Legal Question in Construction Law in Texas

contractor added and increased costs without change order

We hired a contractor to perform several jobs. When he told us he was finished, we found that he had not completed some jobs, and others were horribly botched. We walked through the house with him, pointed out the issues, then followed up with a punchlist of the work that needed to be completed and/or fixed.

He then completed some of the items on the punchlist, did some very substandard work on yet others, and did not address some items at all.

Then, he sent us a new bill with added charges for work that we had not asked for nor authorized. He did deduct one major botched item, but added new work to the bill.

There are no change orders. Our punchlist included only items from the original list which had not been completed or had been botched.

We responded by sending an itemized list of work we had and had not authorized, what remained uncompleted, and a check for the amount we figured was due based on the work actually done and the charge list provided in the original contract. We wrote ''full and final payment'' on the check. He cashed the check but crossed out the ''full and final payment'' text.

I suspect that he will now pursue a mechanic's lein on the house.

What do we do now?

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