I want to pick your brain for an interesting situation.

I lived in Chicago for 11 years. I am currently living in Texas. I bought a single family house in Chicago suburbs via a real estate agent almost a month ago. After the transaction I went abroad, and I recently arrived Chicago to start the project. When I got into house, I am shocked as bathroom and kitchen are demoed. 

I called agent to learn what is going on. The agent told me that they had communication problems with a contractor and contractor demoed the kitchen and bathroom. I rehabbed 3 houses before. All I can tell you is that bathroom and kitchen were fine for at least 10 more years. All I need to do is paint kitchen cabinets, replace toilet and bathroom vanity. 

Before I went abroad, we got a bid from contractor. My real estate agent knew the contractor very well. I believe contractor did lots of rehabs for agent's clients before. I rejected the bid as this was a lot considering the amount of work. I believe contractor thinks I am newbie and wants to charge a lot. I got similar things done for one third of what contractor is asking for.  So, he got into property without my knowledge and demoed the kitchen and bathroom.

I googled the contractor. He has excellent reviews. My real estate agent is also pretty good. I just want to pick your brain for this problem. What should I do? Should I sue the contractor/real estate agent as I have to build kitchen and bathroom from scratch now? Should I report this to the police? If you happen to know any expert(attorney, another investor) that could help, please contact me.

Thanks,

Wow! What a story. If I were in your shoes, I would contact contractor directly, assuming he knows he ****ed up, and see what he is willing to do to alleviate the problem. If he is unwilling to cooperate, then contact an attorney, and perhaps file a police report for trespassing and destruction of property.

Your results will depend on what you want out of it. Since everything is demoed anyway, maybe you can use the opportunity to install new fixtures and tell contractor you will not pay for labor. This could be a cheap way to get all new kitchen and bath. Or if you are really against that you can tell him he should replace with similar items out of his own pocket. I find when you approach with lawyers and legal threats, people become combative. Ask him an open ended question, and see what he is willing to do to fix it.

@Ferdi Eruysal , this is a frustrating situation. 

My advice would be that before you resort to legal action you should talk with the contractor to see who gave him the directive to start demo on your property, preferably something they have in writing telling them to go forward with the project. Then talk with the agent and contractor, explain your situation and how your intention was to not demo the kitchen/ bathroom, and try to come up with a solution that works. This would hopefully be a way to continue relationships with a contractor and agent that have excellent reviews from others. I hope this is somewhat helpful!

Thank you,

- Sam Torvinen

Thank you for the replies. I just talked to contractor. He claims that real estate agent told him to demo the kitchen and bath. This really got quite interesting. 

@Ferdi Eruysal that is a crazy situation. What did you get a proposal for from this contractor? Was it a kitchen and bath gut job? Sounds like the contractor did what he thought he was supposed to do (albeit with no contract). I would be leaning on my agent in this scenario big time!

File a police report to start

Originally posted by @Ferdi Eruysal :

Thank you for the replies. I just talked to contractor. He claims that real estate agent told him to demo the kitchen and bath. This really got quite interesting. 

 That should be easy to have him send over the text or the email giving him that instruction.... if i was verbal ask for the date/time and tell him to match it up to the bill. 

I'd give the contractor a chance to make things right, before seeking legal counsel. Let the contractor propose a remedy to you.... then if you can't come up w/ something I'd go document that he is not allowed on your property. No point in issuing a stop work order since there is no valid signed contract. Maybe if your lucky the realtor/contractor split the costs and eat it.

Have another (or multiple) contractor give you a bid to remedy the issue.... which should hopefully be around under the max for your small claims court.

From what I see here you have no valid contract, no authorization to start work, no delegation of authority to the realtor to make those decisions. 

Call your attorney and look at legal remedies. Call the police file a report. Call your insurance agent file a report. 

@Ferdi Eruysal

How did this situation end up getting resolved?

I know it's a year ago, but we've been left hanging! I also want to know what happened with this very interesting problem. 

It has not been resolved yet. I was very busy with other projects that I haven't started fixing the house.  I am living in Texas and property is in Chicago suburbs. I still need a good lawyer. 

So far, I have police reports. I also have the videos after the demo. I also have an email from my real estate agent stating that the contractor did the demo. After this forum thread, I was contacted by 2-3 attorneys to resolve the issue. They were talking about contractor putting a lien on the property for demo work. I actually think these were very bad attorneys and did not hire them.

I asked the contractor to compensate for the damage. He argues that he got the orders from real estate agent. Even though I told him that there is no contract and he cannot start the project, he still claims that he got the orders from the real estate agent. My real estate agent claims that he hasn't told him to start the project. 

I am planning to start fixing the property in late April, early May. I will go to Chicago to find a good attorney. If you happen to know the one that can resolve the issue, I really appreciate your help.