Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Florida

contract

We put a deposit down on a job of carpeting the whole house. The installation date was to be 1-23. They moved it to 1-31. They did not show to install on that date and with numerous calls to the company they do not have a date for installation and do not know where the carpet is. We paid with American Express and they state that we can put a hold on the payment and they will do an investigation in 6-8 weeks as to whether we are liable to pay deposit. Our question is can we get out of the contract? We need to do something right away as we have dismantled our house.


Asked on 2/01/07, 12:35 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Johm Smith tom's

Re: contract

Without having read the written contract, it sounds like they have violated a substantive condition in the contract; so you would be authorized to stop payment and consider the contract void. But you would need to read the contract to make sure it doesn't allow them to change the date of commencing performance. In any case, you don't have to pay before they perform to your satisfaction. Even if you signed a contract that required you to pay a percentage up front (never a good idea), their delay in performing justifies a doubt in your mind that they would ever perform; so no reason to pay them anyway.

But you should not rely on this but rather have an attorney review the contract for you; it wouldn't take much time.

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Answered on 2/01/07, 1:00 pm


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