Trouble on the farm with contractor

[randy41]

this has been said already i reckon but you should consult a lawyer to clarify the legal aspects of this. if they put a lien on your property it would prevent you from getting a mortgage or selling without paying up to clear the lien. i dont think they can force you to sell. you could try to work with the electrical contractor for a payment plan. you could try to get additional financing from the bank to cover.
an electrical contractor i know charges a 10% markup on materials plus 1.5 times labor. i think he raised that to 2 times labor. this is to cover overhead and profit.

 

[40Kchicks]

My materials mark up was 20% which looking back was crazy for a project of this size. I was able to get almost all of my suppliers to accept about 5-7% markup and they should have also. Unfortunately these electrical contractors were the first suppliers I hired and I didn’t know any better. I also wasn’t that worried about it because the estimate was they gave was reasonable.

Eric

 

[rswyan]

I later found out that they did the same thing to my friend at his poultry ranch. They charged him and extra 75K also.

So what did he do ?

 

[gemini5362]

Randy 41 I dont know about the laws in Oregon or Virginia But in Arkansas or Oklahoma they can force you to sell to recover. I asked my wife (who has been a licensed practicing attorney for over 15 years) if they could force him to sell his property to pay for it and she did not even hesitate and said absolutely. I am sure there is going to be some arguement that you can get out of it by declaring bankruptcy but those laws have been drastically modified in 2006 and it sounds like he has too many assetts to make that feasible. Once again I am of the opinion that for the amount of money that he is talking about he needs to consult an attorney that is cognizant of the laws in his state and not listen to any of the advice he sees on here. Includeing all of my advice except the part about seeking legal representation.
The law is very fluid and changeing and varies from state to state. I personally am a union representative and arbitration advocate for the union that I am a member of. We arbitrate cases in my state that range from a few dollars to a few million. Even with all the training I have had and having to deal with our employer daily on contract issues. I would still head straight for an attorney if I had his problem.

 

[YanmarFever]

Go To the county court house & do a search on the company & contractor to see if he has been dragged off to court for the same thing in the past.

If he has, look up what attorney handled the case , and thats the one you want to hire cause he knows the past history of this rascal & he can save you $$ in the long run,

just my humble opinion (of course)

 

[hazmat]

At first $137K didn't seem completely outrageous to me, but then I live in MA and work for a Defense contractor. I did some quick math:

$137K Bill
$34K Materials (25% ???)
$103K Labor at $220 per hour (2@$60, 2@$50) = 467 hours that the whole 4 man crew was on site. = just under 12 weeks. You stated that the final Bill was Nov 3 and that work started in September. Just doesn't add up to me...

I'm assuming that his profit is buried into material & Labor rates - he sure isn't paying his guys $60 per hour, but does have overhead... Usually time and material jobs are X/hour and material + Y% markup (typically 20%). There isn't another line for profit.

You need that itemized bill - he should be able to tell you by day how many of his guys were there....

 

[40Kchicks]

My friend had two parts to his project. The first was to build five new 60X500 buildings then gut and remodel the existing 8 40X400 buildings. After finding that he was short 75K for electrical with the new barns he then diverted the money set aside for electrical in the remodel of the existing barns. He was able to pay them off but he has to do the electrical himself in the remodel due to lack of funds.

Eric

 

[randy41]

gemini...i'm sure that your wife knows more about this than i do. better to go by what she says than what i say.
eric...how long was the contractor on the job? 4 guys for 3 weeks would make up the labor number based on hazmat's numbers. and theres no reason why the contractor wouldn't give you a detailed itemization of his bill including all materials and all time charged by employee. i would think its not an unusual request seeing as he charging you based on that. i'm not so sure that this will help you in any way though.

 

[Doc_Bob]

Personally I have never needed or hired a lawyer and don’t want to go that route but my wife is pretty adamant that we need to. I guess I’ll let her at least get some information from them and find out which way we should proceed.

Eric

Resistance is futile.
Bob

 

[gemini5362]

I agree that an itemized bill is the minimum he should provide for that much overage. I am confused though from the way 40k Chicks is talking about the manhours and the markup it sounds like he might already have an itemized bill or are you just going on guesstimate of what you saw while they were working.

You have to be careful when you deal with contractors. I always recommend that someone takes any contract that is more than a few dollars to an attorney to have it looked at. For a few hundred dollars you get piece of mind and also you get malpractice coverage from the attorneys office. If the attorney aproves a contract and later on you have something like this happen you can file against the attorneys malpractice. Provided that the advice the attorney gave you did not warn you that you might have a large overage. I had an attorney long before I met my wife and any contract for employment or real estate went to him for his approval.