My husband and I contracted with LA Green Design in November 2019 for them to convert our garage into an ADU on our property. We were required to pay approximately $4,000 upon signing the contract so they could draw up our plans, which we gladly did. By January, they had their architect draw up very basic 1-D plans for the building itself only, even though our $4,000 was supposed to include a soil report, landscape design, structural design, green building documents, hardscape and decking, shoring plans, topographic survey, tree reports, and civil design reports. We NEVER received ANY other documents or reports that the contract agreed to provide and have still yet to (14 months later). Jose Martinez claimed to us that he had submitted our approved plans to the city in February 2020 for expedited review. Shortly after, Covid-19 became present and we expected there would be natural delays in the process and we were more than accommodating and understanding. We would check in with Jose about 1x/month for updates and he claimed still no word from the city. By October 2020, we were starting to lose patience and we expressed our frustration to Jose. He mentioned that he was still waiting for approval from LA Dept. of Water and Power which seemed strange to us considering he would have needed their approval to submit our plans to the city (which he said he had done in Feb). We were able to easily poke holes in his story and he was caught in a lie that he submitted to the city in February when, in fact, he never did so. My husband and I were left no choice but to do some investigating of our own. We contacted LADWP and immediately got ahold of an employee who confirmed that they gave approval in March 2020 and even forwarded us confirmation of their approval that they had sent to Jose back in March. Jose continued to lie and make excuses. From there, he became hostile and aggressive both over the phone and via email. The more we expressed concern that things didn't seem to make sense, the more aggressive he became. He threatened us that if we didn't pay the next installment of our contract (another $5,000) he was going to put a lien on our home within 24 hours. My husband and I agreed to pay once we got proof of the other reports and documents we had originally paid for and were never provided. LA Green has refused to provide us what we have paid for and have completely stopped responding to our inquiries. It has been a totally of 14 months and we don't even have a RTI from the city, let alone plans that we can use with another contractor, all while being out nearly $4,000. We have since found out that it is illegal, according to the Contractors State License Board (CSLB), for the client to pay more than 10% or $1,000 (whichever is cheaper) up front. Three different local contractors who have all confirmed how unethical/illegal their business is as well as anecdotes about their projects "falling apart". DO NOT CONTRACT WITH THEM. TOTAL SCAM.