Projects Abandoned by Chad Golem - Crooked Contractor in Cleveland

Properties

These are some of the propeties of Chad Golem's victims and a brief description of their loss. This is by no means intended to be a complete and exhaustive list. There are other known victims, and almost certainly many, many, other victims that are unknown. This selection of properties is presented to highlight some of the victims' experiences with Golem Construction. Even though the below properties highlight losses incurred by the owners, please keep in mind that, in all of these cases, subcontractors and/or employees also suffered losses due to lack of payment by Mr. Golem.

Marwell, Twinsburg

Through a combination of lies, misdirection and deception, Mr. Golem was able to con $67,000 out of the project manager for this property. He consistently lied to him, and even went so far as to show the project manager receipts for deposits and the purchase of materials to finish the project; claiming the materials were stored off-site. Of course, no deposits were ever made and no materials were ever purchased. Mr. Golem simply stole the money. If you are wondering how this could happen, part of the answer is really very simple. The project manager was a friend of Mr. Golem and his brother Nathan Golem. Mr. Golem and the project manager even played in the same golf league together. The project manager knew Mr. Golem and his family and trusted them, and this made him a perfect mark.

These pictures were taken 9 months after the project supposedly began. Other contractors, brought in to look at the property, estimated the work performed by Mr. Golem to be "maybe" $1,000 in demolition. To make matters worse, the basement flooded and had 4.5 feet of standing water that Mr. Golem did nothing to remediate. He simply let the water sit in the basement. This caused an additional $30,000 in damage to the foundation. The last 3 pictures show the basement after drained. Mr. Golem essentially did nothing on this property. The loss due to theft and lack of performance by Mr. Golem is well over $100,000 for this property.

Marwell Pictures

(Click image to enlarge)

Marwell Exterior Front — Exterior - 9 months after Mr. Golem was hired

Marwell Exterior Side — Exterior - 9 months after Mr. Golem was hired

Marwell Kitchen Dining Area — Kitchen / Dining

Marwell Stairs to Basement — Basement Stairs-the dark line on the stairs is the water line. Apprx. 4.5 ft of standing water in the entire basement

Marwell Basement after draining — Basement after Draining

Leaview, South Russell

This property was supposed to be a three month full house rehabilitation project. Six months after the project started, Mr. Golem told the (out of state) owner that he was a little behind but that he would be done in 2-3 weeks. He told him this twice in a 6 week period. Mr. Golem even started painting the interior of the house so he could send "strategically" taken pictures to the owner purportedly showing it near completion. When Mr. Golem completely ceased communication, the owner showed up in Cleveland unannounced.

These pictures are how the owner found the property. Mr. Golem had been paid $57,616 at this point. Very little real work, beyond the demolition and some framing/drywall in the basement, had been done. In a testament to how good Mr. Golem is at lying to and manipulating his victims, the owner ended up staying in Cleveland for 6 months. Eventually he was able to verify that everything Mr. Golem was telling him was a lie. He ultimately took over the project and hired and paid for the subcontractors and material to finish. Even with this involvement, the loss still ended up being close to $35,000. This does not include the value of the owners 6 months of time, his cost to stay in Cleveland, or the additional 10 months of holding costs.

Leaview Pictures

(Click image to enlarge)

Exterior Front of Leaview — Exterior Front

Exterior Side of Leaview — Exterior Side

Exterior Back of Leaview — Exterior Back

Leaview Garage full of trash — Garage - Demo debris still in garage

Duffield, Beachwood

Mr. Golem was the contractor on this property. It was a full house rehabilitation. After this property was supposedly finished, the owner asked Mr. Golem to do some additional work - add a deck on to the back of the house and reconfigure the master bedroom entryway and closet. Mr. Golem was paid $8,000 for this additional work. The project manager paid Mr. Golem in advance. Mr. Golem did about a half day of work removing some drywall, and then walked away from this project with the money he had been paid. He never did any additional work. Later, it was determined that the original rehab work was never really finished either. Electical, plumbing and a whole list of other items were never completed. In addition to the $8,000 lost due to outright theft, it cost the owner over $5,000 to complete the items left unfinished. The pictures show the state of the property as Mr. Golem left it.

Duffield Pictures

(Click image to enlarge)

Duffield Master Bedroom Unfinished Closet — Bedroom Closet - the closet still needed to be removed.

Duffield Master Bedroom Unfinished Entry Way — Bedroom Entry - drywall was removed from the entryway

City of Beachwood Stop Work Order — City Order - Mr. Golem did not get a permit for the work. It was later discovered that he didn't get permits for ANY work he did.

Duffield unfinished exterior work — Exterior

Duffield unfinished basement work — Basement - the plumbing and electrical were never completed.

Duffield unfinished basement closet — Closet - the basement closet was left unfinished.

Duffield broken water heater — Water heater - leaking and never replaced.

Duffield ceiling peeling — Ceiling peeling

Daleford, Shaker Heights

The owner of this property lived in Cleveland, knew Mr. Golem, and considered him a friend. At Mr. Golem's request, the owner paid him an advance of $3,000 to "hold his time" open for this project. The owner was moving overseas and needed this project completed within 2 months. He offered Mr. Golem a generous bonus to finish within the 2 month period. Mr. Golem accepted but did not finish within the 2 month period. At the end of 2 months, the owner was ahead on payments to Mr. Golem by about $10,000-$12,000 versus the actual work performed. Once the owner moved overseas, Mr. Golem ceased communication and completely ignored the owners e-mails, calls, and texts. He never once responded to the owner and simply walked away from the project. The owner had to make a very expensive 2 week trip back to Cleveland to confront Mr. Golem and make plans to have the project finished. Ultimately, Mr. Golem kept the owners money and never did any additional work. You can read more about the owners trip back to Cleveland in the Nathan Golem section on the Team Golem page.

Daleford Pictures

(Click image to enlarge)

Daleford Hole it Kitchen Ceiling — Kitchen - this is the kitchen ceiling with a bathroom above it still to be built.

Daleford Unfinished Bathroom — Bathroom - the second smaller bathroom.

Daleford Kitchen Dining Area — Kitchen/Dining

Daleford Sliding Door in Dining area — Sliding Door

Shelburne, Shaker Heights

This is another property that Mr. Golem was asked to do additional work. In this case, he simply had to replace the deck in the backyard, re-orient a small section of the backyard and replace a window in the front of the house. The front window was never replaced. The remainder of the work took 6 months to complete, and the owner had to pay additional funds just to "get it done" because Mr. Golem claims he had no money. During the entire time, the owner was repeatedly lied to about the status of the work, and Mr. Golem's ability (or willingness) to complete it. Mr. Golem was paid $4,675 for this work up front. This house was schedule to be resold after the work was complete. Mr. Golem's delay cost the owner over $5,000 in property taxes alone - more than the cost of the project.

Shelburne Pictures

(Click image to enlarge)

Shelburne backyard with unfinished deck — Deck - this is the deck 3 months after Mr. Golem was paid in full.

Shelburne unfinished backyard — Backyard - the backyard 3 months after full payment with nothing done.

City of Shaker Heights Stop Work Order — City Order - once again Mr. Golem did not obtain a permit.

Shelburne Front Exterior — Exterior - Mr. Golem was paid to replace the large window to the left of the door, but never did.

Shelburne backyard grass area complete — Finished Yard - this took six months to complete.

Shelburne Finished Deck — Finished Deck - this took six months to complete and the owner paid additional for materials just to get it done.

Colony, South Euclid

This property is a different situation. Mr. Golem actually owns this property. Technically, title is held by his father-in-law George Albert. You can read about Mr. Albert's involvement here. Mr. Golem approached a friend, the same friend who ultimatley hired him to work on the Daleford property, and asked him to make a 6 month loan secured by this property. The stated purpose was to fix up the property and bring it up to code. Luckily the lender only advanced him half of the total amount because he realized that Mr. Golem was not using the funds for the stated purpose. Ultimately Mr. Golem defaulted on the loan without ever making a payment. At some point, Mr. Golem could have taken the high road and simply deeded this property to the Lender (his friend) in satisfaction of the loan, but he did not. Instead he has forced his friend to go through a very long and expensive judicial foreclsosure, after repeatedly lying to him about his intent to resolve the situation.

Colony Pictures

(Click image to enlarge)

Colony Interior Hall and Living Room — Interior