I hired a contractor to do a home reno consisting of knocking down some walls on the main floor to open up the area, remove and install new flooring. Scrape the popcorn ceiling in the living room and kitchen, install pot lights and remove old kitchen and install new cabintry, countertops and backsplash. The job was for $38000. So far the flooring has been installed with baseboards, pot lights put in, and ceilings scraped and done. 2 week into the job he notifies me that the kitchen cabintry is on backorder and is going to be another 4 weeks. Right over Xmas....wonderful. But I roll with it. For the work that I said they already completed took 3 weeks of approx 5-6 hours a day. They were paid upfront 5000 and then another 5 a week later and then a few weeks later 15000, than another 5000 (still waiting for cabintry to come in) to total 33,000.
The quality of work is not great, many spots need to be resanded, mudded, painted etc. the bulk of the work is done yes....but the finish is like 70-80% of what it should look like. Swill marks in the ceiling around the pot light, many spots on walls needing touching up or being resanded and touched up and holes in the drywall around the edges of the junction box covers.
The contractor says to come back and install the kitchen which is obv the bulk of the whole $38,000 job says he will cancel the kitchen and not come back until the whole balance is paid in full. CAN he do this? I read I'm allowed to hold back 10% for 45 days to ensure contractors are paid in full. I even offered to pay another 2000 to bring it to me owning him 10% of the balance. He says he doesn't have enough to pay for the kitchen and I told him thats insane, I already paid you 33,000!!!!! I told him him he should have budgeted the money better. And what have you done thus far? Approx $10000 worth of work???????
He also assures me all the things that need to be fixed and touched up will be done once the balance is paid but I dont beleive him. Once the work thats been done already was done they dissapeared as if they think there work was great and didnt need to be done. He came back once and I complained at the quality and he fixed a few things but many more need to be fixed.
What should I do and what are my options? FRUSTRATED AND ANGRY
In this situation my opinion is you can give him a date post check he come to finish the work and she gets his money otherwise hire someone else I used to work with companies like that with subcontract and I never got my money
Hi Todd.
I would in this situation wait until all small items are finished, touched up etc.. seems this contractor used or didn't plan his funds accordingly- I would never pay it all upfront..we just had a situation where we did TOOO much work..client said sorry I wont pay you..and found someone else..so seems this can happen to both parties..contractor or homeowner.
Hi Todd,
Sorry to hear this. It's hard to determine how the contract was written and payment schedule was drafted. Typically there should have been a payment schedule discussing payment for kitchen order.
I would start to document everything, ask the contractor who they used for the kitchen and then follow up to see if: a) the kitchen company has been paid a deposit b)if the kitchen has been put into production.
I would then contact the ESA (electrical safety authority) to see if an electrical permit was pulled and inspected for all electrical work.
If not, I would find a paralegal to discuss your options. I can recommend someone.
Kind Regards
Scott Lawson
Symmetree Renovations
These kind of stories seem to be extremely common in Ontario. I saw many similar stories play out in your neighborhood on Mike Homes' shows.
In Alberta contractors are not permitted to take ANY monies up front unless they are licensed and bonded as 'prepaid contractors', which very few of them are.
It would appear that Ontario operates differently for some reason. Suggest maybe looking into consumer advocacy groups, see if there is any possibility of getting some media attention, talk to lawmakers, politicians, etc. I'm interested to follow your story and learn if you can find any means of getting restitution. A 10% lein holdback is a basic legal right (commonplace to help ensure subtrades and suppliers are paid) but probably nowhere near enough for your situation.
Search the TrustedPros directory and discover the best contractors in your area.
Find your home service pro