I'm afraid it's going to end up in court. He said he would do this in 5 days, it has now been 11 working days (or should I say days that he said he would work) and he still is only about 30% finished. He said he would be here today and never showed and hasn't answered any calls about whether or not he will honor his word about working tomorrow.

So......what I need is what all do I need to collect or document about. I have taken pictures every single day whether he has worked or not. If he said he would work and he didn't, pictures are taken to show that he wasn't there. But will digital pictures show a date/time stamp on them. I know it's shows in my camera.

Is he a licensed and bonded contractor? Did you sign a contract for his services and if so, were these services outlined in detail in the contract? Has any money exchanged hands yet?

If he is licensed and there is a contractor's licensing bureau in your state, call them. Get any information you can about him.

They will also know who his bonding agent is. Call them. Let them know that he has not met the terms of his contract with you.

Call the Better Business Bureau and file a complaint.

If you signed a contract and he has not met the terms of the contract, then he is in breach of contract. I would let him know that if he doesn't get busy ASAP, you would 1) seek legal remedy to enforce the contract or 2) hire someone else to finish the job and back bill him for the job.

Put it in writing to him and mail it certified, return receipt requested with his signature required.

Good luck. Dealing with unscrupulous contractors is not a fun job. But you can make sure he doesn't get any decent jobs in the future by reporting him.

when you load the pics on your computer I think the date is the default identifier {unless you changed that on your camera settings}

just to be safe make sure they aren't automatically deleted after uploading.
Xp home has a check box that asks if you want them deleted from camera after upload.

you should be able to view the pictures and the date it was taken should show.

do you have anyone as a witness that he didn't come to work on any of those days?

Did you get anything in writing about job, time line, payments etc?
any recorded phone calls or messages?
emails or letters?

watch some of the tv court shows too - there's always some contractor type cases

It all hinges on one important thing: the contract.

If he is not in compliance with the contractual terms then you have legitimate legal recourse. His error is known as "Recission of Contract" legally.

If the total amount that you seek is greater than the maximum allowed in Small Claims Court, then pay a few bucks and see an attorney. In the end, if he has failed to comply with the contract, he will be liable for all of your expenses as well as legal fees.

-Vic

No advice...just giving a "good luck" to you.

We're in contractor "limbo" right now. We had a baaaaaaad windstorm back at the end of June. 115+ mph winds, and LARGE hail.

We hired a contractor to fix our roof, replace the aluminium around our windows, and to fix the siding on our glass enclosed porch and deck, and to fix the screens on the porch and deck. (amazing that none of our windows got broken) and to replace our garage door. (115mph wind blew the door partially in and off the track a bit. It still goes up and down, but not very well)

Our roof was replaced about two weeks ago. That was the last we heard from them. They left the roofing leftovers (shingles, plywood, other stuff) in our driveway for two weeks, never came back for it. We ended up telling our neighbor's contractor that he could take the leftover shingles and plywood because we just wanted to be able to use the driveway again.

My dad has called the contractor to come fix the rest of the stuff he said he'd fix. No response. We're getting the siding on the deck and patio fixed next week by someone else (for much less than the original guy wanted) and the garage we still need to call someone for that.

We paid the contractor for the work done on the roof, but he's never come back for the rest of the money for that. It's really weird, you'd think he'd want the rest of his money?

I saw the contract, and all he'd put on it was "repair storm damage". So, I guess if he comes back and wants to fix the other stuff that he's neglected to do, we can tell him no, and tell him he's fired.

They did do a good job on the roof, but I was seriously annoyed that the roofers, for some reason, stole a bunch of our river rocks that were part of our landscaping. I will never understand that one. The landscapers that landscaped our yard last year walked off with some of our other river rock too. (caught them that time) My aunt saw a couple of the roofers steal the rock when they were packing up after finishing the roof, but she didnt say anything to them because none of the roofers spoke any English.

Some of that stone was expensive, and some of it had sentimental value (it came from a relatives land)

cant give you any advice that has not been mentioned other then a big pit and some lime, try the better business bureau, I really hope something positive happens and real soon, this has been going on way too long now, enough is enough, did i mention a pit and some lime?

I had trouble with the contractor who installed our pool, and here's how I got them to finish up right.

I wrote everything down, every call, every time they came out, how long they were there, and how long they took breaks, what they did when they were there.


I kept the contract and their ad handy.

Took a lot of pix with a date stamp on them.

The ad cleary said *We can put you in a pool in five days.*

They did get the pool and plumbing done in five days, but the concrete deck was not done - almost 3 months later.

My problems were:

The pool was not stable therefore unuseable.
The yard was unsafe due to the gap around the pool.
We could not put up the rest of the fence because we were waiting on the concrete truck to entter the yard.
It is against the law to have a pool that is not surrounded by a fence.
The post holes where there were no fence posts were posing a hazard, and they were filing in while we waited for concrete and fence.
The rest of the fence was warping, laying up against the garage.

And so on and so on.

I made three calls to the company with my reasons why the job needed to be completed, starting from a few days after the initial install of the pool. I had nothing but excuses and then trouble contacting. Finally I got the manager and told him he could get the job done the next day or I'd see him in court because I had a lawyer.

I made a point of telling him I had his *pool in five days* ad, and had written everything down. And that all the fines my town's police wanted to give me his company could pay - violations for the unfenced pool, the hazardous post holes, etc.


The job was done the next day.



I'm sorry you're going through all of this. Makes me never want to do anything through a contractor. Hope you get this done, right and soon. Good luck.

Talked to a lawyer today. Basically what I would have is a breach of contract suit except the contract doesn't hold water. No start date, no how many days to work or what hours are. He said there are some positive things we do have against him but since breach of contract suits don't have the emotional duress allowed (or whatever he said) it would be a very expensive venture for us to make to get back a couple of thousand dollars. He did say that we might want to think about a small claims court. Problem there is that since we already knew he had no license and still had him work for us that it might work against us. So I called the county clerks office to tell me how they are and the earliest they could get us in would be late November.

So we finally got a hold of our scoundral and talked to him. We are going to have several estimates to tell us how much it would be to fix his job and hoepfully tell us what % of the work he actually did. We would then give him that % of his original estimate. He knows I am callling BBB, police fraud and county building commission. It feels good that we finally have him partially off our back. We know it's not over but at least my days of waiting for him to come and then he not show is over.

If I could just get someone to finish all the mudding and sanding my DH thinks he and DD could do the painting and trim.

Doydie, so no money was passed over to him or you think the % he has worked is more than your deposit? Either way, good for you. I think your going to be very happy to be done with this guy.

Sandy, when we signeed the contract he asked for 50% right up front. So we gave that to him. The first week he diddn't very well but his did workl late by himself. Friday night he asked for another 1/4 so that he could his workers the next week. So, me being a sucker, gave him some additional money. a they were only in the house 2 days that next week.

On out way home from Lexington tonight my DH actually said that if this guy could absolutely gaurantee the work would be done in 3 days that he would let him finish. It would have to written up what repercusions we could have against him if it wasn't done

I just don't think we are going to get a professional reputable companuy to come in and look at the state of the job right now and look at the pictures of when it was started and give an extimate of what % he has done.

I'm going to check our local Craigs list to see it there any handy mwn listed that do drywall work.

With the Biggest Loser coming up and Survivor and the Amazing Race, I want my husband to go to his TV and let me have mine back! I'm tired of all this comprimising. But he would have to sit on a concret floor to watch it.