Take him to small claims court for the dollar amount of your actual and direct damages.natesgamma said:What is the name of your state? az We are in amess... hired a unlicensend contractor nothing has went right he has three-fourths of the money. Has not shown up in 3 days... no phone calls nothing. I signed a contrct but is it legal since he is unlicensend and he charged above the legal limit of $750.00???? Can I fire him? What can he do to me legally? I plan on taking him to court.What is the name of your state?
Why has he not shown up? what are the terms of the contract you signed? Is he required to be there every day? is the project on schedule, what has gone wrong so far? He has 3/4 of the money, has he done 3/4 of the job?natesgamma said:What is the name of your state? az We are in amess... hired a unlicensend contractor nothing has went right he has three-fourths of the money. Has not shown up in 3 days... no phone calls nothing. I signed a contrct but is it legal since he is unlicensend and he charged above the legal limit of $750.00???? Can I fire him? What can he do to me legally? I plan on taking him to court.What is the name of your state?
I think OP is talking about an amount significantly greater than $750, that reference is to the amount of money paid for work before a contractor in the state of AZ is required to be licensed. In other words, they both knowingly broke the law.Buk1000 said:The way I understand it, in some states w/licensing, the contractor can't take action against you if they are not licensed, but I do not know if it works the other way around, too.
Not to minimize your problems but $750, if that's all you lost is a pain, but it's not a nightmare, IMO. A nightmare is when you lose enough to financially destroy you, and/or your house is uninhabitable and unsafe due to faulty construction, or you end up having to pay alternative living costs (a rent and a mortgage at one time) etc. Also, three days of not showing up is certainly a sign the guy isn't coming back and isn't honoring the contract, but some people have been waiting a whole lot longer. In AZ there is a law that says you must give a home builder--and probably a contractor too--a written notice, and give them a certain amount of time to respond. These laws go by so many names i can't keep track of them but the most well known is probably right-to-repair. The law passed in about 2002.
Unless you have an arbitration clause the contractor will force you to use, I do agree w/judge that small claims could be your best bet, but just a word from someone who's actually teetered on the edge of an actual "nightmare" as described above, and came out alright by just sticking to it...don't let $750 ruin your life. I do hope you will pursue it...IMO letting contractors get away with relatively little rip offs only leads to them committing bigger ones.
Good luck!
You could be right, the amount may be much higher.fairisfair said:I think OP is talking about an amount significantly greater than $750, that reference is to the amount of money paid for work before a contractor in the state of AZ is required to be licensed. In other words, they both knowingly broke the law.