Legal Question in Construction Law in New York

Fired my contractor - what should I do next?

We have fired out contractor. We have paid him about 2/3 of the amount indicated in the contract, however, he has only completed about 50% of the job. Then he refused to do any more work, until we pay him more money. Our contract did not indicate when the payments to the contractor should be made--only overall amount. In addition, a lot of the work he completed needs to be redone because of the poor quality. I don't know what we should do next. First we want to protect ourselves against him putting a lien on our house (even though we did pay for all the work he has done so far and more) and second we want to recover some of the money he received from us, because amount of money we paid is more than the amount of work he completed. I was thinking to take pictures of everything that is still outstanding and get quotes from other contractors to see how much it will cost to finish everything he did not finish. Then in case he takes us to court we will have a proof that amount of money needed to finish the remodeling is much higher than the amount we did not pay so far. We can probably use the same quotes to take him to court to recover money. Should we try to take him to court first before he has a chance to put a lien on our house?


Asked on 5/07/08, 10:42 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Markowitz Michael A. Markowitz, PC

Re: Fired my contractor - what should I do next?

1. You cannot stop him from filing a mechanic's lien. However, under the lien law you can ask various questions and possibly have the lien dismissed if he fails to answer questions or if he exaggerates the lien.

2. Take pictures. Ultimately, you will have to retain a contractor to repair and finish the work.

3. Once work is finished and damages are mitigated, you will then have the opportunity to commence litigation for damages.

Mike.

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Answered on 5/07/08, 2:50 pm


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