Any Experience With Suing Contractors

Three years ago, our Board, at my urging as a then-board member, wrote to our attorney complaining about the quality of about 1/10 of the finishing polishing of metal cladding on part of a high rise tower. It had appeared good for a while,, but got duller & duller. While we were "out of warranty," he advised that the statute of limitations (SOL) was 4 years in this case. So he advised we move quickly against the painting (which had been the major bulk of their work) contractor.

He wrote a solidly fierce letter to the contractor demanding that they meet the standards of professional work and re-do this area + touch up some painting areas that were inadequate. The company guys met a few times with members of our Board and agreed to do the repairs. I think it was in the neighborhood of S15,000.

So, Robert, your contractor may fix & finish the work vs. full-on legal action.

So, I think, Robert, that your tiny HOA should spring for a consultation with an HOA or contact attorney to see what your rights are. I don't know how long the SOL is in your state. In your case, I this sounds like work that your muni would require one or more permits for, Have they inspected what has been done so far?? I imagine the attorney would want reports from the city.

How does your HOA pan to pay to fix this problem if the contractor doesn't?

As Kerry mentioned you can contact the contractor. The problem is that they have skipped out of town and were doing substandard work. It does not look like you may not want them to finish the job but want reimbursement.

Beside legal action via the court system is there any consumer protection agency in your state? I had a contractor do work on one of the properties I look after. This was after storm Ida. They did another job really well and they got the reconstruction project. After day two I told them to get off the property. The work was shoddy especially the carpentry work for joists that it was a hazard. Legal advice was that if I sued I could get treble awards for the initial down payment. This is based on the state's business law on contract

I had my hands full with getting the project going with another contractor and I filed a complaint with the state's consumer protection division and actually got back half of the deposit. That was perfect and was good enough. The company I went after was a legitimate company.

The problem in your case is this outfit even legit? If they are still operating and bringing in money then you could take legal action or see what agencies that are out there that can assist.

In my area there are a few television news shows that will help out folks by showing their story and go publicly against "bad agents" including contractors.

Hopefully we get some more responses and more choices for you.

To repeat: what worked for our HOA was a strict demand letter for our HOA attorney to the contractor. There were threats in it, th' I caner remember the exact nature of them. I think this is a good start and worth a few hundred dollars for advice & a letter.

Douglas's answer is a wonderful summary on ANY LEGAL MATTER. You can find any lawyer who will do anything for you. It is the gifted one based on your input who will give out the pros and cons of a lawsuit. When you start talking real dollars and the chance of winning you start acting objectively and not emotionally and then you can find out is it worth it or not. I had to navigate multiple legal items with the condo and fortunately avoided litigation. In this case it really is a business contract issue and I like Douglass and Kerry's inputs and also take a look at outside of the box options.

If you win a judgment, you can get a writ of execution, confiscate his vehicles and sell them.

Lawyer UP. Did you hire a licensed and bonded contractor? File a complaint with your state contractors licensing board.
Providing their business insurance premiums were paid at the time you could recover your damages.
About the only thing that could happen is that contractor would be ineligible to attain a state license again
as any DBA in the state.

Here is another out of the box idea. Check if the original contractor is licensed. Find a licensed contractor who can do the job and can fix the job. Once you have it lined up either have that contractor finish the job or have an inspection and fail the original contractor. Your new contractor finishes the job. This all depending the first one is licensed. Then that is mark against the original and you have official documentation of the failed inspection. If this goes down the legal path. Also take a look at the individual(s) who went with this original contractor. Your process of selecting someone needs to improve real fast since you will need to find someone to get things corrected and you can't make another mistake. You don't have used of the deck and it's dangerous.