Contractor Nightmare.. Legal Advice?
i have an issue that maybe some of you that are familliar with CA law and contractors have some ideas about.
I tried to bold the important parts in case you dont feel like reading the whole thing...
My parents recently hired a licensed contractor to paint their house. For a lack of a better name lets call him 'ashole'. The house had been stuckoed a couple of year ago but never painted.. by this time there appeared to be some cracks in the stucko.. which is normal since is was a new house and it needed time to settle. This guy was hired to prep the house for paint and paint it, that includes filling in the large cracks where necessary and the like. The guy asks for some money up front for paint and etc. The verbal agreement was that my dad will give him a min ammount money for paint and etc up front($1,000+) and the rest when the job is done. This 'ashole' then hires some other contractors to fill in the cracks, and prep the house. These guys do a really shady job to where the fill in the cracks was too thick and did not match the stucko pattern on the rest of the house. My parent complained to the 'ashole' to which he said that it was not a big deal and that it'll look fine when painted.
After he started painting, did a small section of the house, the patch work was even more evident then before. My parent told him to redo the patch work because it looked really bad. The 'ashole' agreed it looked bad and started blaming the other contracotrs he hired. To which my parent said it was not their problem, since he hired them he needs to deal with them. He then asks for the rest of the money to redo the job to which my parents said www.no.There was a buch of BS afterwords when the guy kept harassing them due to not having paid the other peeps he hired, had his baby's moma calling saying that he'll get killed if he doesnt pay and bitching/crying on the phone and other BS. He later stopped returning calls and would not come over when he said he would. parents got tired of the BS and hired another contractor who had to restucko part of the house to make it look decent due to the horrible quality of the patchwork, and also painted it.
The original contractor kept calling asking for money. My dad told him where to go, not in so many words. During all this time the guy left the scaffolding he rented in my parent back yard. My dad wrote him several letters personal and certified, to which he declined delivery, saying that ashole needs to pay back the money and pick up his scaffolding and some tools that is taking up room. Never got any repplies. In the mean time my dad complained to the license board to recover the money they paid him up front. This process takes a long time and there are no guarantees that he will get his cash.
After the complain to the licensing board.. all of a sudden the guy called saying he wants to take care of all of this and get his scaffolding/tools. (He probably got a call from the licensing board). My parent were pretty pissed a tthis point and told him he could have it back when he paid back the money they paid him upfront.
He asked if they could arrange some kind of a payment arangement,to which my dad said fine. As long as he paid back part of the money he could have his scaffolding back. The guy again never showed up...at this point my parent are really pissed (rightfully so).
Now 2 days ago my dad gets a call(message) form some detective with the police dept, saying that the contractor complained against my parents saying that they are trying to extort money from him in exchange for his tools. My dad called back but has not been able to get a hold of this detective yet.
1. Now my question is... how serious is this? and what are the chances of police doing anything about it? The guy threated to sue.. but i doubt he'll go through with it since his chances of winning are slim even though he said that since he did part of the work, he does not have to give the money back.
2. Any other usefull info on how this could go for either contractor or my parents? 3. suggestions on what to do?
4. what are my parents' rights?
At one time my dad would have given him all the stuff back, but now he does not want to return the scaffolding/tools untill he at least gets some Cash Back due to all the crap he went through.
Number One Rule:
DO NOT pay a contractor in advance!
It's unneccessary and it unfairly hands all the future negotiang power over to one party -- the contractor.
There are far better ways of dealing with contractors than giving them your cash. Check my profile for more info.
I've yet to encounter a solid reason WHY a homeowner should pay a contractor in advance. Oh, they'll give you plenty "reasons," and they'll apply some pretty good presssure to get you to fork it over. But you can withstand that pressure and counter those reasons when you understand the game. And you offer them some sensible work-arounds that they will accept when you learn the way professional project managers do it.
Quote: Now 2 days ago my dad gets a call(message) form some detective with the police dept, saying that the contractor complained against my parents saying that they are trying to extort money from him in exchange for his tools. My dad called back but has not been able to get a hold of this detective yet.
Are you sure it was an officer, and he was acting in an official capacity? I would ask to speak to his direct report and ask the direct report if the contractor has filed an official complaint.
I am guessing that it was either a friend pretending to be an officer, or it was an officer "friend".
Brenda
I would either send him another certified letter or call him and say his tools and scaffolding are waiting for him on the front lawn. If he doesn't respond or the letter is returned, I would head to the nearest flea market and try to sell the stuff for $1,000...if he comes back to you, I would say something like, "huh, I figured you picked it up since it was gone when I got home from work."
As for the money, I would cut my losses and be thankful it was only $1,000. Next time make sure everything is in writing, get their contractors license number and call the State Contractors Licensing Board and check the status of their license.
[addsig]
the ditective did call back again.. but after my dad explained everything said that it's a civil matter.... he just had to call because a complaint was made.
I told my dad to sell the stuff... and keep the cash..
They know that they should not pay anything up front.... but i think they negotiated the fee for supplies up front.. that's what they paid.
anyway.. thanks for advice.