Can I Sue in Small Claims Per Separate Contracts

[PlantMom]

I am keeping all of my ongoing issues here.
1. Engineer report showed that while work was not optimal we could just build a wall which we would if we wanted to frame our basement out, and it would support the beam scabbing. We have receipts for items and will use local GC rates to tally up our hourly work cost. Engineer is aware of our issue and due to the bad work refused to approve it. They said it would not cause my home to fall down but...felt contractor needs held responsible as it is not simply right. If we build a wall the way he instructed he will sign off on it.

2. Today, we had a company tear off the defective porch (the porch the original contractor came back to fix, but did not actually fix). We needed to put new shingles on the new porch roof. Original contractor left the shingles from the original roof plus a whole unopened bunch. Upon looking it was the wrong color. We told them the color of our shingles. We know exactly the color as May 2025 insurance paid to replace our roof and we have the estimate with shingle brand/color right there. They are still available. They charged us for the wrong color shingles plus way more than we needed! We cannot return them as Lowe's does not allow returns unless you can prove you purchased it. We kept them and photographed them.

So, we are keeping a list. Would this be bad faith? Breach? Negligence? This will be included in our demand letter and we would like to know how to approach it. Also, we (contractor bought them/picked them up) purchased it in November via contract. We plan to ask Lowe's what their highest cost was for these shingles in November and use that since he did not itemize material costs. Of course it will likely be more since he gets a discount but we hope this will force him to pull out his receipt and also it will show he purchased the wrong color there.

Had he told us he got close to but not totally matching shingles we probably would have been OK with it. They did not butt up against any shingles already on the home. But concealing it but leaving them with is is hilarious and also stupid! Yes, we will definitely be going to court. Unless he will pay us out of court. We plan to ask him to reimburse us for the cost of all the shingles by showing us the receipt. And he can have the shingles to use elsewhere, we will gladly give him the shingles back if he reimburses us. The current contractor caught it and told us to come out so we could photo it. They refused to use them as they are not our actual color and they do not want to use a thing this other contractor bought.

Gladly, while we did find "shoddy" work at tear off, nothing damaged our home. I am grateful we hired an amazing company to fix it. The owner is coming tomorrow to adjust down our bill because he found out they over estimated! They have been excellent at bringing things to my attention and built everything to code. They also are aware of our issues but we will not reveal the original contractors name. They have zero issues using their photos or estimates in court. They also built the structure and have not asked for one penny to even start!

 

[quincy]

You don’t have to worry about legal labels (like negligence or bad faith) when addressing the problems with the previous contractor. Just list the problems and what you expect the contractor to do (e.g., reimburse you for your added expenses).

I am happy that you now have found a good company to work on your house.

 

[PlantMom]

You don’t have to worry about legal labels (like negligence or bad faith) when addressing the problems with the previous contractor. Just list the problems and what you expect the contractor to do (e.g., reimburse you for your added expenses).

I am happy that you now have found a good company to work on your house.

Thank you.
Our plan is to tally everything they owe us up via line items. My H wants to call them. As far as we know in our state you can video tape calling someone. Since this contractor has blocked both my H and myself except on my H work phone, we wanted to make a video of us trying to call him, so we can prove he blocks us. Then, if he answers we plan to be nice put him on speaker and just let him know we found some "issues" and we'd like to discuss. He called my H the other day and he was very "worried" about his "reputation" and us suing him. Promising to come fix anything we have wrong. Yeah, but we tried to tell him what was wrong and he dismissed us, so...moving on, we are just going to tell him how much we expect to be paid. We are open to civil discourse but we will be taping it. If he agrees to pay us, I will give him 30 days to remit payment VIA a cashiers check because I want a paper trail. If he doesn't, we plan to draft a demand letter for the same amount. We will give them two weeks to respond and then we will decide to take them to court. We will choose either small claims or use a lawyer for a higher court.

At the moment we are just tallying up everything we find, taking photos, cross referencing our contracts and waiting for our final inspection. It seems every contractor finds another issue this contractor caused that we missed! We have not disclosed their name to any contractor, although they have asked, because we just tell them we plan to possibly take them to court so we would rather not say who did the work. We also hope that this makes other contractors know we won't accept bad work and they will kind of stay on their toes.

 

[quincy]

You seem to be doing everything you need to do. And I think you are very smart not to identify to others the contractor with whom you’ve had issues.

 

[PlantMom]

You seem to be doing everything you need to do. And I think you are very smart not to identify to others the contractor with whom you’ve had issues.

An attorney I spoke with locally, which I am not using a local attorney, called them after I spoke to their office. I was informed of a conflict of interesr after stating I was looking to bring a lawsuit about a construction contract and they asked me their name. The contractor called my spouse and said an attorney in town, of which he is friends with, said I was trying to sue them and it would be unwise. OK wow. So, I have gotten the paperwork to report said attorney to the state for that. I won't go into any more construction issues, basically all their work must be redone.

Moving on, I have had to speak with and am still waiting to hear back about a sexual harassment lawsuit. This loser harassed me over and over, often so covert it made everyone in the home wonder if it was harassment or were they just a socially awkward dense human. Then, they told me their girlfriend thought we were having an affair. I said, "OK well we are not and we never will be." I thought that they were worried about their "girlfriend" and her feelings and that should clear anything up. IMMEDIATELY after my response they asked me about my sex life. I was floored and embarrassed and did not know how to react because here is a person who has my house torn apart...so I said "I don't have sex I dont believe in it". Lol! At least it gave them nowhere to go except to act shocked. They harassed my husband, they touched him and looked him up and down the same as me making comments. This was after we had paid them for all the work. Then they, in their rant about possibly being sued started talking about my spouse and I and said he was not sure if we were swingers. What? So, it is a weird one, if an attorney cannot or wont take my case can I still report it to my state? They are not an employer but it seems like I could report it somewhere! People get harassed all the time when not in a typical setting. I realize, thankfully he did not assault me or my spouse so I will obviously refrain from police or county attorney but what they did is....something. By assault I mean they did not do the R word or touch us with their hand but they were brushing up on my spouse, he moved, they continued. They also came and sat in my recliner on the end where i was and their body was against my legs to which i immediately jumped up. I also told my family and friends about it the entire time, and after the "thinks we are having an affair" incident I had my Son and spouse deal with them as much as possible. I have at least 1 Co worker who said if she is asked she will definitely testify that yes, for months I told co workers of my concerns. This did not just arise now because we are unhappy and trying to "punish" them.

 

[quincy]

An attorney I spoke with locally, which I am not using a local attorney, called them after I spoke to their office. I was informed of a conflict of interesr after stating I was looking to bring a lawsuit about a construction contract and they asked me their name. The contractor called my spouse and said an attorney in town, of which he is friends with, said I was trying to sue them and it would be unwise. OK wow. So, I have gotten the paperwork to report said attorney to the state for that. I won't go into any more construction issues, basically all their work must be redone.

Moving on, I have had to speak with and am still waiting to hear back about a sexual harassment lawsuit. This loser harassed me over and over, often so covert it made everyone in the home wonder if it was harassment or were they just a socially awkward dense human. Then, they told me their girlfriend thought we were having an affair. I said, "OK well we are not and we never will be." I thought that they were worried about their "girlfriend" and her feelings and that should clear anything up. IMMEDIATELY after my response they asked me about my sex life. I was floored and embarrassed and did not know how to react because here is a person who has my house torn apart...so I said "I don't have sex I dont believe in it". Lol! At least it gave them nowhere to go except to act shocked. They harassed my husband, they touched him and looked him up and down the same as me making comments. This was after we had paid them for all the work. Then they, in their rant about possibly being sued started talking about my spouse and I and said he was not sure if we were swingers. What? So, it is a weird one, if an attorney cannot or wont take my case can I still report it to my state? They are not an employer but it seems like I could report it somewhere! People get harassed all the time when not in a typical setting. I realize, thankfully he did not assault me or my spouse so I will obviously refrain from police or county attorney but what they did is....something. By assault I mean they did not do the R word or touch us with their hand but they were brushing up on my spouse, he moved, they continued. They also came and sat in my recliner on the end where i was and their body was against my legs to which i immediately jumped up. I also told my family and friends about it the entire time, and after the "thinks we are having an affair" incident I had my Son and spouse deal with them as much as possible. I have at least 1 Co worker who said if she is asked she will definitely testify that yes, for months I told co workers of my concerns. This did not just arise now because we are unhappy and trying to "punish" them.

You have some strange people in your life.

 

[zddoodah]

An attorney I spoke with locally, which I am not using a local attorney, called them after I spoke to their office. I was informed of a conflict of interesr after stating I was looking to bring a lawsuit about a construction contract and they asked me their name. The contractor called my spouse and said an attorney in town, of which he is friends with, said I was trying to sue them and it would be unwise. OK wow. So, I have gotten the paperwork to report said attorney to the state for that.

You want to report the attorney for acting appropriately?

If Client B consults with an attorney about a case in which Client A is the adverse party, the appropriate things for the lawyer to do is inform Client B about the conflict and decline to discuss the matter and also to inform Client A. What exactly do you think the lawyer did wrong?

 

[quincy]

Although the local attorney was right to inform prospective Clien B that he was unable to take the case due to a conflict, I question whether the attorney should have informed his Client A of prospective Client B’s intention to sue (or to disclose anything to Client A said to him by Client B).

 

[PlantMom]

Although the local attorney was right to inform prospective Clien B that he was unable to take the case due to a conflict, I question whether the attorney should have informed his Client A of prospective Client B’s intention to sue (or to disclose anything to Client A said to him by Client B).

We retained an attorney! And no, she says they should not have said that to their "client" and so we have already turned them into the state bar for that.

I have a negligence case and it appears to be a slam dunk win. All we have to do now is see if they will fold in mediation or try to go to court. And they have property!

 

[PlantMom]

You have some strange people in your life.

No, but I do hate this strange town I moved to!

 

[quincy]

We retained an attorney! And no, she says they should not have said that to their "client" and so we have already turned them into the state bar for that.

I have a negligence case and it appears to be a slam dunk win. All we have to do now is see if they will fold in mediation or try to go to court. And they have property!

I advise against going into any legal action thinking it’s a “slam dunk.” Gather your evidence, prepare well, and always keep your fingers crossed.

I am glad you have retained an attorney.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I advise against going into any legal action thinking it’s a “slam dunk.”

I agree 100%. There is no case that is truly a slam dunk case (except those that have no merit at all and gets an early dismissal from the court as a result). I'm a lawyer myself and have several relatives and friends who are lawyers, including my father and sister. We've all had at least one case in which it looked to us like the outcome was a no brainer only to be surprised when the win goes to the other side. That risk is greater with a jury than with a judge. Whether trying a case to a judge or to a jury, remember that they are all people with different viewpoints and opinions and they sometimes do unpredictable things. For that reason, every case you prepare well for to be as ready as possible for anything and to be flexible enough to see how the judge or jury is reacting and be able to modify your approach to better appeal to your audience.

 

[PlantMom]

I agree 100%. There is no case that is truly a slam dunk case (except those that have no merit at all and gets an early dismissal from the court as a result). I'm a lawyer myself and have several relatives and friends who are lawyers, including my father and sister. We've all had at least one case in which it looked to us like the outcome was a no brainer only to be surprised when the win goes to the other side. That risk is greater with a jury than with a judge. Whether trying a case to a judge or to a jury, remember that they are all people with different viewpoints and opinions and they sometimes do unpredictable things. For that reason, every case you prepare well for to be as ready as possible for anything and to be flexible enough to see how the judge or jury is reacting and be able to modify your approach to better appeal to your audience.

The attorney feels so because a licensed engineer basically said this is going to make your house fall down. Re do it. It's all wrong. He did it all wrong. He broke basic building code, he broke ethics, he was negligent and he put you at risk safety wise as well. He wrote it all up, sealed it, and is willing to be an expert witness, which he often is. And once the contractor learned of the report it looked like he pooped his pants.

That, plus everything else, basically according to my attorney who has practiced this and only this for 30 years says it's winnable and not even remotely a case I can lose. We will never go to a jury. He is already wanting to pay "something" to us whining about his attorney fees for court will be outrageous. But it's all in the attorney's hands now.

As for the conflict of interest, since filing with the bar, the attorney he did use locally has refused to represent him on this case. We don't know why or what was said to them but I would assume he said "why would you blab your mouth about things I told you...now they filed a complaint on me". They just said they cannot so they had had to retain a different attorney. I say throw both of them in the dumpster heap.