Window delay led to market delay

[Windowless]

Washington

This fall we hired a small contractor/handyman to do some work on our home and replace the windows in the front of the house. He ordered the wrong size windows (6 ft wide for a 9 ft window) and this has led to more and more delays. These delays in turn have led to the house sitting vacant and not getting put on the market. Do we have any legal standing to withhold part of payment for the delay? Everyday the house sits empty costs me about $75 out of pocket.

 

[STEPHAN]

Welcome to construction.

What does you contract say? What are the contractor's terms and conditions? Did he promise a finishing date?

 

[Windowless]

I don't believe we have a lengthy contract beyond a line item bid. I believe we had a mutually agreed upon completion date of Dec 1, 2015. I have to dig through emails to find this. The one certain thing I know is that the contract we have was 1/3 deposit with remainder due upon completion and they tried to charge our credit card a few weeks ago for another 1/3. We had good sense to cancel the card we had given them as soon as the issues arose.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Without a completion date and penalty for not meeting it, in a contract, you have no recourse really except to deal with it.