Contractor Hasn’t Started After 14 weeks

[Carmen Savolainen]

Hi All,

I’m posting to get some legal advice on a current situation I am in with contractors I have hired in Oak Park, IL for a flip property. 

I hired them 1/27, closed on 2/28. Between those two date we were talking back and forth about my project, SOW, and my intentions for this property. Knowing that this was a flip and I am an investor it was important for me to get started right away especially because the spring market was coming up. They said permits should take 1-2 weeks and the project could get done in 3 months or less. Great. Checked their license and references and everything seemed good. I give them a deposit for the job once I close and from my understanding permits were to be submitted right away.

A week passes after I close and no permits. So I call the city to see what the status is because I have a gut feeling I should call them instead of the contractors first….to my surprise permits have not been submitted. So I immediately contact my contractors to see what’s going on. Now they are telling me (condescendingly) they have to get their licenses approved and this is Oak Parks process and it’s not their fault. This is the first time I’m hearing about this. Now 3 weeks past and my contracts finally reach out to tell me that licenses are approved and they can submit for permits 3/24. (I later learned from calling the city there were no license submittals until 3/17. The contractors told me 3/4).

4/1 rolls around and no word about permits being approved or any update. So I call the city again and they sent my contractors a whole list of corrections on 3/25. So I once again immediately reach out to them and they’re real since was “yeah we’re working on it and we have a meeting at the property tomorrow” how convenient and thanks for keeping me updated. 

So now I apparently have to get architectural and engineer plans and for this project which is a huge expense I wasn’t anticipating. This whole time the communication keeps getting less and less and my frustration and anxiety keeps growing with all these things popping up that should have been addressed at one time and at the beginning like electrical and plumbing. (They tried to tell me now I’d have to replace the 3/4” main water line to 1” if I wanted to add another bathroom). 

Fast forward to 4/26 and the first set of plans are rejected. Great more time and money waisted. Less and less communication continues. Second set of plans aren’t done until 6/6 and finally submitted to the city. Oak park comes back the next could days and presents a “ready for issuance” on the permits. So I call to ask what that means and the tell me that my contractors insurance is not up to date along with the electrical or plumbing licenses and expired back in April. How was this not taken care of the whole time the architect was working on the plans?? They constantly blame Oak Park for the “ridiculous” things they were asking for now they are the one who are holding up my project and have no excuse. At this point it has be 14 weeks since I closed and 19 weeks since I hired these contractors. 

I am reach out on BP to see if there is any legal advice for me to get out of this contract and get my deposit back. At this point I don’t think I can move forward with these contractors that are clearly not able to get this done and are unprofessional. 

Thank you

Carmen 

[Tj Floros]

Not sure if you have contract with them, but I would start the process of getting a new contractor in and probably letting the current one go. Updating the water service when adding water fixtures sounds pretty normal just depends on the city/village, inspectors, and the current amount of fixtures you have on the main. Maybe talk with oak park again and ask for contractor referrals that do a lot of business with oak park to avoid this problem again or check and see what contractors are pulling a lot of permits in oak park. 

I'm sure you'll get some contractor leads on here. I have a contractor that works that area if you need one.