Contractor disappeared

[gordon21]

If he is willing to come get his stuff and slink away quietly, then let him do that!!! However, make sure to get a release signed. It would not be good to suddenly find out about a mechanics lien in 6 months from now that he filed. He could cost you hundreds or thousands in legal fees and aggravation months or years from now.

If you agree to be extorted a few hundred now, what prevents him from doing it again at the end of the project? There is another active thread where someone got hit with over $70,000 in overage charges from an electrician. That situation was not exactly the same, but the moral is to stay away from dishonest/stupid contracters that can't properly bid a job.

Dishonesty or stupidity. It doesn't matter. Run from both kinds of contractors the minute you sense he is either one.

One last thing. Make sure you close the building permit if the job gets cancelled. I once had a house closing held up for a month because a previous owner had never closed an open permit 10 years ago. I had to get inspectors out to the property to verify the current situation. The cost was under $50 to resolve it, but the aggravation of not being able to buy the house and move in was enormous. Needless to say, the seller was not happy his money got delayed by a month also.

 

[scott_vt]

What do you think? Fire him or pay the extras?

Fire him.

Contractors have more ways of being flakey than you can possibly imagine. Once you get the slightest hint of things going wrong, get someone else.

Ask me about the time I had to go down to the county jail and bail out a roofing contractor and his entire crew to get the job finished. And he cheated me on the hours he claimed.

Mornin Dave,
Certainly dont want to detract from this thread, but that story has to go down as a real classic !

 

[jpm]

if you want to find out if he is ripping you call a sand & gravel suppler and find out how much sand is? $ 40.per yard mite be high.I paid $12. del

 

[tydp]

I'd fire him and and deney him access to my property to remove the (formerly his) forms......

 

[AlanB]

What will you do if you give him the go ahead and he is halfway through and other jobs and stresses take over again and he disappears for a month next time?

While it is a bad spot to be in I am sure, I would much rather work with someone that is keeping me in the loop, and letting me know what is going on, then someone that leaves me hanging.

I would find someone else.

 

[Deerlope]

Looks to me like he bid the job low to get his foot in the door. If you have a sign contract then if its was written right it should protect both of you. I wouldn't let him have anything until a judge said so. I would even put a homeowners lein on his equipment.

 

[riptides]

Your a nice guy.

Fire him.

Use the foundation moulds for a bon-fire, unless you can get someone else to pour into them, if they LOOK ok.

-Mike Z.

 

[RobertN]

This sounds hokey. I have worked for contractors, concrete contracters at that... I have seen a couple mistakes on bids; underestimate, price change etc. I have seen the contracter fess up to the mistake, do the work as per contract, and be done with it.

Now, I have seen prices go up while digging, but the contract had a digging clause. With all the rock and stuff here in the foothills, sometimes you run in to stuff... But, you put that clause in the contract.

I have been on pours in the country. They can talk by radio and/or cell phone. You do not need 7 trucks sitting there. One truck comes up, then calls the second truck as he is finishing his pour. The next truck is then on it's way; if it is a one lane road they talk on the radio... Besides, you don't want a truck sitting with mud in it... It'll start setting up in the truck, making the pour and finsih work hard to do. Most of the concrete companies around here are pretty good. They can figure this stuff out, especially since they don't want 7 trucks idle for hours(if they even have 7 trucks!).

FYI, I just checked here; 5-sack is running about $110/yd.

This whole thing sounds fishy.

I would at least check in to another contractor.

 

[Doc_Bob]

Find another contractor.

Bob

 

[breadtrk]

Fire him and shoot him if he trespasses on your property to get his abandoned forms.