Legal Question in Construction Law in California

Re: construction

You've made things more difficult for yourself by waiting until the project was over before confronting the problem. It's going to be hard explaining why you shouldn't pay him when there is no trail of complaints through out the project. If it was really that bad, why did you keep him on? In other words, you may not have the proof necessary to show that he wasn't doing his job if there is no history of written problems, telephone calls, emails, etc.

Unless you can show that you suffered "damages" from the general contractor's work, the bond won't pay you anything. Just having to step in and make decisions that the GC should have made isn't considered damages. You'd have to show that you spent more directly as a result of something the GC did or didn't do.

I also note that you say that you hired the GC to "manage" the project. Does this mean that he was really only acting as a construction manager rather than a general contractor? The duties are different with the manager doing significantly less than a GC does.

Bottom line, from the facts you have provided, it just sounds like you are disappointed. The only way to assess this properly would be for you to take all the documentation to a construction lawyer and hire him to review the GC's performance.