Seeking Attorney recommendation for Homeowners vs. Contractor

Seeking recommendations for a lawyer to represent us (homeowners) to sue a completely inept contractor who worked on our house .

The company in question are licensed and insured and were paid via our bank (long story) .

We have a long long list of complaints and evidence against them. They broke many many laws and we don’t want to see them move on to the next naive people and do the same thing .

As a result of all if this , we also have very little money to spend on attorneys so any advice and recommendations from the excellent brownstoner community is much appreciated .

Thanks.

gavolivia

in Lawyers and legal service 12 years and 9 months ago

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stickman | 9 years and 3 months ago

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is littlefoot Mark Roder? You’ve only posted 2 things and both were lengthy paragraphs raving about or fiercely defending Mark. Have never seen that before even with people very happy with their work. odd.

lenm | 10 years ago

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reglet, it’s probably too late now, but in any case I can’t discuss this matter anymore because of the ongoing litigation and a settlement we are trying to reach. Good luck! lenm

littlefoot | 10 years and 1 month ago

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I’d just like to know what paid for shoddy work was made known to and not repaired by Mark Roder? Did anyone even tell him and give him a chance to repair or replace what ever was deemed wrong? I am confused by the people who are angry about things that all seem very minor and completely addressable and then jump straight to litigation. In the instance of gcole, the contractor himself has told me he is in the process of suing that homeowner for 60k worth of contract nonpayment. Why would a contractor who has never received payment come back to a work site to finish a job? And you are looking to sue him? Something must be lost in translation or these people have never worked with someone in the trades before or these people just don’t know how to talk people without being threatening or aggressive. I paid as per our contract, on a fixed schedule, and communicated whenever I saw an issue (sent a text picture of the problem) and it was rectified shortly thereafter. I am totally happpy with the bathroom renovation that he and his crew did for me. His work also carries a 1 year warrenty. I just emailed him with a question about a corner of my bathroom that he renovated a year ago and he emailed me back that night. Nothing about his behavior has been shady or underhanded and he has never been anything but professional in how he has handled any problems that came up in my renovation. I had a tiny budget renovation so I would expect that my job, out of all the other ones he was doing, was probably more annoying and less lucrative and yet, I’m happy with the work he’s done. Fuflfill your end of the contract, pay him as promised,communicate if there is something that wasn’t to your satisfaction, and give him a chance to fix the problem. His work ethic isn’t the problem here. My bathroom renovation was featured on Apartment Therapy. See for yourself what a good contractor can do. http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/before-after-a-boring-bathroom-gets-some-dark-drama-216652

lmbzfksl | 10 years and 6 months ago

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You guys didn’t see my previous comments about Roder when I said Run the other way…we used him in 2011 and I guess he is still screwing people over with his crappy work and use of untrained illegal subcontractors. Spent last weekend scrubbing and removing paint from my beautiful brass doornobs that his painters painted all over and cursed him every second…Looks like he still has an “in with the banks” who are equally corrupt..

reglet | 10 years and 8 months ago

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Lenm, Quality Contracting was recommended to us by a contractor/owner referral website. I googled the names after receiving the match and found your comment. Can you tell me what the problem was and if/how its resolved? I liked the photos of his work, but haven’t met with or hired him yet. Thanks.

greenmountain | 12 years and 9 months ago

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I agree about the DCA, but it is not for free.  It is not paid for with your tax dollars.  I paid the lawyers who will represent you.  All 1,400 of us licensed contractors pay the lawyers.  Of course we want you to benefit from what we pay, now that you need help.  Of course, there are many more contractors who are not licensed than licensed.  You don’t break the law to hire an unlicensed one, you only break the law if you work as a contractor and you are not licensed.  Lets take an unscientific pole:  please reply to this post and tell us if your last contractor was licensed or not.

gavolivia | 12 years and 9 months ago

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Thank you very very much everyone. DCA it is ! I’ll let you know how it goes!

Townie | 12 years and 9 months ago

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DCA handles home improvement contractor complaints for work performed in NYC less than three years old.   Friends of ours had great luck with similar situation using their mediation services… especially when the contractor wishes to remain in business and is licensed.  They settled with contractor  who left their job unfinished yet was paid in full.

argentina | 12 years and 9 months ago

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Well depending on the amount that you are out of pocket you can go to small claims.But definitely filing with the NYC Dept of Consumer affairs is a great route. I hired someone who claimed to be licensed and indeed produced documentation and turned out he wasn’t . He was heavily fined (about $25,000) by the NYC Dept of Consumer Affairs and he had outstanding fines against him.Chances are that if he wasthis bad he has a bad track record even if he is licensed. You can also blog about them and this will keep potential vicitms away.

dylan621 | 12 years and 9 months ago

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To add to slopefarm’s comment, I had a relatively positive experience after filing a complaint against a contractor with the NYC Dept of Consumer Affairs.  We recovered everything we were asking for although it took a few years.  Going through Consumer Affairs won’t cost you anything and if you’re not satisfied with the resolution, you’ll still have plenty of time to file a lawsuit in state court against the contractor.  If you go this route, I would just advise you to follow-up b/c they get such a high volume of complaints that I suspect things tend to get lost in the shuffle which is what happened in our case.

slopefarm | 12 years and 9 months ago

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I know you askled for referrals, not advice, but my unsolicited advice as a homeowner who was once in litigation against a flipper is to save your money, particularly since you say you don’t have much. Odds of recovery are small. 1\. How much did they put you out of pocket — i.e., how much you paid to fix stuff they did wrong? Would you take 30-40% of that in a settlement after spending $15-30k on legal fees (complaint and either one motion or some discovery, far from the whole cost of litigating to trial)? 2\. How strong is your proof that they did something wrong that cost you money? 3\. Are you prepared to pay money and get nothing in return for years or ever? — This is not a contingency fee case. You will be paying for hours and hours of legal work at no less than $300/hr (and that’s a lowball price). Drafting complaint, motion practice, discovery (depositions, documents). You are years away from trial. Your suit will not prevent someone else from hiring them, moreover. If you think they broke the law, report them to whatever agency licenses them. But careful, if they broke the law in a way that makes your residence out of code, you might be hurting yourself by reporting them. This is not legal advice. Consult a lawyer or two after you get some recs here. Use the numbers in points 1-3 as VERY rough ballpark figures. But unless you are out a lot of money and your contractor isn’t so fly by night that he won’t close up shop and reopen under a new corporate identity, I would imagine odds of recovering anything are small.