This is Benjamin Karakhanian. He works at UNIVERSAL FLOOR SOURCE located at 24520 S Crenshaw Blvd, Torrance California. Ben K (his business card only says "Ben K") is looking at our kitchen floor after mold remediation was done. The mold remediation was paid for by Assurant, my home insurance.
In this photo, Ben is probably contemplating how his crime is going to happen. He is looking at tile that was not broken by the mold remediation contractors. He is going to instruct his worker to break these tiles and tell me to tell Mr. David G. Klein, my insurance adjuster that the tile had to be replaced because it was broken.
Later when I went into the kitchen, the tile WAS broken. Before I could protest that I could not say what Ben K was asking me to say to my insurance company, Ben K's worker blurted, "You told me to break the tile." The young man probably did not know his boss was doing unauthorized things, judging from the surprised way he blurted this.
Ben K changed his story. He told me he had to remove the tile because the surface was ruined by the remediation chemicals. He had just tried to wrongfully blame the mold remediation company for breaking tiles they did not break. Now he was saying that the mold remediation men had ruined the tiles with chemicals.
Where did I find this guy? I bank a lot with SYNCHRONY BANK and I checked their sight for contractors who could restore my kitchen after mold remediation. UNIVERSAL FLOOR SOURCE was listed as someone they trusted to do business with. SYNCHRONY BANK did not know UNIVERSAL FLOOR SOURCE did not have a license to do the work they did on my kitchen.
Later Ben K lied to the CSLB by telling them that HE had paid SYNCHRONY BANK back. In fact, SYNCHRONY BANK zeroed the account and Ben K did not pay them one penny of the money he took for cabinets he never delivered. Ben K thought the CSLB was so stupid that they would just notice the account balance was zero and would believe his lie that he had returned the money. SYNCHRONY BANK, upon request from me, wrote an email that made it clear they had not received any money from Ben K. If I had not requested this email, Ben K would have gotten away with this lie. He has gotten a way with quite a few lies. UNIVERSAL FLOOR SOURCE is currently boasting that they are working with SYNCHRONY BANK again:
Ben K did not get permission from ASSURANCE INSURANCE to demolish my kitchen. He didn't just demolish the floor, he cut through electrical wires and sloppily taped them back together, some he left some damaged wire not taped. Ben K's worker also blurted that I my autistic son and I should never come inside the double containment tent that they put up because we could get electrocuted. Other, real electricians, have confirmed that our kitchen is dangerous, that it is a fire hazard and an electrocution hazard.
When Ben K was confronted and knew an ASSURANT field agent was at the Home Owner's Association gate and on his way to our house, Ben K literally ran out of our house before the field agent could question him.
The mold remediation crew that was working on another portion of the house went back into the kitchen to inspect it and was shocked by the horrible smell. My son had been in the emergency room and we were living in emergency housing (which has expired since April 2017) and did not know about the smell yet. The mold remediation crew had to wear masks to go back in the kitchen. The smell was so bad it was intolerable. He found an uncovered canister that had the strong odor coming from it. It was contaminated paint. All the drywall had to be removed, at my expense because UNIVERSAL FLOOR SOURCE would not take responsibility for what they did. I was not able to afford to pay for the new drywall, flooring and electrical damage. Our kitchen has been destroyed and I have been left alone to deal with the damage.
The horrible smell came from this bucket that was underneath a slab of drywall in the kitchen. It did not have a proper lid. The smell was all over the wall which was painted a shocking, glaring white that did not match the soft white paint in the rest of the house. The room smelled so bad it made your eyes water and every contractor who went inside refused to stay inside, demanded to discuss the job OUTSIDE.
As stated, SYNCHRONY BANK refunded me the kitchen cabinet money that ASSURANT INSURANCE had allotted for cabinets only....not flooring and electrical. I was warned that Ben K would probably try to put a lien on our house because he had a reputation for doing that sort of thing. I think I was fortunate in that regard because I had already reported UNIVERSAL FLOOR SOURCE / Ben K to:
Contractors State License Board
Norwalk Investigative Center
12501 Imperial Highway
Norwalk, California 90650
Investigator: Arturo Camacho
Case Number: SF 2016 008248
Here is the CSLB investigation results:
The CSLB sent the case to the District Attorney's Office with a recommendation for criminal prosecution. I have not received and update yet but I did see that SYNCHRONY BANK is being published on UNIVERSAL FLOOR SOURCE ads as if nothing bad happened to us. The ad even boasts discounts for seniors. This is how they left our kitchen when they got caught trying to cheat us and our insurance:
Ben K knew my autistic son was sick. He told ASSURANT that the reason he didn't wait for them to authorize work was because of his great love and compassion for my autistic son James. I listened to him tell my insurance adjuster David Klein of ASSURANT that he did it so my son James could get back into his house sooner, that he knew James would get well if he could move back into his house.
Ben K seems to have no regret that my autistic son had to stay in a hotel many months longer and that we ran out of emergency housing funds from ASSURANT in April 2016. The horror it has caused an autistic boy who was suffering with lung infections, fainting, high blood pressure and other serious problems to have to deal with having no safe place to live is beyond words.
I will try to verify if SYNCHRONY BANK knows they are working with UNIVERSAL FLOOR SOURCE again.
I will ask the DISTRICT ATTORNEY how this case is progressing.
I can tell you that BEN K's attorney wrote me a letter which I will post soon, threatening me if I did not remove my YELP review. The Contractor's State Licensing Board is citing PETERSEN DEAN for what they did to our property. Petersen Dean is posting this dishonest comment to try to fool potential customers into believing he did nothing wrong.
