Legal Question in Consumer Law in New York

Per the contract I still owe the contractor $1000.00, but how much can I sue him in court for since he did not finish the job and his work was way under par? And what do I need to prove my case? I have pictures of most of it and I have estimates to fix most of the damage he did.

On March 18th the contractor contacted me about the landscaping job and also came out to my property to see what needed to be done. He gave me a verbal quote of $3500.00. On March 29th the contractor came out to my house to sign a contract in the amount of $3700.00 to install a flagstone walkway, install stone in the front garden and mulch in the back to gardens, he said he would lay down the weed barrier as he uses the good stuff, not the �crap� that you get at Home Depot. He was also going to plant flowers and build up the beds has he stated �they look better when they are built up so you can see them� He was supposed to put sod in the front of my house between the sidewalk and the street. And stain the flagstones to protect them from the dogs. (as stated in the contract �Flagstone patio 8�x 36�ft. Material that will be used is heavy irregular stone. Black mulch installed in rear of property in both beds. Natural installed edging in front of property along with Dixie Pink installed in bed. Agreed to stain fence for customer if they purchase the stain. Customer will pick out flowers for back bed. Job will begin on Thursday & will take at most a week to complete. Half down is reg. completion the rest.). �Installation of sod in front of property. Stain flagstone.� $1000.00.

Problems found with the contractor�s work

Sod

� Dug up and cut many tree roots

o This can cause tree branches fed by those roots to die and stress the tree

� Did not complete the area

o And had no plans too as he complained there were to many tree roots

� Did not cut sod nicely around the tree

� Damaged the tree trunk with pick axe

Pink stone bed

� No base under the rock border/wall

o This will cause them to shift and fall during the freezing and thawing that is common in this area

� No weed barrier

o Weeds and lilies from the side where the walkway was installed were coming up through the rocks. The roots were transplanted when he dumped the dirt/clay on to the front bed from the side.

� Did not level the dirt that he dumped into the front garden from the side before putting the stone on. This dirt was also all clay.

o The garden is noticeably uneven and to fix it correctly all of the stones have to be removed so the ground can be leveled

� The front garden is not graded correctly as the sides to prevent erosion

� Did not use enough border stones to cover the area

� Did not use enough pink stones to cover the soil

Back beds

� Dumped chunks of clay from the side area into the flower beds

� Did not dig the area up before throwing down the mulch

� Did not pull weeds before throwing down the mulch

� Did not use enough mulch to cover the areas

� Did not level out the area where he dumped the clay

� No base under the stone border

� Used broken concrete as some of the stones

� Used broken pavers stones (they were all supposed to be natural stones)

� Not enough stones to complete it

� Used my stones that were being stored in my garage and by my stairs

Flagstone patio

� Was not finished

� Put grit all over basement window sills

� Didn�t seal the flagstones

� Left a pile of grit in the middle of the walkway

� Won�t know how great the base is until winter

� Lilly�s already coming up in the middle of the walkway

Fence

� Did a horrendous job staining the fence, missed spots and huge drips

� Got stain all over my house, my neighbors house and the sidewalk

� Opened both gallons even though 1 was more than enough to cover the whole fence with two coats plus the stain that he wasted by leaving it in buckets on my stairs

No flowers

Following the days that the contract was signed the contractor and his crew were either late or did not show up. I had asked the contractor to fix the front bed which was not level verbally and I left a note for him. On the last day that they did work at my house (they were supposed to finish but did not) they left my yard a mess. They left trash and buckets blocking the stairs to my front door. There was a large pile of grit left on the patio/walkway. The fence was about a quarter of the way painted and it was a horrible job with missed spots and noticeable drip marks all along the area that they did paint; there was also stain on my house and the neighbors, both in the front and the back. My hose was left in a tangled mess on the ground in the back walkway leading to the back yard, under the hose hanger. I also found chunks of dirt thrown behind my garage and a large pile next to the garage. I had to clean all of this mess up as the next time he showed up (over a week later) was to get money that I still owed him. He had told me was going to be there the next day (texted messages at 630pm the next day that he was not going to show up) then 2 days later and each time he never showed.

I confronted the contractor about the quality of the work and that most of it was not even done when he showed up to get paid. The contractor immediate became combative. I brought up that the pink stone was still not level nor completely filled in, to which he replied that it would cost me another 2 to 3 hundred dollars to have that fixed. He said that the sealer for the flag stone cost $250 to which I produced the receipt I had found with the trash on the front steps which stated that the sealer was bought from Home Depot for $24.95, he then changed tracks and said he needed 4 of them and I informed him that I finished the stones with 2 coats and followed the directions on the bottle and there was still a quarter of the bottle left. To this he replied with an �oh� and dropped that argument. I told him about the chunks of dirt that were tossed behind the garage to which he circled around and said it would have been leveled out, I explained that I was talking about the dirt that was tossed behind the garage not dumped on the ground next to it and again he stated he was going to level it out. I brought up that the sod was not done and he said it was; he was only doing up to the tree because it was to hard to do. (Of the 157 sq ft that I am responsible for between the sidewalk and the street, The contractor only laid sod on 52 sq ft, there is 15 sq ft of raw dirt where he dug up the ground but did not lay sod. I asked about the part that he dug up beyond the tree and he stated that he wasn�t doing it because of the tree roots and went on and on about how many tree roots he had to go through. I explained that there is a tree right there and tree roots are to be expected right next to a tree. He had no excuse for the trash and tools left out all over my front stairs and changed the subject. I argued that the back beds look bad to which he replied that I needed drainage, I told him that I was not talking about the lawn which did have standing water on them because of the heavy rains, I was talking about the beds which do not have water in them and again he went around to talking about my lawn needing drainage. I told him that there are all ready weeds coming up through the mulch. He said he turned up the dirt and laid down a weed barrier. (after he left we moved some mulch, to which there is only 1 inch of mulch, and the dirt is not dug up nor is there a weed barrier), The contractor stated that the weeds grow this fast in the spring. And he could put weed killer on it. And that the beds look great. He used my rocks that I set aside in the garage and at the bottom of the stairs, when asked about using them he stated that he thought he could. He also stated that he was going to bring more rocks over from another customer�s job to add the rocks to the ones already edging my gardens.

My brother asked the contractor how many hours he had spent on this job, and The contractor responded that he did not know and that was not important to him, or how he runs his business. My brother also asked him if he had receipts for the materials to which he stated he did not have to show, my brother asked what the retail prices were for the materials and the contractor could not even come up with a ball park figure. The contractor asked many times that we go talk to his father about how to run a business; (The contractor stated that his father runs a construction business) I told him I was not doing business with his father. The contractor also kept saying how much one company (I do not recall the name) would charge me for what he did, I told him I was not concerned with that as I am did not hire them to do the work. I attempted to make a few deals with the contractor as all the work was not finished nor was it finished correctly. He turned them all down with money figures going from anywhere from 200 to 1000. He stated a few times that he was going to take the sod with him, and could not give an answer to what he would put in the hole once he did. The contractor then stated he did not want to take the sod with him because it looked good. The contractor also complained about all of the gas he had to use getting to my house and picking up supplies. He stormed out of my house saying he was going to get his $1000 and we would see him in court.

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