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Posted by Dave on June 24, 2007, 12:32 am
All boils down to what you signed, not what the contractor or you say or
think.
Dave
> Our house (in Wisconsin) is finished. According to the bid we
> accepted, we owe one final payment of $60,000 ($53,000 plus $7,000 to
> account for change requests during the construction process) to our
> general contractor. Now, right at the end, he suddenly says we owe
> him $73,000. He says if we don't pay it, he's going to sue us. Can
> he doe this to us? Here are his reasons:
>
> 1. His estimates were inaccurate, and some of his sources for
> material and labor ended up charging him more than he expected.
>
> 2. We bothered him with a lot of changes and supervision.
>
> 3. Our house is worth a lot more than we're paying him.
>
> 4. The house too him longer to build than he expected, and so he had
> to pay a lot more for labor than he expected.
>
> Here are my answers to him on each of the four issues:
>
> 1. Regarding his costs exceeding his estimates... We had an oral
> agreement in the beginning that once we agreed on a project and
> accepted his bid that the bid would not change--up or down. If we
> made changes (we did make minor changes), we would be responsible for
> our changes. If market prices on materials were to fall, we agreed
> that he would enjoy the savings, but if prices went up, he would
> suffer the extra charges. He called this "locking in," and that is
> one of the main reasons we went with this contractor. On the detailed
> written bid he provided us, and which we subsequently accepted, he
> even wrote his "lock in" promise at the bottom--a few sentences.
> Other than these written documents and or oral contract, we have no
> official contract with him.
>
> 2. Regarding his claim that we bothered him with changes and
> supervision... He never once discouraged this or said that there
> would be extra charges, other than the cost of the actual changes,
> which we are agreeing to pay--$7,000 for specific changes bringing the
> total due up to $60,000. But he wants $73,000! As for his claim that
> we bothered him with a lot of supervision and faxed notes... He never
> discouraged this, and the only reason for the close supervision and
> notes was because his crew made a *LOT* of mistakes that had to be
> corrected. The work was very substandard. All of this is
> documented. I think our supervision and notes actually helped them
> get through the job and finish it the way we intended it to be
> finished. They were very unprofessional.
>
> 3. Regarding his claim that our house is worth a lot so we should pay
> a lot... Why should we be penalized because we came up with a great
> design and made wise choices for materials and features? He offered
> us a bid in the beginning, and we accepted. Now, because the house is
> very attractive (mostly because of the land and neighborhood), why
> should he be entitled to more money? His complaint is that he didn't
> charge enough initially, and now he's going to lose at least $30,0000,
> and that we should have to pay for his losses because our house only
> cost us $290,000 and it's worth about $450,000. First of all, I think
> it's worth $350,000 at the most, and even if it was worth $450,000,
> that would be like a mechanic complaining because he sold us an engine
> for $5,000 and we put it in a car we bought for $7,000, and now that
> car is now worth $20,000--too bad, right?
>
> 4. Regarding his claim that the house took longer to build than
> expected... Isn't that his fault? The reason it took longer is
> because his crew are slow, lazy, and inept. They made a lot of
> mistakes that they had to fix. Likewise, everything based on time
> cost about double--the dumpster, the crane, etc. In fact, this
> actually cost us money, because we paid four months longer than
> expected on our construction loan without being able to live in the
> house--shouldn't we be entitled for some compensation for that?
>
> This is all causing us a lot of stress, and it sounds like it's going
> to cost us a lot of legal fees now, too. I feel violated. What can
> we do? Please advise. Any helpful information would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Unhappy
>
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