How To get back at your contractor for unfinished work?
Question:My house was just finished and there are many things that are flawed. For example, my front and side door don't close, I have to literally push and use the deadlock to lock it fully. Also, while constructing my house he broke one of my concrete barriers and left cement on my driveway which is now turned into hard cement and can't be removed. Basically, who do I need to go to make sure he either fixes it or is financially in some way responsible for it. I call him and he keeps telling me "I will come, but never shows."---Please Help with any advice.
Answers:
Question: Was this contractor licensed?
If so, you can report him to your states contractor's licensing board. You can open a case against him and if the board sides with you, you will be presented with different options.
1. The board will inspect your home and decide what the cost to fix the issues will be, and require the contractor to pay you that amount.
2. You can decided to have that contractor come back to make the repairs.
3. You can settle on a agreement price with the contractor.
You should be able to print the required form's from your state's website. Do a search for contractors license, or contractors licensing board, etc.
You will have to fill out the form shown online and send in anything else you feel will help your case, i.e., pictures, your contact etc.
Your complaint will show up on his license whenever anyone does a search on his number (also on the contractor's licencing board website). I would suggest searching his number to find out any info that may support your case.
If the contractor receives enough complaints against his license, it may be revoked.
If the contractor was not licensed, the only thing you can do is pursue him civilly.
Hope this helps!
As for the second part of your question about hiring someone to tell you what his responbilities are, etc. This is something the state will handle as well. They will also review his contact for any flaws that are against state laws, etc. and charge him fines accordingly.
Also, was the job permitted? If so the city/county inspector could also be liable. And yes the state will follow up on this as well.
go talk to him in person and act angry, but not extremely angry. hopefuly he will get the point
Call a home inspector to review the work. Also get the name of who approved off on his work permit and examined the completed work. See he had to get a work permit , in most areas to do major work. As work is completed an inspector has to verify the work is done to code. If this wasn't done to code, then there are alot of people with alot of questions to answer. Make lots of phone calls. Build your case!! Then small claims court or maybe more.
If he doesn't show up. Send him a certified letter, stating that if he doesn't come to fix the mistakes... and list them in detail!... that you will be forced to hire someone else to fix them (by a certain date) and then sue him for the cost of the repairs. Give him the opportunity to fix the problems before that date. If he refuses to fix them or dosen't show... then do exactly what the letter says. That way you're covered by giving him notice to fix the mistakes. If he comes make sure every detail is fix properly before signing ANYTHING! Unfortunatly there are a lot of contractors that aren't reliable... make sure from now on you get refrences. Go to hardware stores and ask for suggestions for contractors... the people who work in local (mom&pop) hardware stores usually know who's reliable and who's not.
your television station should have a help line nothing works better than TV coverage
file a complaint with the local builders association, and if he is a legitimate contractor, threaten a lawsuit over the poor/careless workmanship, even the threat of a lawsuit usually scares them into action,as a sub contractor for a major national builder ,I have seen it happen many times,not any dealing with my work, but I a homeowner is unhappy and the builder blows them off,and the homeowner gets fed up and threatens to sue, even builders with tens of millions of dollars at their disposal will hop into action .
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