Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Washington
construction subcontractor problem
We hire a gen contr to build our house. He recommended a drywall sub that we used to do all sheetrock work in the house. We were pressured by the general to pay off the sub in full immediately. After it was painted we realized there were problems with sheetrock lines, nail pops, poor texture coverage, etc...The general finally got the sub back to fix it but the repair job was done hastily and looks worse then it did prior to the repairs. The gen cont. does not seem to want to stand up for our concerns and only sees a few problems. We have 2nd opinions from other sheetrockers and contractors that say it is the worst job they have ever seen. We have not moved into the house because we don't want to live amidst the sanding and reprep and repainting. My Questions are: 1) do we only ''go after'' the general or both the general and the sub? 2) Do we have to let the sub come back in and redo the work if he offers? We have another meeting set up with both of these guys today (the first three were canceled) and we have no confidence in him completing the work properly or timely nor will he be willing to pay for it to be repainted. We are out of $ due to other issues. please advise. thank you in advance!
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: construction subcontractor problem
I'm sorry that this is not a very well put together response, but I wanted to do something quickly, given your deadline. If you have time, I suggest you get in touch with me or another lawyer to discuss your situation in more detail, since you are about to have a meeting today with the general and sub contractors.
That said, whether you go after the gen and sub depends upon whether you hired the sub directly or the gen hired the sub and you just paid them. If you directly hired the sub then I'd say you go after both. Otherwise, you go after the gen only and let him blame the sub, or you sue both no matter what and let the sub say that he has no contract with you, which will lead to the gen suing the sub on the basis that the sub's defective work is not his fault.
As for whether to let the sub come back and do the work, I'd say at this point you do not have to. That does not mean you should not let them try. Hopefully, you have been documenting the work with photos (the original job, the redo, and hopefully the second redo, whomever does it) in case you wind up in court. If you let him try again and he gets it right this time and actually spends time to do the work right, then I'd let it go. If on the other hand he does it wrong a third time, and then you wind up hiring another contractor to fix it all, and they do it how you want, then I'd say you are creating a record that proves the shoddy quality of the work by the sub. The key will be to document the difference between the sub's work and the replacement sub's work.
I'd also show the other sheetrocker's written opinions and estimates to the sub and say this is what your colleagues think of your work. That may cajole them into making it right.
You should also check into whether these guys have all the proper business licenses to do what they do. If they are not properly licensed, that may be something you can use to help leverage a better settlement or refund from these guys.
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