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Rehabbing & House Flipping

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Gail W.
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Running the Earth, watching the sky
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61
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Contractor's final invoice contains big surprises! Now what??

Gail W.
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Running the Earth, watching the sky
Posted Jun 25 2015, 18:00

I had a slab leak in my rental home. The insurance adjuster and contractor he brought in were great! I couldn't believe how much would be covered; we would be getting a whole new kitchen and flooring thru out most of the house! And since my family rents from me, that would be very nice! 

Everyone was great UNTIL...the cabinet guy was over booked, so the contractor had one of his guys fill in. This guy was kind of rude, vague, flip. He gave me a catalog of cabinets to pick. I asked which were in my allowed budget? He never answered me until I'd pick one. Then he'd say, "That's way over your allowance". Finally, I picked one and he said it was "probably more inline with the budget". 

Now, all the other workers would give me "Change Order" forms describing the work and extra cost that I would have to pay for. Things like having them paint the other walls not involved in the slab leak or buying me more laminate for other rooms at their wholesale price. I never received a Change Order form from this guy. I only received an email from him with drawings of the cabinet layouts and measurements, asking me to approve it. 

Cut forward 4 months, job is complete. Foreman gives me the final invoice. I couldn't believe the overages for the cabinets!! $1500 over for the cabinet doors and $5500 over for the stain treatment!!  I would NEVER approve something like that!! I was shocked! (The foreman told me this guy was already in trouble for installing thick glass shelves in the glass front cabinets when it was supposed to be wood; he had to eat it on that. I offered to give them back-didn't even notice that "upgrade"! But it was custom). 

ALSO, there are things the insurance allowed for that were never done; cabinet knobs/pulls (none installed), dump runs (we did all that), a bedroom that was not even in the damage zone, a powder room they said they did, but we did the whole thing... So I want all that money to go to ME to either buy the items stated or reimburse me for the job WE did-not them! But they want me to sign the Certificate of Satisfaction to release the money my mortgage servicer received from the insurance company.  I'm thinking I should NOT do that...just not sure WHAT to do!  

What's my next move here? I stalled them and told them about all this and that I needed to review the invoice first...

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