Skip to content
Detroit Real Estate Forum

User Stats

54
Posts
9
Votes
Josh Carter
  • Real Estate Agent
  • Brooklyn, NY
9
Votes |
54
Posts

Need advice on how to handle situation w contractor

Josh Carter
  • Real Estate Agent
  • Brooklyn, NY
Posted Oct 4 2018, 09:05

Hi Everyone,

Brand new property owner here in big need of advice.  I've owned a property in a super nice central location near Detroit for about a year.  So far I've hit little snags here and there but nothing unmanageable.  But now I may have my first major issue and it has to do with hiring a contractor.  What I want to know from this is, am I being taken for a ride, or am I behaving naive and unreasonable?

My property is a 5 unit multifamily in a small city just outside of Detroit, I was given the C of O at the point of sale, but apparently I had to also register this as a rental with the city and pay a fee and have it officially inspected.  The city was nice about it and didn't fine me since I'm a first time landlord and came and did the inspection right upon receiving letter.  

They found 60+ violations mostly very small things (eg - tightening outlet receptacles, cutting doors so they opened easier, replacing older smoke detectors with new ones, patching up small holes here and there, adding window screens, caulking sinks and tubs etc.) there were a few bigger jobs that weren't required I wanted done anyway to make nice for future tenants (repairing out an uneven floor downstairs, carpeting a bedroom and the hallway).  

I don't mind spending some money being that I feel I got a great deal on the property, so I called this contractor who was referred by a trusted friend, he quoted me a bit more than I was expecting and said lots of these tasks are easy but since its so many little things it adds up. The amount was a little over $5000, a lot more than I was expecting and most of my savings from rental income (this is an IRA property so I can't add more than $5500 a year into it) and would be my biggest job to date but I agreed. I frankly just don't want to worry about this property and get in some happy tenants in my 2 vacant units. He estimated the whole thing would take 85 hours and would take 3 days if he sent enough guys. The project ended up taking 8 days and cost me lots of opportunity at work back home (I work on commission).

I took the week off work to go supervise, things were seemingly good at first, but it is a 5 unit property with workers spread out, we passed inspection even though there were still about 13 things that I didn't personally see done but were told was taken care of, I had those taken care of right after inspection.  Everyday workers were taking off and coming back to pick up materials from home depot. I also at first was going to home depot sometimes. There was at least a home depot trip everyday, some days 2 or 3. Today there are still big items that weren't completed that the inspector let me slide on.  

After the inspector left, while uninstalled because of drywall drying, the toilet mysteriously was dropped on it's side shattering with major water spillage and going down into basement.  I called the contractor to tell him, we went to home depot to get a new toilet which didnt fit, the worker responsible had to run and cut a hole in the new drywall to fit this toilet back in as a temporary fix for that night so tenants would have bathroom and would have to redo whole drywall job and buy new toilet the next day.  This was right as I was to leaving town to get back home.  I called the contractor to explain situation and halfway through (without bringing up any money) he starts yelling and getting belligerent with me, threatening to put a lien on my house if I don't pay him, something I wasn't even thinking about.  He says its going to be a lot more than the estimate I had signed because his men worked over 100 hours to do a job that 85 hours already seemed crazy for (changing lights in hallway for example was quoted as a 4 hour job in original 85, cleaning out basement which wasn't even completed was quoted as 8).  

I hadn't even been aware that I was paying per actual hour spent instead of quoted hours per task, if this was the case, my whole approach supervising would've been entirely different, I would've had everyone working by unit so I could see everything going on and I would've never went out to lunch or gone to home depot leaving them briefly unsupervised.

The good news is that I do have a solid recollection of everyones in and out times but still think it's unfair that I have to pay $60 per each workers hours, some workers who were thrown in were unqualified for the bigger jobs and just hung around and did very simple things here and there that I could've done myself.  

The bad news is that on top of this, he seems like he is going to be claiming different amounts of hours than me, so it will be my word against theirs.

Am I liable for all the hours they are dumping onto me?  Is there a limit in the state of Michigan to how different the actual price is compared to the quote?  What factors can protect a landlord from construction liens?  

I'm hoping to resolve this peacefully, because this contractor was a friend of a friend, and seemed reasonable and nice up until I called to complain about toilet situation on my way out of town, but I also want to know what my rights are as a landlord for this situation in case this contractor continues to be belligerent. 

Please let me know your thoughts!

Loading replies...