change orders

[mitzi56]

it doesnt matter

i was told and suggested by a legal attorney to go ahead and pay him, it was the wrong advice and i did the best i could. how can you still sit here and say its not the reponsibility of that contractor to not have any change orders>?after all that is the bottom line?

I'm sorry to be the one to break it down for you but, your contractor's attorney will eat you for lunch and your daughter for dessert. You talk in circles. Bottom line: When you paid the contractor the additional expenses with no argument, you agreed to the price and the changes. You must have had an initial contract between the contractor and yourself in reference to the final price on your new home and any deviation from that initial contract would have to be documented. Since you willingly paid the additional $16,700, now in the eyes of the courts, it is now documented and you are the one who is reneging on a contract or agreement. Your willingness to pay is simply the ultimate indication that you agreed to your contractor's terms. Should you have felt his claim, that you owed him the additional costs was invalid, he should be the one taking you to court now to collect the additional costs but, NO, you willingly paid him.

Please, go back and read your posts above. Try to put yourself in the shoes of a judge hearing this case. When you realize that it was your very own ignorance that put you in this situation to begin with, you will save yourself and your daughter the embarrassment of reliving this experience in front of a crowded courtroom. Cut your losses now and save your money to purchase new furnishings for that nice, new house you built. If you choose to pursue this matter, you can rest assured that there are plenty of attorneys that will be willing to accept your money for this case. They have nothing to lose. You do. I would be willing to place a wager on the fact that you will also provoke a counterclaim by pursuing this case. In that event, just on listening to your above ramblings I would further bet that the contractor will prevail. In this event $16,700.00 was an inexpensive lesson, compared to what you'll be paying on his counterclaim.

I sincerely wish you the best in whatever your choice is but, be forewarned. You don't sound like you have a very strong case against this contractor. He may very well be a crook and believe me, I have nothing to gain or lose here by giving you my honest opinion. I'm just trying to save you additional money and further embarrassment by offering my honest opinion.

Please, keep us posted on the status of your case. I'm very curious as to the outcome.

 

[mitzi56]

update

well its probably a loosing battle to go after him for the additional charges but like they say what comes around goes around. And now we have a new issue that willll end up costing him about the same amount i owed him. I have a major flooding problem in my front yard, basically im sitting in a fish bowl, my present attorney promises me he will fix this and fix it at his cost since im still well under warranty. This guy tried to hope it wouldnt rain as ive tried before to get him to fix this flooding problem before and hes been ignoring it. Now my lawyers on his rear end to fix it immediatly. Its gonna take several french drains in precise locations to keep the water away from the front of the house. and yes i do have photoes to fight this with, hopefully it'll be my way of winning this case as the water doesnt bother me half as much as the pleasure ill get watching him dish out to fix this error.Now i have one more concern will i have problems selling this house even though he fixes these issues due to the fact theres an obvious fish bowl type look to the house?. I didnt notice it before because there are other homes whos driveway goes down towards there garage like mine does. so im hoping not, and if so hmmmm

 

[lcannister]

my present attorney promises me he will fix this and fix it at his cost since im still well under warranty.

This the same atty that told you to pay and sue to get it back?

What did he or she tell you that we didn't that convinced you that you didn't have a prayer getting that 16K back?

You are very niave if you think having a warranty and getting something done (builder shaking in their boots at the threats) so simply is going to be possible. Read around these parts a little and educate yourself.

Its gonna take several french drains in precise locations to keep the water away from the front of the house.

or a few tons of dirt placed and slanted properly against the foundation ( that is usually what they try first )

I am getting the sneaking suspicion that before you can ever see the yard fixed you will have a litany of problems with this purchase.

For the record your Atty did tell you that even taking him to court and winning does not mean you will ever see a dime or thing fixed here right?

Good luck.

 

[mitzi56]

gaaaawd

a litany of problems during purchase, this house is purchased sealed and delivered, why are you people so pesimistic? why should i never see these problems get fixed isnt he a little worried about a lawsuit? i know i am, thats why i gave him that check back. lawsuits take your money, your time and leave you sleepless over all of it, i dont think he needs him or his wife with that pressure.,no its not the same lawyer that told me not to try and get the money back, i obviously didnt trust his opnion! next as far as how to fix the problem, my contractor was the one who spoke of doing it this way hes just been hesitating till i got a lawyer.my present lawyers comment to me about getting my money back was well we'll give it a shot, thats what convinced me to not try to get that money back as he too said its a wild shot. as a matter of fact im going to call him and tell him to drop it and concentrate on fixing my water damage. yes its so far ruined two fans that were sitting in my garage. Now it is the law if im correct that while under warranty any and all problems have to be fixed while under warranty. now he may not be shaking in his boots but one thing about this guy ive seen so far he wants to keep his reputation up and not fixing this and me showing pictures on the web with his company name on it aint gonna make his company look too good. i know i know thats no big deal to you, but i know for a fact he will fix this and i will derive pleasure watching him do it. now quit being so pessimistic, meanwhile i will go around these forums and try to find issues about contractors not fixing their errors under contract. unless this guy plans on going out of business he'lll fix it and again ill enjoy watching. i dont know what this contractors like as far as lawyers, but his wife seemed very concerned about me getting an attorney "her quote" oh you dont need to do that im sure rob will work with you" he is a fairly small contractor trying to build a rep for himself, lets see how good his rep is if he doesnt get his arse out here quick and fix this! and lets see if he stays married long if he doesnt!

 

[mitzi56]

these parts?

these forums are a very small part of what goes on in the world and im reading contractor forums stating total opposit of what your saying he was responsible for those written change orders, but they also agree your right that its too late, so thats why im moving in a different direction, now your telling me i cant sue the hell out of this contractor for his negligent house building techniques>? common, give me a break?? but im still looking at threads to see what your talking about

 

[mitzi56]

well...

youll have to point me in the right direction, the only problem ive found so far pertaining to new construction warranties and fixes says one thing i can relate to that is, bring an attorney with you to light a fire up under his boots lmao

 

[lcannister]

these forums are a very small part of what goes on in the world and im reading contractor forums stating total opposit of what your saying he was responsible for those written change orders, but they also agree your right that its too late, so thats why im moving in a different direction, now your telling me i cant sue the hell out of this contractor for his negligent house building techniques>? common, give me a break?? but im still looking at threads to see what your talking about

This IS my last post to you, you have been told that once you gave the contractor money you agreed to the charges and you are way to late to get that back. Please point out where I told you, you could not sue the contractor? Yes, dear it is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY to about 6billion degrees VERY common to have contractors that one must push to get things done after the sell. I do not only post here but dozens of consumer websites and about 40% of the posts consist of people with contractor problems.

I hope your contractor does come though.

Good Bye and good luck. You haven't a single clue.

 

[RichardAtty]

First case. I'm glad to see that you have finally come to your senses on the issue of the additional charges. I don't like to see people (you) taken advantage of because of their ignorance but, you didn't have a snowballs chance in hell with pursuing your first case. Again, you blew any and all chances you may have had when you paid without dispute. Very stupid move!

Second case, if you could obviously see that the elevation of your residence was lower than the surrounding property, why did you take occupancy prior to resolving this issue?

Keep in mind, I may sound as though I'm grilling you but, in an actual legal case, these are all valid questions that will arise as a result of trial.

Were you totally alone throughout this entire process? Didn't you have a friend or someone with a little common sense that looked at your house and said, "Your house is sitting in a hole."? It always helps to have the opinion of a friend or someone with some basic common sense to encourage people like you not to let situations like this slide. It sounds as though you accepted this residence prematurely with all the problems you are just now addressing. I'm afraid to ask "what other problems" you may be having.

I'll need additional details of why you took up occupancy, what's already been discussed with the contractor, what he plans to do to remedy the situation, etc. (Before I can offer an opinion on your second case.)

 

[mitzi56]

no

no one noticed the hole until after i moved in and accepted the house even my sister and brother in law said its a nice house, it wasnt until after it rained, which was a week after i moved in that all this flooding began, now the contractor came out immediatly and said dont worry were going to get this fixed, after all he came by and fixed several other smalller things, then i called again about a month later and his partner said the rocks were on the way, but they never came. so he was well aware of the problem before hand.
now You can tell me all you want that hes not going to make an effort to fix this, but ive got the better busniesss bureau, the web and many other methods of getting his bad name out there if he doesnt do it. i dont care if it takes him 8 months but he will get it done, now im sending the last post, obviously you all have seen a lot of losing cases and thats not making you people look too good, and if you continue to tell people oh no you havnt got a smowballs chance in hell at winning anything in your life then i certainly wouldnt hire you, by the way where does such busy lawyers find the time to answer all these questions dont you have casest o win?

 

[RichardAtty]

I never said you didn't have a case with the flooding issue. I asked for more details. I won't waste my time anymore. You're taking things personally at this point. I understand that you are angry with yourself for making such foolish decisions but, don't take it out on me. The situation you are in is a direct result of your own ignorant actions.

I did say "you don't have a snowball's chance in hell" of winning the case that you had already paid $16.7K for services rendered.

Obviously my advice to you was accurate. You did say that you were not going to pursue the case in reference to the changes that cost you the additional $16,700.00. Am I missing something here?

The difference between myself and your present (paid) attorney is the simple fact that since I'm not soliciting your business, I'm also not sugar-coating anything to cater to your ignorance. I won't spare your feelings as I have no monetary gain to do so as a paid attorney would.

You asked for an opinion in a public forum and now you've become agitated at the fact that I've been straight-forward to you in my responses.

You, my friend, have some serious issues. Your lack of common sense, judgement, and any sign of the least bit of intelligence are just to name a few. I feel for people like you because you go through life never paying attention to details and then when situations go awry, it's always anybody's fault but your own.

I am unsure of your age but I'm hoping you are simply young and naive. A normal, experienced adult wouldn't act the way you do or make such foolish decisions.

Good luck with everything! With a head as hard as yours, you'll need it!