Legal Question in Construction Law in District of Columbia
Six months ago, I purchased a home, and hired a general contractor to complete my home renovation project. While underway, I noticed shoddy work, and asked my contractor about it only to be told that he is the professional and to trust in him. As guided by several professionals in the plumbing, electrical, and architectural industries, I tried to terminate my contract. The contractor has not been paid the entire amount agreed upon, but has been paid for more work than has been done. (He's been paid approx 75% of the amount stated in our contract, but there's approx 50% left to be completed.) The contractor refused to return my house keys, and stated that he would sue me if I try to terminate the contract. He also disputed the amount of the contract. I requested that he review the contract, compare it to to the work completed, and suggested we go from there. He has been unresponsive since. My last contact with him was approx 1 month ago, and despite my sending him an email to follow up, he continues to be unresponsive. This week I sought an independent inspector's assistance to assess the work that had been done. According to his report, there are many egregious structural, plumbing, and electrical errors that have been made by the contractor's crew. I want to terminate the contract and move forward with another general contractor, but I want to make sure that I have all of my ducks in row when terminating my existing contract. How can I legally terminate my existing contract. I feel like he's holding my house hostage because he won't do any work, won't respond to my emails, and won't return my keys.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Ah --I have helped people with these contractor disputes many times over the years. It's never fun. But, I'll be happy to assist you in trying to work your way through the process. You've already made a great start -- because the first thing I ALWAYS tell people is that they should have someone else look at the job, get an expert opinion about what was done correctly and what was not, and how much simply wasn't completed. Then get an estimate for both correcting errors and completing the job. You need to have that in order to figure out the scope and scale of your issue.... and if you're going to head to court eventually, you'll need an expert to talk about why and how the work was shabby.
The next step is to find someone good who can correct the errors and finish the job -- this is really important b/c that's the only way you can get back to living and enjoying your house.
(by the way -- re the keys -- change your locks and forget about the keys -- you can always throw in the cost of re-keying your locks to the damages you're going to seek later from the other contractor.
There are technicalities to recovering from a contractor that probably make it essential to have a lawyer assist you along the way -- exactly how much "lawyering" you "need" will depend on the scope and scale of the amount in controversy. But at a minimum, you should probably have someone review the contract and your written notices regarding defects and termination. If those need to be supplemented with additional materials that can be something an attorney can help with right away.
After that, the typical approach is to send out a demand letter and then at least try to negotiate something without going to court. In some cases you can do this yourself. However, given the descriptions you've offered, it sounds like this may be a case where you'll need some help with this part of the process.
Finally, if nothing else works, and the numbers makes sense on a cost-benefit analysis, then you file suit and see if you can win and then collect a judgment.
Larry Holzman
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