Legal Question in Consumer Law in New Jersey

Dealing with an Electrical Contractor

I had an electrical contractor come out to my house and do work in March 2007. He did 75% of the work and then disappeared. We called his office for 2-3 weeks in a row (2x week) leaving messages on a machine and with his secretary with a response of ''he will call you back''. All of a sudden in Nov (8 months later) he is calling wanting to come finish and get paid. I already went and had someone else finish the job, so i didn't return his phone calls. Now he is threatening with calls and letters to turn me over to collections and take me to court. What are my rights, and should i expect to have to pay him anything? I also never signed any contract of work with him but he did start sending bills now.


Asked on 12/28/07, 3:36 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Corbett Corbett Law Firm LLC

Re: Dealing with an Electrical Contractor

If the contractor did 75% of the work with the expectation that he would be paid, something is due to him. The difficulty is to decide how much and to ensure that you will be done with the matter if that is paid. So, some value needs to be placed on the work that he did. This does not mean that you will need to pay 75% of the total cost; allowance is probably due for the delays. You might want to discuss the issue of valuation with a lawyer experienced with construction claims. You definitely will want the help of a lawyer in preparing a release of claims before you make any payments.

My firm handles matters of this type. See www.corbettlaw.net/constlz.htm If I can be of further help to you, call or email. If you remind me that the contact was through Lawguru, the first consultation will be free.

See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm

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Answered on 1/01/08, 8:15 pm


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