Complaint Review: Phoenix Restorations Paul Klann

We are the owners of a 650 square feet condo, located in Burnaby, Greater Vancouver, B.C, Canada and we would like to detail our experience with Phoenix Restorations. On the “date of loss”, two Phoenix Restorations employees entered our unit for half hour. During this time, they taped the ceiling (which did not require taping since the damage was isolated to the floor) placed dehumidifying machines and  they charged $4,056.53.  Their bill for one hour of labor amounted to $4056.53  There is a  surcharge is for their after hours/emergency hours. This was the first invoice. More details regarding grossly inflated material costs and the performance of unnecessary work are documented  in the following paragraphs.

Our water damage incident happened at March 17, 2020 around 7:40 pm. We phoned 911 immediately, and firemen arrived in 15 minutes, around 7:55 pm. Before they entered, we had already turned off the water for the entire unit.



My neighbour, my husband and I focused on wiping water from the flooring surface and the firemen focused on vacuuming the water from the floor with their special equipment. During the time, the onsite property caretaker phoned the emergency number for Phoenix Restorations. With the help of firemen and our neighbours, the water damage was contained quickly. They left after major work being done around 8:30 pm. My husband and I continued to do further cleaning.

Around 10pm, two workers from Phoenix finally arrived, performed a simple inspection and stated the water damage was “not bad at all” since we have already done the work.  They did a bit of taping, brought in two 1200 dehumidifier and 6 air dryers to our home and left the building around 10:30 pm. That is 30 minutes of work.

The day after incident, three Phoenix workers came into our home around 9:30am and did simple tests and  claimed the water damage was “very bad” and even taped our ceiling. This was contradictory to the comments made just 12 hours ago by Phoenix.


 After I repeated asked how does the water damage on floor travel up my ceiling, Phoenix Restorations employees cancelled the plan to tape off my celling. (Why is unnecessary work being performed?!) We requested the removal of all 8 machines from our property since our unit is small and the scope of work does not justify 8 machines.



After the machines from our home were removed, they went down to the commercial properties underneath our unit to claim the water damage needed to be fixed.


 The commercial owner who has first hand knowledge that the scope of damages are very very limited refused Phoenix Restoration’s intrusions. (We went down the commercial owners and apologize for the incident the same day, and changed two ceiling boards for the owner at the cost of $30 and supplied them with a brand new dehumidifier  for $299 for their use. The commercial properties were well maintained after our limited efforts.  After Phoenix Restorations was rejected by the commercial owner, they proceeded to the common area ( which had no signs of visible damage) removed a  base board, and hollowed out the partial wall to fan the inside without any communication with us to confirm this was necessary.

 In addition, they went to our adjacent same sized unit and claim that the adjacent unit was affected, and placed two dehumidifiers and an unidentified number of fans in the kitchen area of unit (we are unable to determine the number of machines used for the adjacent unit from the billing invoice). Even though our washroom is adjacent to our neighbour’s  kitchen, the water damage in our washroom was very limited. Our vanity was completely dry without any signs of damage. We then wonder how it is possible that Phoenix Restorations claims water seeped to our neighbour’s unit when our unit’s epicenter was not at all impacted.

All claims were unilaterally made by Phoenix Restorations and we were left completely in the dark at all times . They never consulted with us before work was performed. After few weeks, the strata forward a bill totalling $12,000 for 4 days of service for our 650 square feet unit and minimal common area.

 They then asked strata to permit them to approve more work, at additional costs. After we received the bill, and carefully went over the all items, we strongly believe the bill was very highly inflated and all the itemized costs were “unclean” so to speak. We immediately emailed the strata to notify them of issue and advised them not to pay any money before the Phoenix Restorations made the correct adjustments. We also asked the strata to not sign off on any further work forms that would give Phoenix the go ahead to deem the work complete.

We immediately consulted with construction industry experts and  machine rental companies to confirm the rationality of labour, emergency and material cost. We then we consulted with three B.C lawyers who specialize this in this area of legal expertise. Based on our large pool of evidence and legal consultation, we believe that Phoenix Restorations astronomically exaggerating the labour and material costs, equipment cost, and exaggerating the water damage level as well.

Phoenix Restorations lacks transparency and obscures the “real cost”. Instead, they grossly inflate the numbers in all areas to justify their billing. We cannot disclose all the detailed cost information here since we have already consulted the lawyers, and reserve the right to escalate to the legal phase if the dispute between us and Phoenix cannot be resolved.

We write this in order to help others  who might experience what we went though with the hopes they may avoid the same mistake. We kindly remind people when they experience the water damage: First, do not panic, secondly don’t let strata choose the restoration company. You have every right to choose one yourself so do your research before you call.  Thirdly some water damage situations like ours do not require the dispatch of a restoration company if you can contain the damage yourself. This would minimize your cost to large extent.  All the equipment rental in home depot or Rona are reasonably priced. Fourthly, if you do hire one of restoration, don’t let them take over the job until you fully understand what they going to do and what cost they are going to charge you. You have every right to refuse them to do.



Please use your caution and discretion when you choose the restoration company. Otherwise, you might be in our unfortunate position with lots of paper work, hours of legal consultations and  research to defend ourselves.
Covid-19 is a difficult time and it was made worse by a predatory and unethical company that is Phoenix Restorations. If you have already experienced what we went through, you can always defend yourself by filing the complaint to BBB, B.C Consumer Protection and even expose them to the media. The local news or social media. Last but not least, law is on your side if you have strong evidence. Always consult your lawyers with calm and clear account so they fully understand your case.

I hope this review will help the everyday consumers defend themselves from predatory businesses who take advantage of consumers in times of distress. We stand by our words.