When to fire a contractor?

[Bambistew]

If you get to the point you need to fire him, make sure you figure in the cost of a lawyer to get your money back (if you want to). May be easier to just walk away. Hopefully your have a non-performance clause in the contract.

That sucks, but I would try to persuade him to show up and get the work done. Like mentioned stacks of $100s will motivate.

 

[rjthehunter]

Ask him whats going on face to face. Give him a finish by date and if he doesn't think he can make it then find someone else. Without seeing your contract, it's difficult to know what you can actually do.

 

[LuketheDog]

If you get to the point you need to fire him, make sure you figure in the cost of a lawyer to get your money back (if you want to). May be easier to just walk away.

Disputes like this can often be settled in small claims court without lawyers. When I was managing projects for my dad's company we had to do that multiple times with subs who hadn't performed as well as owners who tried to avoid final payment.

 

[Gellar]

As a contractor myself I would suggest you start by voicing your displeasure in a face to face conversation try to gauge whether or not there are legitimate reasons for his postponement of finishing your job. Sometimes a contractor is working multiple projects and weather or another customer might be pushing to have their job finished before you. Ask him what he views as a realistic end date and ask him to explain his idea of the steps it will take for him to accomplish that . If it’s not acceptable to you then it might be better for both of you for you to find another contractor to do the work. Be realistic with yourself that if you find someone else it will take you longer and don’t transfer your frustration over to the next contractor. If he follows through and begins work stay out of his way and check up on his progress after hours.

Don’t play control games and don’t use threats. Just ask him to be straight up with you about when he can finish and if it isn’t acceptable take the next step. Nobody wins when it goes from construction to contention.

I have voiced my opinion on how he is holding the other contractors several times. He says he will be there tomorrow and I am going to take the morning off to speak with him. He continues to say the weather is delaying him. We had unseasonable spring/summer rains and all contractors were behind. Fall we had torrential rain and then a very cold October and November. I will report back tomorrow how it goes. Thank you everyone for the help and advice.

 

[stuckinthecitylife]

It today's economic climate, these guys are BUSY. It's your fault if it's December and there's no heat yet. Furthermore you're lucky if it's only a month behind. Work with him, be respectful, and when the job is done, tip. I'd give him several months, and lay off for a bit.

- J

 

[mtmuley]

It today's economic climate, these guys are BUSY. It's your fault if it's December and there's no heat yet. Furthermore you're lucky if it's only a month behind. Work with him, be respectful, and when the job is done, tip. I'd give him several months, and lay off for a bit.

- J

Joking, right? mtmuley

 

[Dinkshooter]

A Buddy of mine doing an addition on a commercial space in Bozangles going through the same pain as you are currently....................."subcontractors are nothing but a bunch of pirates"!

 

[fmnjr]

I have been working on building a house and am nearing completion. I need to wrap up my construction loan and switch to a regular mortgage, but the plumber and hvac (same contractor) are holding things up. Over the last month he has said several times they will be on the job on a certain day and when that day comes up he has an excuse. I have paid him 1/3 of the agreed price but am not paying him more until he shows up and has progress. He is holding the process up because I need heat to finish the drywall and paint. He was supposed to show again today but said the weather was going to cause him to reschedule until tomorrow. If he is not there tomorrow I am considering cutting ties. I know this may delay the process more but I am fed up with scheduling contractors and having to cancel them because this guys work is not done.

What would you do in my situation?

Sorry for the rant, I don’t like to air my laundry on the internet, but I am frustrated.

Sounds like you're doing the owner-builder thing where you're acting as the general contractor, right?

Like others have said, hopefully there's a contract spelling out terms and you've documented things to the nth degree.

In any case, contractors are are only interested in one thing in my experience that you can leverage.....cash.

From what you've said it sounds like you've may be managing that decently since you've only paid him a third.

Is he more than 1/3 done, or less? If he's more done then you're in decent shape and, though it might cost you some time and money, you could kick him to the curb and try someone else.

The thing is, with contracts that go into dispute, nobody ever comes out the winner, it's usually a lose-lose proposition.

On the other hand, this guy sounds like a turd to me.

If your gut tells you he's going to continue to be a turd, kick him to the curb and move on.

 

[stuckinthecitylife]

Joking, right? mtmuley

Absolutely not.

 

[riley]

I’m a contractor.
Hears the big picture . At least where I’m from .

We have a core group of regular customers that we service . We also have a core ground of General contractors that give us work throughout the year. They will take priority.

Usually Homeowners that “general” on average find that they are lower on the priority list. And have the same experience your having.

Around me, The good subs are bizy. And very few subs will pick up a job where someone else has left off. Jobs like that are a big red flag in our world , so tread lightly on just firing


A good sub is worth waiting for.


You can pm me and with getting more details on the situation I could try and help out . Just Leme know .

 

[warmer]

I’m a hvac/plumbing contractor and will offer my opinion.

1-If I take a job and give a start date, I show up.
2-I’ve been screwed by concrete guys, electricians, sheet rockers, tile guys, cabinet guys, gas suppliers, carpenters, roofers, countertop guys and anyone else involved in the job.
3-You do what you promise, no matter the cost.
4-I would never touch a job someone else started.

So, make him do the job, don’t call someone else and hire a general to build your next house.

 

[Gerald Martin]

4-I would never touch a job someone else started.

That's pretty much my mentality unless I know the person asking me to finish someone else's work. It's probably not what you want to hear, but from a contractor's point of view there aren't any upsides to coming in and picking up the pieces. The customer is starting his relationship with me stressed from the previous guy. I'm probably not going to be satisfied with the quality of work by the prior contractor and don't want to be liable for any mistakes he may have made in the process. What he viewed as 1/3 value of finishing the job may not actually be and it will probably end up costing the customer more. You might have paid for 1/3 and only received 1/4. Someone is going to have to make up the difference.
I've learned that because I like to have happy customers, that usually comes out of my pocket to fix other peoples mistakes and so I try to avoid being part of the solution to other parties' problems.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Very likely putting his GC jobs above yours. This is what you signed on for when hiring your own sub. Fire him and you are in the same boat again with the next sub who also puts his GC jobs before yours. I would pick a date that is the absolute latest you are willing to get the work done, then be very firm and very persistent with this guy until he completes the work. Such as, assurance of exactly when he will be on site, then have him tell you what the alternative is if he can't follow through with that, then hold him to that as well. If all this fails to result in completed work by your deadline you set, take the loss of your 1/3 and walk, hire someone else, and then try to recoup your funds later if it's worth your time.

I am nice at first, then give the benefit of the doubt, then am firm and clear, and if all that fails I go all out redneck. The latter very rarely occurs but if I have to I will get what's due to me.

Five years ago I had sub coming out to do time sensitive septic install. Weeks went by and I got the runaround many times. Finally just started calling anyone associated with the guy to press for action and became a burr in his shoe that he could no longer ignore and the work got started and finished quick.

 

[mtmuley]

Absolutely not.

Absolutely not the way to handle it. mtmuley

 

[Mallardsx2]

Its a savage world out there right now with contractors. I know several people who are having to sue people for not completing the job.

My advice is get EVERYTHING in writing and Pay at the completion of each task.

Basement complete- HAPPY?- PAID
Bathroom completed? Happy? - PAID

NEVER GIVE A LUMP SUM UP FRONT THESE DAYS.

The contractor will do most of the work and leave and keep your money. Seen it 100 times.

 

[Deleted member 18333]

Consistently surprised by how many delays, excuses, changes, redirect of resources and assorted BS people are willing to accept from building contractors. Seems to be one of the only professions that gets away with a lack of meeting commitments. I can guarantee you the contractor wouldn't accept this much BS from one of his employees before cutting bait. Do as you wish but there are too many good contractors in this world to put up with unfulfilled commitments from a shitty one.

 

[warmer]

The contractor will do most of the work and leave and keep your money. Seen it 100 times

You've obviously never been on a job with me.

 

[mplane72]

Given your location I don't expect you have a lot of options. I'd say it's time to track him down for a face to face. Hopefully you find him on a job and not at the bar. If you get the feeling he's not a total piece of dirt and is in fact putting you off to work for his regular GC's, which I can kind of understand, then I'd be honest with him about your time line and what you need to happen and be willing to pay right away on completion. I'd also ask him if he want's to recommend someone to finish the job if he's not going to. A lot of time these guys know a retired guy or former employee they can call in for some cash when they really need to.

 

[Deleted member 22670]

I've worked for large GC's for 12 years. Your cheapest path of least resistance will be to get your current contractor to perform. If you fire or sue, you will both loose to some degree. You can get another contractor in there, but it will cost you a premium, and some may be hesitant to do so. Review your contract in depth, start there with mediation options. I would also request performance meetings a few times a week until they're back on track. I he doesn't respond to emails or calls, go to his office and sit on his desk till he acknowledges you.

Does he have a fb account for his business? yelp, google reviews, bbb? Get his attention. Definitely stop all payment.

 

[fmnjr]

I work on the dark side, construction management. I characterize much of what we do as "seagull management", ie, fly in and chit on everyone and then leave.

There are a lot of great practical ideas from experienced hands on this thread, which are very relevant.

Here's an example of the same problem described by the OP, but on a larger scale.

$30M dollar school project and the mechanical goes belly-up about 1/2 way through.

Another sub gets sold into the job, finds out there is way more wrong than they thought coming in and eats the project to the tune of over $300K.

On top of that, I get handed the close out phase coz the original PM retires, and then spend the next 1.5 years after substantial completion figuring out how to get startup, Cx and TAB completed.

That's the kind of thing you might incur on a smaller scale if the sub is fired, but you want to avoid at all cost.