Help! In desperate need of legal advice...

I had problems with a contractor once, but he learned a few important lessons. I insisted when we signed the contract that it have penalty clauses, otherwise I would not do business with him. For each day past a set date he had to pay me $100 a day until the job was completed. Further, when he got slow I insisted that I pay his subs directly and deduct that amount from anything I owed him. Finally, in our town it is illegal (yes illegal) for a homeowner to make a final payment to a contractor until the town approves the job. This gives you added protection.

Electrical for the cabana gets greentagged today. It's been about an additional $1000 to bring their shoddy work up to code. To sum up, they jammed us pretty good on our deck (we paid for 767 sq feet of Rainbow Handseed and gotm 560 ft of washed aggregate pea gravel) , and on the main filter pump. Get this, if they had installed a Hayward Pump as the contract insisted, instead of the Pentair Challenger they gave us, we would have three years warranty with Hayward instead of one. How do you put a price on that?

If they had just paid the deck contractor in the first place, we may have never figured all this out. We had a problem with the Hayward heater, and the first thing the technician said when he came to our place was, "wow, that's not a Hayward pump..."

We have withheld final pool payment, finding them in default, and will let the court settle it.

Any advice for heading into Small Claims will be greatly appreciated!!!


Mike
Arlington, TX

I took a roofing company to small claims several years ago. I was lucky, the owner didn't show, and I won by default. He flew the coup, and all I could do with my judgement was use it as a tax write off.
However, I had all my paper work and documentation in order before I went to court. If you have kept notes of conversations, have those handy too.
I have reached a settlement with my PB. I am keeping the final payment that was due him, and he is paying half my attorney fees. We are settling out of court. The lawyer made out with $1500.00.

Webfeet

Bring all your paperwork, receipts, prepare a chronological log of the events as they happened and stick with facts (judges don't care about opinions or emotional issues) Be well prepared. Once you win your case, you may get paid and you may not. If they don't voluntarily settle up and pay what is owed, you may have to hire a lawyer for post judgment relief (garnishment, liens, collections) - that is one thing you can't do on your own.

You can do liens, garnishings, and collections on your own. If you don't have any legal experience you would really need to study up on the proper procedures, but it is easy once you learn it.

PB left and never finished the job. Hired an attorney and in the intermin the PB filed bankrupcy. Had no choice, but to accept 10 cents on the dollar that he owe me to finish the pool. The money I received from the PB was used to pay for my attorney and filing fees. No one wins!!!

We too had a problem, not with our pool remodeler but with the stamped concrete decking company who were total idiots (we won't even attempt to talk about that.)

Remember, if you are using a licensed contractor (and you should ALWAYS do that) you also have recourse with the state's department of licensing & regulation. Licensed contractors are required to post a bond, which will get you at least part of your money back even if they fold.