General Contractor is now coming after me for the remaining balance owed.

[anotherguy1]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law) New York

I entered into a contract with a general contractor to build my new business. We wrote up and signed a contract stating that it would be done by 9/1/2014, and if not there would be a 5% a week penalty for each week the job is not finished. It still has yet to be completed, but now he is telling me that he is not willing to just let the last 1/3 of the original amount (over $20,000) go. He says that change orders forced on him by the town and county caused such delays and that is why he is so late and it is not his fault. So now they told me they plan to take this to mediation and/or court. We never signed a single change order nor where we presented with any. Should I be worried going into this that I may have to hand over the remaining balance?

I know this is just a brief overview of the situation so if you need more information on it just let me know.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law) New York

I entered into a contract with a general contractor to build my new business. We wrote up and signed a contract stating that it would be done by 9/1/2014, and if not there would be a 5% a week penalty for each week the job is not finished. It still has yet to be completed, but now he is telling me that he is not willing to just let the last 1/3 of the original amount (over $20,000) go. He says that change orders forced on him by the town and county caused such delays and that is why he is so late and it is not his fault. So now they told me they plan to take this to mediation and/or court. We never signed a single change order nor where we presented with any. Should I be worried going into this that I may have to hand over the remaining balance?

I know this is just a brief overview of the situation so if you need more information on it just let me know.

You are going to have to have someone local look over the whole contract. There may be clauses that forgive him for something that is provably not his fault.

Most contractors don't make a large profit on a job so its possible that he couldn't even pay his workers to finish the job without that 2ok, so you might end up having to pay that much or more to have someone else finish the job.

 

[anotherguy1]

Those reasons are just excuses. The job is pretty much finished up just small touchups the back office are needed now, but I have lost thousands of dollars in rent and revenues from him not being done and time and have spent that 20k I owe him. I am positive no changes that he had to make could take 4 months as I was there every day and watched his workers (when they showed up) work quite slowly/non efficiently

 

[LdiJ]

Those reasons are just excuses. The job is pretty much finished up just small touchups the back office are needed now, but I have lost thousands of dollars in rent and revenues from him not being done and time and have spent that 20k I owe him. I am positive no changes that he had to make could take 4 months as I was there every day and watched his workers (when they showed up) work quite slowly/non efficiently

You REALLY need to take that contract to a local attorney for review.