Legal Question in Construction Law in California
I want to fire my contractor
I hired a contractor over a year ago
to build a garage with a rec-room
over it. The agreed upon price for
the services was $70,000 plus
10%(at the completion of the job)
At this point $85,000 has
been spent and we still don't have
the final inspection. He seems to not
care about the job anymore and he
seems to be very ignorant about
most of the work being done. We
just paid $3000 for the drywall to be
bullnosed into the windows and they
didn't do it correctly and left the
grooves exposed on all of the doors
and windows and he didn't even
know that it was wrong. When I
asked him if the stucco company he
hired was going to come back and
put on the finish coat, he said he
thought they were done, even
though there was lath still exposed.
These are just a few things that a
building idiot(that would be me)
noticed and he didn't even realize
that they were wrong. It concerns
me that there are other things that I
wouldn't know were wrong that he
also missed. He is refused to deal
with the drywall issue and insisted
that I deal with it. I want to fire him
and not pay his 10%. What are my
options?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: I want to fire my contractor
Best option you have is to go see an attorney right now. If you simply fire him and refuse to pay the balance of what he claims he is owed, you can almost guarantee that he will file a lien against your home, and you will eventually wind up in litigation over the whole mess. Review the matter with a qualified attorney, and perhaps he can negotiate a resolution of the matter that will protect you in the future. Additionally, you may have legal claims against the contractor - by way of example, has he provided you, and you signed any change-orders for the additional amounts beyond the original contract? You need to review this with an attorney, as it is too fact-specific for an attorney to resolve via this board.
*Due to the limitations of the LawGuru Forums, The Gibbs Law Firm, APC's (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided is general and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.
Re: I want to fire my contractor
Unfortunately, there is no way to give you an answer through this forum because your rights to terminate the contract depend on the specific terms within the contract. Additionally, to show that the contractor has breached the agreement, you will have to point to specific items which evidence a material breach worthy of termination.
If you like, I would be more than happy to review your contract and discuss some basic options with you.
Best of Luck!
www.SoCalConstructionLaw.com
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