Contact the DCA for Advise, and if your Contractor is registered/licensed, open a complaint. If not, try and report them. They can loose their vehicle, be fined HEAVILY, and not allowed to continue work for fear of jail time.

Advice on here varies greatly and your best bet is to only get advise from people that really truly know - Otherwise you may dig yourselves deeper.

I do know this; verbal agreements do stand, and a mechanic's lien may be written against your property. If they're willing to negotiate - perhaps acquire a mediator. If worse come to worse, get a lawyer with experience in this area.

Posted by: S4S Inc at August 24, 2009 11:09 AM in response to fight with contractor

It's one guy living on the street, not a decaying area. It's an eyesore, but this is NYC. There are so many new out-of-town arrivals to the area that they never knew how New York City used to be...

Posted by: S4S Inc at August 24, 2009 10:56 AM in response to Care about Columbia Street

arbitration is easier, cheaper, and less time-consuming than court, but also more likely to wind up with a "split the baby" result rather than a straight win or lose - i.e., you probably won't have to pay the whole amount, but you'll probably have to pay some. so when you say you don't want to settle for more than you "deserve" to pay, you have to consider the risk of an adverse outcome. grey areas, and the fact that somehow they managed to rack up $45k in change orders you disagree with (presumably, that represents more than just a couple line items, where there were actual labor and materials costs) will count against you.

Posted by: i disagree at August 24, 2009 11:21 AM in response to fight with contractor

Based on stories from friends who have decided to take a hard line against their GCs and ended up in court, you could easily burn tens of thousands in legal fees and spend the next 5 years dealing with this with no guarantee of success.
As much as it sucks, you are probably better off paying up now and settling.

You stated, however, that even your architect doesn't agree that all the changes were unnecessary, so sounds like you need to get some more input as to what the "fair" amount is for the work that's been done. There are always 2 sides to that coin.

Posted by: wyckoff at August 24, 2009 1:57 PM in response to fight with contractor

I think you should get a consultation from an attorney skilled in this area.

The contract itself will be something that that attorney and you should pour over carefully.

Take a proactive approach and seek legal consultation.

Posted by: Madeleine at August 25, 2009 11:06 PM in response to fight with contractor