sept following verbal warnings since July and forewarnings from us since May. Our building inspector stated "I've never seen anything like this in all my 30 years of doing this!"
6. They likely haven’t been able to fix their mistakes partly because they stiffed the framer (AFTER an additional majority milestone payment was demanded and PAID for “framing completion” else they threatened to quit any additional work – note that framing was NOT complete). The framer later threatened us with a lien on our house, which would block a Certificate of Occupancy. Side note: I now know of 4 of their subcontractors that they have not paid currently or in the past. The subs only recourse is to put a lien on the homeowner’s property, which adds insult a top great injury to the homeowner.
7. Throughout our project, they strategically stalled progress, had nonexistent onsite project management/oversight, communication bordered on or else was best described as ghosting, they failed to correct any issue or get ahead of any impending issue despite PROACTIVE warnings and communication from us (we warned them they needed an inspection for the garage slab as one example of MANY), and seemingly tried to get themselves fired by weaponizing incompetence. The extend that we had to get involved as homeowners was surprising, exhausting, and infuriating.
It’s been an infuriatingly frustrating 1/2 step forward, 5 steps back on everything with them. They seem to only be capable of one thing at a time, use every excuse in the book to not work for significant stretches of time (deaths in extended in-law family, covid, illness, too cold, too wet, too busy, we'll be there and then not show REPEATEDLY, etc.), and use any question as an excuse to stop working for a month+. These guys just wore us down!!!
Strung us along barely doing much for so long that we had to fire them (months past our contracted completion date) if we wanted our house built, but this seems to be part of their strategy/MO across multiple jobs. They then go back to their subs and tell them they can't be paid because they were fired (presumably pocketing the balance).
Good luck getting them to correct issues despite fancy contract language that promises otherwise. They sent unsupervised and non-English speaking subs who damaged our property on site ($10k), creating a municipal waste zone of our backyard by burying our belongings into otherwise clean fill dirt they excavated. By belonging, I mean windows, window screens, a PELLET STOVE, A PROPANE TANK, rabbit hutch, a PALLET OF PAVERS, a STOVE PIPE, 2 large fence gates we were trying to save. I had to threaten their sub directly to call NJDEP to get this corrected to avoid thousands more in corrective spend by another hauling it off, we're still at a loss of value; ZERO involvement from APR throughout. We've since spent tens of thousands extra remediating the multiple page building violations on framing alone and we're only partially into it. We are delayed so much further, being displaced from our home even longer incurring greater rental losses. We lost our home to a fire and then this!!! We’re out so much time, energy, and money.
The gaslighting is real; they had us convinced for a while that delays were natural and this out of sequence building was normal; later we saw it for what it is. The minute we started trying to hold them accountable (respectfully and with INCREDIBLY GREAT RESTRAINT UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES), Arianna started whining about how disrespectful we were being. Greg was silent, letting his wife deal with the brunt of things, astonishing, but revealing. Seriously, not honoring any part of our contract, not building our house to plan, and costing us extra time and money is disrespectful! They resorted to libel on my porch.com review (a site that doesn't allow pictures which would support my claims), falsely accusing us of insurance fraud (we worked under a private adjuster's professional guidance) and other nonsense grasping at straws claims to refute our experience; the depths of their depravity have not ceased to amaze me the more I learn about them and other customers and subcontractors that they have LITERALLY DEVASTED in wasting their time, energy, and money.
I no longer believe the 5-star ratings on their Instagram that sold us initially, as it’s blocked for additional reviews. The reviews elsewhere also seem disingenuous, highly polished, from individuals that rate companies in other states as well, and/or don’t match our experience and that of many others. The minute Donofrio sees a negative review, he calls begging you to take it down or they try to discredit it one way or another as a non-customer, overly polite "we'll continuously improve" "promise", or with fabricated accusations. My attempts to place poor reviews on several other 5-star rated sites have been unsuccessful. Maybe if they worked a fraction of the time on the job their customers pay them for relative to the time they seem to spend carefully curating and maintaining a 5-star online rating, they might actually be semi-successful. UPDATE: their 180 review 5 star rated Google page was taken down within 12 hrs after my negative review and their response; not sure if this was their attempt to scrub a perfect looking image or if Google's AI flagged it for false reviews.
There is a pattern of these behaviors across several other customers’ experiences (most completely heartbreaking) that has started to come out online and can be found online (recent reviews from B Murph on birdeye and Scott on BBB resonated resoundingly); I see through court filings that we’ll be one of MANY upcoming lawsuits against APR for eerily similar situations. There are 3 complaints under investigation currently with the NJDCA, the HIC licensing board, and 3 BBB complaints. Some of these date back almost 9 years, so I can only wonder how many victims there have been since.
I have receipts, emails, pictures, building code violation letters, and court summons to prove my statements and YES I am a real live customer of APR’s! Their disingenuous response steeped with fake empathy is further evidence that they resort to character attacks and libel/slander that don't actually fix the issues their work creates, instead they threaten and deflect accountability by victim blaming. The pictures and court document details speak for themselves. They are NOT recommended!
