Builder has possibly walked off job.
We are renovating a house and I think the contractor has walked off the job. Last week my husband went to see the progress and the contractor screamed at him. We are fairly sure that he’s psychotic and now think he’s stopped work. And this isn’t about payment, it’s about our asking for a completion…
We are renovating a house and I think the contractor has walked off the job. Last week my husband went to see the progress and the contractor screamed at him. We are fairly sure that he’s psychotic and now think he’s stopped work. And this isn’t about payment, it’s about our asking for a completion date (4 times over due already).
The good part is that we owe them lots of money but it’s because they wrote a schedule of payment and haven’t finished the work for the first payment.
They have also done quite a lot of work that we haven’t committed to in writing. But they have skimped on some parts of the job too.
We just want them to finish the contracted work and leave. I’d love any advice on what to do if I confirm that they have walked off the job. And then if they do finish the job, how do I deal with the un-contracted work? And how long can I string them along with the final payment?
To reiterate, the guy is an abusive, threatening bully. He’s banned us from the house, he won’t deal with us over the phone, only by email, and refuses to give us any progress or completion dates.
Thanks in advance.
I smell the same thing 1:59 does… There are always two sides to this kind of story.
We didn’t have a contract with our GC and once we were in sight of the end of the project, things broke down to the point where he stopped showing up and we stopped calling him — coz we just couldn’t stand working with him anymore! We owed him some $$ but he never asked us for it. He owed us a huge amount of uncompleted work + the punch list. I was anxious for months that he would come after for the cash but then I realized (sounds naive I know) he figured he was the one who was ahead. With the benefit of hindsight, and much expense fixing the things he screwed up, I now know that he ended up WAY ahead of us financially. GCs often seem to lose interest/motivation towards the end but I also suspect a lot of them factor this kind of scenario into the way they manage their jobs.
what did you do to piss him off?
I don’t want to post the name until they’ve finished. I’m a little scared of him. I will, however post his name when they’re done. This job is in the country but I believe they work here too.
There isn’t an architect. It’s a small house and there wasn’t a lot of structural stuff. I will have my engineer inspect all their work before we pay them anything. Do NY state contractors need to be licenced? I cannot find their name or any record of them as a business entity anywhere online. Yellow pages etc etc.
The contract is kind of a joke. I don’t think they had a lawyer look at it. This all works in our favor, I believe. I have given them until wed to reply to my last email and if they don’t I guess I’ll get a lawyer to write a letter to terminate.
I’d love to hear any advice or any similar situations.
Thanks,
Terminate the contract and change the locks ASAP.
renovating sucks, doesn’t it? i’ve done mine piecemeal, and i’m almost done, but the thought of soliciting bids for the remaining jobs i have left is giving me heartburn. i can’t stand dealing with these people. there is nothing better than taking time off work to stay home to meet a contractor for an estimate and he never shows up. that’s the best.
Please post the name of the company so no one here ever hires him.
What does your architect think?
Take a look at the contract’s termination provisions and begin the process of terminating this contractor under those provisions. If you have a proper basis under the contract for terminating, and it sounds like you are likely to, then you can make the choice of whether to continue with this contractor if he comes back.