Contractor overpayment dilema
Looking for advice for contractor over payment.
I hired a contracted for a renovation that is still unfinished (15% left to go). After reviewing the invoices, I believe I will have overpaid by about $25,000 by the time the project is complete. He was supposed to remove materials that I purchased on my own. When looking at the draw schedule invoices, it does not appear he has removed them. For all tasks that deviated from the original draw schedule, there were change orders that I approved. When I pointed out the discrepancy to him, he is basically making excuses, saying that he used the money for other materials and tasks.
Has anyone dealt with a similar situation? What did you do to recover the overpayment? Should I try to get what I can from credit card disputes? I’m imagine he’ll probably quit if I do this. Any tips appreciated.
Most Popular Reply
A key rule of working with contractors is you never want to get ahead of them with payments. Sadly, there are a lot of contractors that will simply leave if you paid them 90% and they are 90% done. It is much better to have paid them 75% when they are 90% done. Always hang on to 10% until it is 100% done. With that in mind, you are in a delicate situation.
Hopefully this contractor is honest. If you treat them right, you might get it back. I would not get emotional. If you haven't already, create a spreadsheet that shows why you think you are $25K over and ask him to provide details if there were other purchases he made.
In the long run, possession is 9/10ths of the law. In a dispute, the odds you will recover this are very low.