Contractor threatening us

I know its an old story but any advice is welcome. A contractor began a job doing facade restoration and brownstone and concrete work with us. The work started ok but the quality went downhill and now is abysmal. They’re complaining they underbid the job and can’t continue. We’re saying we’ll pay when the work is done – which it is not, by a long shot. Now after a string of threatening emails they threaten on the phone to put a lien on our house. I’ve already put it in the Dept of Consumer Affairs databanks, but this is deeply worrying. What else can we do (besides hire someone else, as all of you most certainly should?) The contract hasn’t been fulfilled by any stretch of the imagination, but they declare it ‘complete’ and claim nonpayment.

AstralOil

in Construction 10 years and 11 months ago

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williamsburgguys | 10 years and 11 months ago

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While I can totally understand legal liability, I also think that providing a forum in which one can only post positive reviews discredits the usefulness of the forum. There must be some sort of disclaimer you can provide to allow users to openly discuss experiences without repercussion. How does Yelp! and other consumer reports type sites allow open discussion where you cannot? It serves no purpose whatsoever if I can say ABC construction did an amazing job, but I cannot say CBA construction were totally unprofessional and screwed me over. In the past we were able to post our experiences on here, good or bad. What changed?

cate | 10 years and 11 months ago

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It’s a legal issue. It has nothing to do with advertising or advertisers.

williamsburgguys | 10 years and 11 months ago

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Agreed as well. What’s the point of providing a forum if it’s only for positive referrals? You think Yelp! only allows positive reviews? If users are encountering (or encountered) a bad experience with a contractor and are relaying their own experience then why would that not be allowed in a public, user-commented forum? Whatever the end result of their issue, people should be able to judge for themselves if a contractor is actually being contrary, the commenter has a chip on their shoulder, or if the issue is a non-issue. I take with a train of salt many comments on here that I read both good and bad, but appreciate this forum as well as Yelp, Amazon, Tripadvisor, and many appliance and consumer reports forums. It makes me wonder if the reason you are redacting is because the contractor is a paid-advertiser on here maybe threatening you to take it down?

NeoGrec | 10 years and 11 months ago

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I’d also like to hear Cate’s response. Surely you’re not concerned about liability? I agree the Forum is only useful if it’s honest and transparent.

dorkofwindsor | 10 years and 11 months ago

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hi Cate – if it is not or advertising reasons, then what is the purpose of removing the name? It is an actual ongoing account of a user experience. It is a minefield out there for homeowners seeking contractors. We do know that our eyeballs and using brownstoner listings as a source are what attracts the advertisers and any revenue you get from that in first place. So now we who (continue to) visit the site get little in return if we cannot vet good guys from the not so good ones. In short i’ll get to the point – why should regular users continue to visit if Brownstoner is just a glorified referral site for contractors? How can i assume that Brownstoner is not simply enabling contractors to use us for bait and switch tactics knowing that they can run from protection behind you? We know how scummy many Brooklyn contractors are, this strategy is not a stretch at all. I will eagerly await your answer.

slopefarm | 10 years and 11 months ago

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Cate, I appreciate the need to do that, and I’m not trying to make trouble, but it might be useful to have a policy statement on this and post a link . I also wonder how workable a policy is of redacting contractor’s names. If someone had posted a query asking about [Contractor X] and astraloil posted the same story as here, would you take it down?

AstralOil | 10 years and 11 months ago

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Cate- Thanks, I understand about the directory not being a Brownstoner ad thing, I was just saying that’s where I found them (and incidentally I’ve found lots and lots of great, reputable companies there). As for the name, I put it in because in other similar threads I saw complaints about people *not* including names because they were afraid and because it wouldn’t give fair warning about bad businesses. I just wanted to alert other users in case they were considering doing business with these guys, but I understand about keeping it anonymous until (and if) there are legal findings.

cate | 10 years and 11 months ago

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It’s fine to post questions like this — encouraged, actually — but I have edited out the name of the contractor in the entire thread. If people post the name I will delete the thread. Also, since someone mentioned the directory and this will probably come up, I just want to add that this has nothing to do with advertising.

slopefarm | 10 years and 11 months ago

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All good, AO. You know all this, but take tons of pic of all the work that is either poorly done or not complete. Keep good contemporaneous notes of all of your interactions and save all correspondence. If you haven’t already, you may want to paper this in anticipation of it getting legal — draft a detailed letter listing, with succinct bullet points, each item that is incomplete and each item that is defective, with a picture enclosed and referenced for each. Put an offer in writing. Make clear that someone else will be finishing the job, that you will be incurring costs in excess of the original contract price. and that your offer is reasonable to allow you to finish the job at a low enough cost to avoid your need to pursue a legal claim against the contractor for the difference, which you are preapred to do if necessary. Communicate only in writing at this point and keep the tone calm but your positions clear. Again, sounds like you are on top of this. Just my $.02 in case it helps.

AstralOil | 10 years and 11 months ago

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Thanks for all the replies. 1.) Found em here on the directory. 2.) We’re in process getting new estimates for completion of work. Additional cost is a given, and we’re fine with it, but we’re just trying to limit how high that goes, and certainly not pay people too much for NOT working… 3.) Definitely trying to settle and say goodbye to the contractor but they’re tremendously antagonistic. Still hope we can all cut losses and move on. 4.) Amazingly, they weren’t even the low bidder on this job – though they certainly make themselves sound like they were by the amount they’ve complained about their costs and debts, like its my problem. We thought we knew better than to take the low bid, and these guys made great sales talk about craftsmanship and pride in their work. Now we have steps that are completely uneven by several inches each and ‘restored’ brownstone that is basically gritty gray unwashed cement with no topcoat on it.

steam_man | 10 years and 11 months ago

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Can I ask a couple of questions? 1.What was the difference in price between the contractor and the next contractor you got pricing from? 2\. Would you be willing to pay the contractor the difference between his price and #2’s?

slopefarm | 10 years and 11 months ago

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I mean the contractor would have to take less than total price. the comvbo of paying off the contractor for partial performance and paying new guy to finish will almost certainly be more than your original contract price. But you have to weigh that against the alternatives. I just think it is worth trying to avoid a situation where your only option is to force the contractor to finish.

slopefarm | 10 years and 11 months ago

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Step 1: Find someone else who is willing to complete the job. Get an estimate. It is possible, though, that no one will want to complete someone else’s job and be on the hook for any resulting problems with the work, but you need to find this out. Step 2 — Find out from the contractor how much of what’s left on the contract they will accept as payment to walk awy from the job and not put a lien on the work. Figure out if you can live with the extra total cost this would entail — obviously it needs to be less than the ful contract price or is a non-starter. Your relationship with the contractor is so soured now that you won’t be able to trust the work if they were to complete it. You want someone doing the work who is able and who wants the job. You should weigh the extra expense of following my suggestion vs your costs and headaches if this drags on and worse, requires lawyers (to remove lien, sue, etc).

sunbury | 10 years and 11 months ago

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Where did you find these cowboys?

AstralOil | 10 years and 11 months ago

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We’ve filed a complaint with DCA and its in process. The contractors are licensed. My question is what other moves should we make while we’re being threatened, and now extorted by outrageous payment ‘deadlines’?

Green Mountain | 10 years and 11 months ago

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What do you mean “put it in the Dept of Consumer Affairs databanks”? As a licensed contractor, I pay fees to provide legal services to you. Are you telling us you alerted the DCA your contractor is operating without a license? Or, did the the DCA file your complaint, but made no attempt to resolve the matter?