Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - Deck underpinning

What would you do? A customer called the other day and wanted me to see what could be done with her deck underpinning to keep her patio dry. The "contractor" latticed the joisting with an increase of only 1" over a 12' span and just installed solid vinyl soffiting. Gutters were professionally installed all around. The soffiting is, of course, holding water and overflowing at the seams. I can see only one solution: remove it all, increase the drop to 3 1/2" and reinstall the soffiting. I would never use soffiting for this application, but I want to save her as much money as possible. It is a rather large deck. I think if I can get the water to move fast, it won't collect. Thoughts, please. Oh, yeah, the contractor is serving time, so he is no help. He's "helped" enough.