mara16jade
Mommy of 2 little boys
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2012
- Messages
- 12,038
- Reaction score
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We're in a bind with a general contractor who was supposed to be remodeling our house (or over seeing the job I suppose).
A little back story: We started the remodel on our house at the end of October. The contract said it would take 2-4 weeks. They're still not done!
They bid low, and that's why we took them - and they were pretty well known in this area and have done a ton of work on the homes in the area that we live in. We figured maybe they cut us a break. Well, they must have realized they bid low, so they've been trying to tack on things here and there that were in the contract.
We remodeled the master shower, which needed a new glass door. I'm so glad we didn't wait for the general contractor and just found our own company. This was the big ticket item that the general contractor was fighting us on. In the contract it said we'd pay $X amount to remodel the shower. We emailed them to make sure the shower glass door was included. They responded back with, "Absolutely!". After the tiling and what-not got done, we asked when the shower door would be installed and they said they had no idea since that was our problem. When we brought up the contract and email, the owner of the company flipped out and then soon after they all disappeared (for about 3-4 weeks). Luckily we still had the sub-contractors who were doing work, and we were paying them separately for certain jobs.
The general contractor is getting nasty though. They contacted my DH (finally) by text yesterday asking for final payment. We thought they abandoned the job! We hadn't heard from them in 3-4 weeks! When my DH said there were things we still needed to settle (who is paying what) they threatened with putting a mechanic's lein on the house. They're not even done with the house, and the abandoned the job!
We have no problem paying what is fair, and what was agreed on in the contract. But the sub-contractors have told us that they're not being paid by the general contractor. We've paid 75% of the job so far, and he should be paying the subs. No idea what he's doing....but he's hoarding the money and not paying out to anyone. Which means that if we pay the general contractor the final payment, and he doesn't pay the subs, the subs can also put a mechanic's lien on the house.
Does anyone know more about this kind of thing, or have a lawyer friend/relative we might be able to bounce some questions off of. We're fairly sure this is going to go to court, and we're definitely not familiar with this sort of thing. Ugh...
A little back story: We started the remodel on our house at the end of October. The contract said it would take 2-4 weeks. They're still not done!
They bid low, and that's why we took them - and they were pretty well known in this area and have done a ton of work on the homes in the area that we live in. We figured maybe they cut us a break. Well, they must have realized they bid low, so they've been trying to tack on things here and there that were in the contract.
We remodeled the master shower, which needed a new glass door. I'm so glad we didn't wait for the general contractor and just found our own company. This was the big ticket item that the general contractor was fighting us on. In the contract it said we'd pay $X amount to remodel the shower. We emailed them to make sure the shower glass door was included. They responded back with, "Absolutely!". After the tiling and what-not got done, we asked when the shower door would be installed and they said they had no idea since that was our problem. When we brought up the contract and email, the owner of the company flipped out and then soon after they all disappeared (for about 3-4 weeks). Luckily we still had the sub-contractors who were doing work, and we were paying them separately for certain jobs.
The general contractor is getting nasty though. They contacted my DH (finally) by text yesterday asking for final payment. We thought they abandoned the job! We hadn't heard from them in 3-4 weeks! When my DH said there were things we still needed to settle (who is paying what) they threatened with putting a mechanic's lein on the house. They're not even done with the house, and the abandoned the job!
We have no problem paying what is fair, and what was agreed on in the contract. But the sub-contractors have told us that they're not being paid by the general contractor. We've paid 75% of the job so far, and he should be paying the subs. No idea what he's doing....but he's hoarding the money and not paying out to anyone. Which means that if we pay the general contractor the final payment, and he doesn't pay the subs, the subs can also put a mechanic's lien on the house.
Does anyone know more about this kind of thing, or have a lawyer friend/relative we might be able to bounce some questions off of. We're fairly sure this is going to go to court, and we're definitely not familiar with this sort of thing. Ugh...
