Replies

1. 
   woodway | Apr 06, 2006 02:37am | #1

   Small claims court awards are now up to $7500 . Take pics and document the cost of repairs to his work and he's toast. If he's a licensed contractor look into state contractor's licensing board and file complaint there too.

   If you win in court, you can get a portion back . The case is too small to take to a lawyer. Count the remaining damages up to your education in life lessons.

2. 
   trout | Apr 06, 2006 03:10am | #2

   I canned my GC for overall poor quality, ie, piers sinking under deck, log posts supporting veranda cut too short, not showing on schedule, and numerous other examples. 

   ...what were my other options?

   It depends.    If the two of you were simply not on the same page as far as how tight tollerances are, how short is too short, how much attendance is expected, and what is considered acceptable behavior in general, then it might be difficult to convince anyone, including a judge, that he was in the wrong.

   The National Association of Home Builders has published quality standards of how short is too short, and how out of plumb is too much.  Unfortunately, those guidelines allow some pretty loose building.

   Simply having hired someone to fix the "poor quality" also doesn't automatically mean the first guy was necessarily in the wrong.

   If the guy belonged to a local building assocation they might have a grevance procedure.

   If the contract spelled out arbitration or whatnot, that would work, but you probably wouldn't be asking if the contract spelled out other options.

   Money is king and withholding draws or even T&M payments until building issues are cleaned up works better than anything else I've ever seen.  If there is one thing that I'd recommend to anyone it's to hold back a significant amount until the work is done correctly.

    

    

1. 
   chauncey | Apr 18, 2006 04:26pm | #3

   Thanks for the input.  I'm trying to put a cap on my future stupidity.