Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Illinois
Hired a contractor to perform house renovation (procelain tile install, backspalsh , granite , hardwood install ). He gave me the contract in email and we mutually agreed on the amount. As per the contract I provided all the materials, and he was responsible for any tools/equipment and labor cost for installations. He finished installing everything - but when we looked at the tiles, they were installed up and down (not properly installed.) I brought that to his attention immediately, and he agreed that tiles were not installed properly. Told me that the guy who worked for him - was installing tiles for the first time (since his regular guy was busy in different contract work) He brought in his regular person to review the work - and he said that tiles are not installed properly and needs to be ripped off and re-installed again. Problem is during ripping off tiles- they all break.
The contractor is not ready to do it - since its a lot of work. Instead he said he is going to try to sand some tiles which are up - so that it will level off. But by sanding it will lose the factory installed finish - and we dont want to do that.
What options do i have if the contractor is not ready to ripoff and reinstall those tiles ?
even if contractor agrees to install the tiles again, do i have to pay him again for it ? (This all started because he did a wrong job )
Do I have to pay for materials again ?
1 Answer from Attorneys
An attorney should review the contract, but assuming it has some standard language you may be entitled to damages if this guy won't fix the situation, but you may have to pay another contractor to fix the situation (i.e. pay again...) and then sue this one. And watch out for this one filing a mechanic's lien anyhow. And your damages may be the lesser of cost to repair OR "diminution in value" meaning it is not what you expected but is otherwise passable.... You can threaten reporting the contractor to the Better Business Bureau or any licensing agency, or the building department, as potential means of getting some satisfaction out of this guy.
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