Class Action Alleges Belfor Property Restoration ‘Significantly’ Overcharges Customers for Equipment Rentals

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A proposed class action alleges Belfor Property Restoration has overcharged disaster recovery and property restoration customers “up to three to four times more than it pays” for equipment rentals. 

The plaintiff, a Liberty, Missouri business whose building the breach-of-contract lawsuit says was partially destroyed when a neighboring building collapsed, alleges it was billed by Belfor $9,500 per month for the use of interior shoring equipment that the defendant rented from a third-party contractor for a then-undisclosed $3,125 per month. 

Moreover, the plaintiff alleges it was charged by Belfor a cumulative amount of 20 percent of the monthly shoring equipment rental price for “profit and overhead,” bringing the business’s bill to a combined $11,400 per month for equipment rental, “nearly four times the amount that Defendant paid for it,” the lawsuit says. According to the suit, the $11,400 price tag charged to the plaintiff did not include labor, which Belfor billed separately. 

“Defendant provided the exact service to Plaintiff that the equipment contractor provided to Defendant, only Defendant charged Plaintiff more than triple, and close to quadruple, for the exact service,” the lawsuit, filed in Michigan’s Eastern District Court, alleges. “Plaintiff would not have agreed to pay triple the price for renting shoring equipment if Defendant had disclosed its price before the work was completed and invoices were sent.” 

The lawsuit alleges the defendant, on multiple occasions, “refused” to produce invoices documenting its shoring equipment rental costs when the plaintiff requested that Belfor share the paperwork. 

According to the complaint, the dispute stems from the May 2016 collapse of a building next to one owned by the plaintiff, who had rented out the space to a microbrewery/restaurant. The plaintiff, around May 3, 2016, entered into a contract with the defendant that authorized the company to provide all labor, equipment and materials that were required to properly repair the building, the lawsuit says. Per the case, demolishing the building next to the plaintiff’s and stabilizing the neighboring buildings, including the plaintiff’s, required the use of interior shoring equipment, which Belfor rented from an equipment contractor.

“Defendant turned around and billed Plaintiff $9,500.00 per month for use of this shoring equipment - more than three times the amount that Defendant paid the equipment contractor,” the suit alleges.

The lawsuit goes on to say that the plaintiff did not become aware of Belfor’s “significant overcharging” until a regional manager and Kansas City branch manager for the company was deposed in an October 2018 lawsuit that the plaintiff and its microbrewery/restaurant tenant filed against their insurer, non-party Illinois Casualty Company, for damages. 

The complaint alleges Belfor, upon information and belief, has significantly upcharged all of its customers for equipment rentals during the relevant time period. Belfor, the plaintiff claims, “unreasonably profits” by renting equipment for a certain price and then charging customers “significantly more money than it paid to rent the exact same equipment” before adding “profit and overhead” charges and separate labor costs. 

“It is not common industry practice to upcharge customers for rental equipment in this manner,” the case asserts. 

The lawsuit looks to represent all persons and entities who were invoiced for equipment rentals by Belfor Property Restoration on or after May 3, 2016. 

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