By Mary O’KEEFE

John Drayman and National Fire Systems and Services have come to an agreement on the mechanic’s lien on Drayman’s condominium.

The agreement, which has Drayman paying $15,000 over a 15-year period, was arrived via arbitration on Tuesday according to Drayman.

This amount is considerably less than that of the original $98,000 figure and is more along the lines of what Drayman has stated was due.

A mechanic’s lien was placed on Drayman’s Montrose condominium in May 2011. National Fire had been hired by Drayman to remodel his condo after a water pipe had burst within the common walls of his complex.

The homeowners association paid for part of the construction, and Drayman said that since his condo was being repaired he decided to take that time to remodel.

National Fire did the remodel. It was later discovered that the company did not have the proper license to do the construction.

There were also permit issues with the city of Glendale questioning the amount cited on the permit not representing the work that was done. The permits are ultimately the responsibility of the homeowner.

The city and Drayman have worked through the permit issues, reaching an agreement on all amounts due and further repairs that are required.

When the original construction work was completed, Drayman moved back into his condo in September of 2010. About seven months later National Fire filed a lien for $98,000.

“The original [estimate for remodel] was $95,000,” Drayman said. “I knew there would be overages.”

The final bill was slightly over $100,000, which Drayman said he paid.

“I had enough equity built in my condo. It took me [a while] but I got a loan,” he said.

Then another bill of $98,000 was presented which Drayman disputed estimating the actually amount still owed would be closer to $30,000.

Drayman said the arbitration that occurred on Tuesday will hopefully set some records straight as far as how much money he actually spent on his remodel, which some had reported as considerably higher.

“National Fire had also amended their original lien from them being the general contractor to ADI (Advanced Development and Investment) being the contractor,” Drayman said.

ADI is alleged to have committed fraud by overcharging the city of Glendale, as well as several other cities, for work done on low-income housing. National Fire was a subcontractor on several ADI projects.

Drayman contends that long time family friend Khachik Zargarian, who has worked with ADI, guided him to National Fire.

In an interview in May 2011, National Fire owner Mike Thomassian said, “We have clients; ADI was one of our major ones but not our only one.”

During the interview ADI was not mentioned as a general contractor.

Attempts to contact National Fire’s attorney for this story were unsuccessful.

  Mary Okeefe