Legal Question in Construction Law in Illinois

Sue builder for damages

It has been 1 week since we closed on the new home that we were

building.

The construction has a 1 year warranty. One of the water pipes in the

house

is leaking and the customer service is not co-operating for the

repairs. I

have lost vacation days at work while sitting at home and waiting for

repairs to take place and no workers have shown up despite the fact

that the

builder asked me to stay at home. Can I sue for damages?


Asked on 8/02/07, 3:20 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Patrick Tracy Patrick J. Tracy, Esq, P.E.,

Re: Sue builder for damages

The answer is that it depends. A reasonable amount of time is 2 weeks to have warranty repair done. However in your contract for construction these times may have been stipulated. If you owe him any money, make sure that his final payments are held until this issue is resolved.

Alternatively, if you have money that is owed to him, write him a certified letter and tell him that he has 5 days to make the repair from a given date. If he does not make the, then you will seek substitute performance from another contractor and deduct the amount from what is owe and due. This usually gets peoples attention.

If he doesn't fix them after this, hire another contractor to fix the punch list and deduct this from his payment. If it is actually more than is withheld, sue for the extra.

Good Luck!

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Answered on 8/02/07, 3:29 pm


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