Helppp and about to give up on Contractors

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Helppp and about to give up on Contractors

Luz Pagan
Flipper/Rehabber · Highlands County · Member since 2017 · 87 posts · 33 votes

I am currently rehabing one of the house I bought. However, I notice that the project is taking so long. The Contractor we are currently working an the only one that answered in our area has delayed so much and we are behind scheduled. He told me his guys were going to be working on the house this week since all the permits have been obtained. Today, my husband went to the resident and his employees were not working, the same thing has hapend on previous weeks. 

There are so many projects that could have been done while waiting for the permits, but he promise that once the permits were in, he will have his crew will finish the project soon. Today I texted him, as well as my husband. I just want to know if this is normal for any of you guys or should I fired the guy? 

I am having so much trouble finding contractors in the area that I am investing, it is horrible. I am thinking of just hiring the experts myself, rather than hiring a General Contractor to hire the crews. I am losing money as this house is not finish yet. Any advised will be welcome! Maybe I am too desperate to finish..

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Matthew Paul
Severna Park, MD · Member since 2013 · 7k+ posts · 7k+ votes
8y
Originally posted by @Luz Pagan:

@Matthew PaulSo the question is: do you take more jobs than what you  can handle? If you take the job, do you complete it from start to finish? Or Do you jump from work to work in sn attempt to make progress in all of them?

No I dont take on more jobs than I can handle , As far as completing from start to finish , yes . BUT that doesnt mean being there every day , subs are there some days , sometimes they get delayed , inspections can take a day , two maybe 3 . The customer makes changes . We have 2 , 3 even 4 jobs going at the same time at different stages . One day I may send 1 man to your job , another you may have 4 guys . 

Of course we jump from job to job . when the drywall crew shows up , I am not going to stand there with 3 guys and watch them hang drywall . ( I will but I will be billing ) No we go and demo another job .  As a contractor I am maximizing my profit .  I am constantly reallocating resources . 

We have to deal with weather , inspectors , subs , suppliers .  Just last week , digging footers for an addition , 3/4 's of the way digging and my guy hits an abandoned septic tank . Boom , job stops , almost 2 thirds of the tank are in the addition , its a 1000 gallon concrete tank . It takes 3 days for the engineer to come out and look . A day to get prices for a crane to lift it out and arrange to have it hauled , thats now 2 weeks out . And it added 8 grand to the job .  Now I have to push back my block layer and framer .   

So now i have just added 2 to 4 weeks extra to a job due to delays beyond out control. There is nothing we can do on that job .  So now we go do a fill in job thats on the list .

This happens all the time , its a balancing act 

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  • James Houlihan
    Member since 2018 · 4 posts · 4 votes
    8y

    Bryan Devitt,  I agree do not treat people like crap. If a GC is delaying a job due to its own fault. I will have strong words with them. It's business it's nothing personal. The company I work for has hired dozens of contractors and we also keep a list of poor performing GC's and subs. If GC's and subs have the mind set they can delay jobs and cost investors money because there are more of them. Good luck. 

    1Reply
  • David Sisson
    Architect · Providence, RI · Member since 2016 · 258 posts · 195 votes
    8y

    As an architect - we encounter this all the time. Slow contractors. It's obvious when you think about it - a good contractor (IE: quality work, good communication, good scheduling) will be VERY much in demand and VERY expensive. The cheap guy will probably be bad at 2 or 3 of the things you want. Even worse when he's busy. 

    Hold back 10% of the project (or more) as "retainage" to be paid at the end. Make sure the final payment's big enough to cover the remaining work AND a bit more, so they are incentivized to actually do it - or you can hire someone else to finish. 

    Then again, I went ahead and got my contractor's license - just so I can pull permits on my own projects and hire subs. Subs can still suck, but at least you can keep your project moving forward. 

    3Reply
  • Luz Pagan
    OP
    Flipper/Rehabber · Highlands County · Member since 2017 · 87 posts · 33 votes
    8y

    @Bryan Devitt,

    Believe we do not contradict ourselves. We are on the same page. My husband and I are communicating a lot. Now, I even reached out to the contractor and asked him if he understood what we want because I wanted make sure we were on the same page. He said we were. 

    I took the time to see the contract again and I noticed a made a rookie mistake as per all of your advise here. the payments plan is divided in equal payments of $4716.60. The Break down is  as follow:

    Due prior to start

    Due once slab is poured

    Due after prel-lath inspection pass

    Due at completion

    Of course drawings and permits are on a separate payments.

    0Reply
  • Luz Pagan
    OP
    Flipper/Rehabber · Highlands County · Member since 2017 · 87 posts · 33 votes
    8y

    @David Sisson Probably the job is not giving him enough money, but &18,866.20 is an easy job for him to move on. like I said before it was nothing out of the ordinary. We even give up on the third room due to him expressing frustration with the other permits needed to inspect the septic and the extra time the project would have delay. However, we were cleared as to what we wanted since the beginning. We did not ask for a discount or negotiate the price.  We really wanted our first contact in the business.

    i am happy you were able to get your GC license that is awesome. I wish I could do it to avoid all this mess, but my education is totally different from this business. my husband has been a handyman for years, but this type of work need a license contractor.

    0Reply
  • Bryan Devitt
    Contractor · Oxford, MA · Member since 2018 · 807 posts · 745 votes
    8y

    Having 1/4 due upon completion is actually a very good thing for you. Make sure you are 100% satisfied before you release that. A lot of guys will claim to be finished at 99% and claim that punch list items don't count and they will come back for that after, don't fall for it. That could take weeks, months or even over a year before they do it all with a long list of reasons for the delays. How much was the total contract? Breaking it down to 1/4s for what sounds like a big project isn't enough. I have more payments than that on a $20k bathroom remodel.

    1Reply
  • Luz Pagan
    OP
    Flipper/Rehabber · Highlands County · Member since 2017 · 87 posts · 33 votes
    8y

    @Bryan Devitt

    18,866.20. Like I said it is not a big project: it is just extending a room, redoing an outside wall and some electrical work. That is all!

    0Reply
  • Bryan Devitt
    Contractor · Oxford, MA · Member since 2018 · 807 posts · 745 votes
    8y

    Oh ok. That sounds like more than $19k in work.

    0Reply
  • Luz Pagan
    OP
    Flipper/Rehabber · Highlands County · Member since 2017 · 87 posts · 33 votes
    8y

    @Bryan Devitt It is really not! the extension is no more than a foot and the external wall is one of the simplest things to do. My husband would have done it, but again because it is structural a permit is needed. THe electrical, I am about to find an electrician and have done by next week. We did he same electrical work at my home and we only paid $1500.

    0Reply
  • Bryan Devitt
    Contractor · Oxford, MA · Member since 2018 · 807 posts · 745 votes
    8y

    It sucks but lesson learned. Hopefully you can find a reliable GC soon so you never run into this again. The reliable ones that aren't over priced or very high end are like a needle in a haystack

    1Reply
  • Luz Pagan
    OP
    Flipper/Rehabber · Highlands County · Member since 2017 · 87 posts · 33 votes
    8y

    So today, no workers on the job site and no communication!!!

    0Reply
  • Kevin Dang
    Specialist · Oakland, CA · Member since 2014 · 83 posts · 28 votes
    8y

    @Luz Pagan Provide an addendum to the contract for project duration and liquidated damages if work is not completed by date. If he doesn't agree to sign, cancel the contract. 

    0Reply
  • Luz Pagan
    OP
    Flipper/Rehabber · Highlands County · Member since 2017 · 87 posts · 33 votes
    8y

    @Kevin Dang Thanks!! I will do it today without delays

    0Reply
  • Luz Pagan
    OP
    Flipper/Rehabber · Highlands County · Member since 2017 · 87 posts · 33 votes
    8y

    @Kevin Dang I was able to talk to the GC today. I asked him how much more time will the project take. He told me that he was going to be talking to his foreman today. I said "I need to know how much longer because I have other projects that are behind schedule. Talk to your Foreman, but we are putting a deadline and we will do an addendum to the contract" I gave him until tomorrow to provide me with the time frame. He then said that his foreman has an injury, but he was going to check with him because he knew we were working behind schedule. He sounded like he got my memo. I am allowing him to give me a deadline, if the deadline looks ridiculous off, I will tell him that I am giving him 2 weeks max. Hopefully this will work. Now, I have never done an addendum on this capacity, So  I will start looking for samples and drafting it tonight.


    Thank you so much for your reply!!!

    0Reply
  • Kevin Dang
    Specialist · Oakland, CA · Member since 2014 · 83 posts · 28 votes
    8y
    @Luz Pagan Not a problem.
    0Reply
  • Steve B.
    Engineer · Portland, OR · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    8y
    @Luz Pagan the problem is you already have a contract. A unilateral addendum he wont sign isn’t binding. So if you can’t terminate easIly under the terms of the original contract, a unilateral addendum isnt unenforceable. Hopefully you can just terminate under the original contract
    1Reply
  • Luz Pagan
    OP
    Flipper/Rehabber · Highlands County · Member since 2017 · 87 posts · 33 votes
    8y

    I am sure I can terminate anything. There is nothing in the contract that talks about termination. No language at all. So it should not be that hard

    0Reply
  • David Sisson
    Architect · Providence, RI · Member since 2016 · 258 posts · 195 votes
    8y

    Offer to pay him for work complete, and if he doesn't cancel the contract, you'll take him to the state for breach of contract. He'll probably be happy to be out of the contract anyway. 

    BTW - with my contractors I don't take excuses. The most popular ones are "broken truck" and "injury" and "sick mom" and "kids" and "wife" and "broken tool". These are all just excuses. I tell them right away that I don't want excuses and they need to man up. I've also heard "jail" lol. Honestly, the reality is that they get overextended with projects and can't cover them all. Here it's easy to get a contractor's registration, have your husband do it if he can. You don't have to do the actual work, just be able to pull your own permit and hire your own sub contractors. Then, if a sub isn't doing the work, get another sub. 

    1Reply
  • Luz Pagan
    OP
    Flipper/Rehabber · Highlands County · Member since 2017 · 87 posts · 33 votes
    8y

    @David Sisson

    Yes plenty of excuses given including mom, injury and other things. My issue is the lack of communication. We created an addendum that he has yet to sign. In FL the piece of paper after you sue someone worth nothin. That is why is so importnat  to pay in stages. I am happy I learned this very early. But good luck collecting money from a contractor after paying the a substantial amount.

    0Reply
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