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Swimming Pool Contractor failure to deliver services

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OTG

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? TX

I feel I have been set up. I needed to rebamp my pool in order to sell my home. I got three bids, chose the middle one because the contractor promised he could get the job done within two weeks.

I should have smelled a rat right off the bat. Well actually I did, but the guy has a second business, and I'd had good luck with him there. The contract he presented seemed very businessl like and thorough. I thought we were on the same page. He was made aware that getting the pool work done was the only holdup in getting my home listed for sale. Unfortunately I took him at his word.

The day after I signed the contract, I went down to his office, selected tile and coping. Two days later I was informed that I had to go with safety grip coping, different from the one I picked out at his suggestion, as that's what was on my pool already. I asked if the newer style would work, and was assured that it would. He later called me to say I had to switch the coping because the one I piced out wouldn't match up with the slope of the deck. He's a pool man, he should have kinown that from the get go when he examined my pool, right? He's not inexperienced.
I signed on Tuesday, 5/15/06, and was told the pool would be drained, and coping and tile work would get under way that
weekend. My pool was drained on May 17th. One week later, I still had a drained pool, and no other work had been done. Rains were due to fall, heavy rains. I live at the bottom of a hill, and was worried about my pool popping out of the ground. He came and drilled holesin the bottom of my pool. I asked if that was okay before hand because I'd been told in the past that it wouldn't be prudent to have updated rotating jets installed in my pool because it could cause cracks in the structure. Now I have about six holes drilled in my pool.
And he told me it was not a problem. I'm not so sure.

This is a small town, and I'm a widow, needing to selll my house to move to a place I can more readily afford. It has been six weeks, my pool is still a gaping hole. I've done other remodeling, but waited to do the pool last as it was the finishing touch, and because I didn't want to have to pay for pool maintence long. Time was of the essence.

I paid this man over a $1,000 to start. I've been given the run around now for 6 weeks, told that the tile and coping guys were into new pools and that most remodels were put off until the fall. Why would he even say this to me when he knew I needed to get the job done fast? My realtor is aware of this. I told him my realtor wanted to see the tile and coping in at least. That was two weeks ago.
Today a couple of guys showed up that were supposed to have shown up yesterday to jackhammer out the old coping. It was then that the pool guy dropped by to lower another boom on me. The tile I picked out back on May 16th is now on back order until August. He had the coping delivered to me that matched the back ordered tile, and tried to get me to switch to a tile with no appeal, and that didn't even go with the coping I picked out.

He was going to have the two Mexican guys install the coping. I was going out of town for the weekend, and would look into finding a tile I liked in the city I'd be visiting by car. After he left, I made it clear to the workers they were not to install the coping.

Do I have any recourse here. I'd like to stop payment on my check tomorrow, and call a halt to this charade, but not without legal advice. I don't want to get myself in any deeper than I already am.

I do know swimming pools are not supposed to be left empty for long. It seems to me his practices are not in keeping with the standard for the business he's in.

What am I to do? Is the only way out of this through legal action?
His actions may have just caused me to lose out in being able to sell my house before summer is out. I am worried sick.
 



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