It's out of your hands now that he has hired a lawyer. You will have to hire one and let your lawyers write letters back and forth for awhile. Be prepared to settle for a compromise amount unless your lawyer thinks you have a very good case and you can afford going to court.

My experience is that contracts that allow owners to supply materials to the site usually end up in disputes. In general, it is an unreliable way to save money.

Now that a lawyer is involved be careful what you say or write about the situation. Document everything in great detail for your lawyer.

Everything is documented. I saved EVERY single email from the beginning.

We weren't trying to save money by supplying items. For example, the roofing: my FIL is a wholesaler, and we were able to get 40year shingles for what the contractor was charging for 30year. We went to the contractor's plumbing and lighting suppliers, but didn't find anything we liked.

We don't want to go to court, and, apparently they don't either; the letter stated that he hopes "we can resolve this amicably," and that ligitation would lead to "greater expense." Of course, the letter was also full of grammatical errors and punctuation mistakes. He even failed to capitalize the first word of a sentence. I'm not the best typist, but you would think a lawyer could afford spell check!

Without knowing the details of your contract, I'm not sure anyone here can say much about the legality of your position. Hopefully you have a clear and detailed contract... an not one drafted by the lawyer who can't draft an English letter.

With the exception of the floor, we're not talking about a great deal of money here in the context of building a house. It smells to me like a pre-emptive move to ward off liability for the floor.

A much cheaper option than court is arbitration. Most contracts have an arbitration clause.

You say 'we' had the floors stained. Did you actually hire the subs that did the staining or did the GC handle this? If the GC handled this then the subs that did the staining is responsible to correct it thru the GC.

Grammatical errors and misspellings? Are you sure the letter actually came from an attorney?

It's not unheard of for an individual to write a letter using legal terminology in hopes of persuading the recipient that a real, live, fire breathing attorney drafted it. It's also not unheard of for someone to sign a letter like that as "For the firm, xxxxxxxxxx.".

Sometimes, it's all smoke and mirrors.

Based on your original post, if this was my situation, I would stand firm on most of the points mentioned. Golden Rule: He who has the Gold makes the rules. Don't pay.

Does he not have suppliers? Where are his receipts with dates and delivery locations for the materials? #1 and #2 not worth legal action but I know it is the priniciple. He is trying to nickle and dime you at the end. #3 You should have been told at the time that additional materials were being ordered, did your contract state that you would be notified and agree to change orders? After the fact, if he cant prove that you agreed to the change, or ordering of addiitonal mterials and he cant produce the receipts stating it was delivered and installed onto your house, dont pay. #4 itemized receipt? #5 and #6 is he accepting responsibility for any of it?

Like you said, court is an expensive propisition, so the contractor will be reluctant to go there. My scenerio is a little different, but I share many of your frustrations. It comes down to a test of wills. I can speak from experience, because my contractor disputed things all along the way. It was no suprise then that in the end, he wanted the balance owed him without finishing the job. We had a contract, but contracts are only as good as the people that write/sign them. Instead of waiting for him to come to me with a lawyer, I was the one made the first move. It has worked so far. Don't let them push you around. You have to tell yourself that if this is happening to you, you probably aren't the first. When this happened to me, I had to get an extension on my construction loan. In the process I found out, from the bank that loaned me construction money, that this contractor had done this to three others in the last few years. I was the fourth! I also found out that the contractor lost all the other times he tried to collect from these other home builders in court. The loan manager told me that he is finished loaning money to anyone who uses him as a contractor in the future. I only wish I knew this BEFORE construction started.

Over the last year I've sent the contractor three letters and he's sent me one. It hasn't cost me a lot of money, so I believe it has been worth every penny. I'm glad I had a lawyers advice, because at one time I was going to pay him the $14K+ and then take him to court. However, my lawyer said it would cost too much to do it that way, so I haven't paid him anything more and haved moved on. It's not ideal and not the way I would have wanted it to end, but contractors are just trying to make a living too. Some try to do things the wrong way and these are the ones you have to stand up to. They think they can get away with it, because most home builders only do build once in a lifetime and aren't as savy. My first response was to get it over with. Even if the homebuilder is wise, it can be difficult to navigate through the project even under the best of circumstances. This is something that some contractors are counting on. They know we're busy and often can't spend a lot of time on site and monitor their every move. Don't get too frustrated and know that you're not the only one that this has happened to. Good luck!! Let us know how it turns out.

mdmomof3: #1 and #2 are ridiculous. #3 he never even mentioned until after we moved in the house in July; the roof went on in February. #4 haven't seen a receipt yet. #5 all he'll say is "it was done according to the directions" #6 all he says is "I'm not responsible for that."

robin0919: the flooring guy was hired by the GC. i knew we should have gone with someone that we actually hired, but I thought at least this way we have recourse by not paying the GC until it's done right.

Unfortunately, in the meantime the flooring guy may be putting a lien on your house for his unpaid work. Cover your butt here. It doesn't sound like you can count on the GC having taken care of his subs and collected lien releases.

I have had some issues with my contractor where I have had to call my attorney for a strong arm, so I do have some insight on some of the stuff that you mentioned. One thing she ALWAYS referred to is the P&S. Not sure if you just have a contract or not, doesn't look like the builder is the owner of the land you built on:

1. Contract dependant, if your contract says per builders supplier and you supplied you own, typically, this would be credited to you at closing, but its not required.

2. In my experience, if you spent less than the allowance, by contract, he doesn't have to give you the money back, but I also have a P&S that clearly states this.

3. Roofing Material: We actually are in a similar situation with the granite supplier. Our aunt works at the granite yard and the builder allowed us in this one instance to go thorugh her directly for the slabs, but we had to forfeit the warranty. If the contract says through his supplier, the only thing you'll have to lean on here is any e-mails.

4. Light bulbs should be covered in the lighting allowance, you may want to check that and make sure that it wasn't included already. If not, his bad! Smoke detectors are his responsibility as the contractor to get it to pass inspection.

5. Floors: This is the REAL issue he's trying to skirt around and distract you from!

6. Tub: This is his problem. Do you have e-mails with him asking for it to be delivered to his house? Why are you ordering the tub anyway? Shouldn't he be doing this?

Attorneys come in all shapes and sizes and I am not suprised there were spelling mistakes and incomplete sentences, take that as an example of how thurough he is!!! Get your own attorney for sure and I agree that I would make sure the flooring guys don't put a lien on your house.

I looked into the lien business. Apparently, in Louisiana, to place a lien, you have to have a judgement. Since the flooring guy has absolutely nothing signed by us, I highly doubt he could prove anything in order to get a judgement. Having met the guy three times, I would wager that he doesn't even have anything signed by the GC.

Actually, our contract does not contain the words "per builder's supplier" or any variation there of. The contract was very very very generic to begin with. My wife and I added 3 pages of addenda, in 10point font, that I typed up. Light bulbs and smoke detectors are not mentioned anywhere. The smoke detectors are shown on the plans, as they are req'd by code.

We ordered the tub because it was included in the plumbing allowance. And I do have the email where he asked that it be delivered to the job site.

It doesn't say we get the money back on any allowances where we were "under," but he's already conceded that point to us. What he after is the $7180 on the floors.

I think it all started to go south toward the end of the build when we flat out refused to use his landscaper, who was going to put in a few plants, some that we specifically asked NOT to be included, for $5000. He was mad, but the plan looked like about $3000 worth of work and $2000 lining the GC's pocket. My wife had just delivered our first child, she got on the phone with the GC and really let him have it (her hormones were still crazy). He also told me, in person, that had driven all over town and had to go back and forth to get stuff for the job and that just wasn't right. My wife told him that's why we hired a GC -- and it's not like we asked him to pick up the dry cleaning.

Now I just wonder whats going to happen with the rest of the punch list.....

I think the main sticking point from the GC is the floors since that is alot of money. What did the contract state about the flooring finishing? Did you show a picture of what you wanted or actual floor that you wanted from another house? If it actually stated what you wanted the GC hasn't a leg to stand on. The GC is totally responsible.

robin0919: I think it's the floor, too. The rest is just fluff. In fact, the lawyer's letter lists the light bulbs, smoke detectors, brick, and tub as things they want to be paid, but that can be discussed later, and the main dispute is the floors.

Our contract doesn't say exactly what we wanted on the floors. It gave us an allowance of $21000 for flooring (which the contractor made sure we understood included custom showers, backsplashes, and FP surrounds). We were free to choose anything we wanted for the floors, but we informed him of our choice BEFORE the slab was ever poured. And my wife informed the flooring guy several times what she wanted: tortoise-shell color (deep browns and blacks), no scoring, and a finish that looked like marble and was glass-smooth. What we have is anything but. In fact, and fortunately, the flooring guy called to confirm the color because in his whacked-out mind, tortoise shell meant "turquoise." I told him what my wife meant, and reiterated the no scored lines and glass-like finish.

Well, we got a lawyer this past weekend. We mentioned in passing that the stairs don't meet code (the bottom three are too high -- 8, 8, and 8.5 inches). When he heard that, his eyes lit up. He has sent a letter to the GC's lawyer saying that we will be taking the next 30 days to study and reply to their demands, but in the meantime, he would appreciate it if they would read the city-parish codes regarding stairs. Apparently, this opens us up to liability and we would, of course, be forced to drag the GC into any lawsuit and/or judgement since he built them wrongly. Our lawyer said he's basically trying to show them that by opening this can of worms, they might actually be on the hook for money and not the other way around. Should be interesting.....

We mentioned in passing that the stairs don't meet code (the bottom three are too high -- 8, 8, and 8.5 inches).

What!!! Some steps are a different height? Not only that, but they don't meet code? Makes me wonder what else it wrong, and how it got past the inspector, assuming it has been inspected.

Stairs are the one thing almost all inspectors are gung-ho on.

I guess I wonder why you are okay with your stairs being this way...it's not only a code issue that could come up later to bite you, BUT, more importantly, having stairs that are differing heights can be hazardous. People get in a groove going down stairs and don't really pay attention...they just "know" where the next step is going to be. Add in a darkened stairwell and stairs with different dimensions and it gets dangerous quickly.

We realized shortly after we moved in that the stairs were wrong. We pointed it out to the GC and his trim people. They looked at me like I was crazy for wanting them to fix it, so they came up with a way to "fix" it. Unfortunately, the measurements didn't really change, and the only way to rectify the situation, according to them, is to tear down the stairs and start over. I called the parish code office, who pulled up the inspection report. It did pass inspection, but the guy freely admitted that they don't always measure the stairs -- only if something "looks wrong." He told me I had no recourse against them and I would have to take it up with my GC. I told the GC (again) they didn't meet code and he wanted to argue that they did. Until I started spouting numbers and measurements (supplied by the code office), he wouldn't believe me. Now there are lawyers involved, so I can't just call up the GC and tell him to come fix them.

And, yes, we did have someone fall already -- my wife's grandmother's caretaker. Fortunately, she's alright and isn't going to sue us or anything, but it could have been much worse, especially considering if you fall down the stairs you land on a messed-up concrete floor.

I would ask your lawyer if you should get an independent inspection to look for other code violations. If your builder doesn't know the code for stair riser heights I wonder what else he doesn't know, or doesn't care about. That is a very expensive fix. Likely the entire staircase needs to be taken down and rebuilt. Based on what mine cost (and mine isn't terribly fancy), I'd say it's over $20k.

$20K for a staircase? Our's isn't fancy at all. It's 3.5' wide and enclosed by walls on both sides. I'm sure it would still be a mess to correct, but $20K?? WOW.

We are either going to go over the house with a fine-tooth comb and a copy of the codes, or get an independent inspector.

An enclosed staircase is much cheaper. I based the $20k off what we were told it would cost to have someone come and build ours. We actually ended up buying the parts from a custom wood shop and using our finish carpenter, so I don't know what the end cost actually was because I never broke it down like that (we have clear white oak treads, white ballusters and a mahogany rail, the staircase is an L which is open on one side).

I know a great inspector in Baton Rouge.
If you need someone, drop me an email.
This man not only drove over an hour to inspect
a house near me, but testified in court and did
a spectacular job. He was the expert witness.
Where did you build?
Best of luck.

UPDATE: We did get an inspector. He found the stair issue, but that's it, except the floor. He wrote a five page assessment of the floors, complete with photographs. Wrong sealer used, floors not cleaned prior to staining (per industry standards), not cleaned prior to sealing (per industry standards), sealer applied wrongly -- resulting in streaks. We have forwarded this to our attorney, who sent a copy to the GC's attorney. Our atty also pulled out the Louisiana New Home Warranty Act and stated that the floors are covered and the GC is therefore responsible for fixing them. Too bad (for the GC) that the "fix" will cost over $19,000. (We also got an estimate to fix the stairs: $4600. GC and his lawyer conceded that the stairs are incorrectly built.) I'm very interested in what the GC and his atty are going to say about the inspection report because their last letter said that they "steadfastly" stood by their position that the floors were done according to industry standards. Their last letter also included a "settlement offer" in which we would pay them their requested $13000 (minus the cost to fix the stairs). In return, they would fix the final things on the punch list. Our atty's counteroffer was that the GC could place $29000 in escrow to fix the floors, pay for the inevitable clean up, and pay to have the stair fixed. In addition, he would complete the punch list within 90 days as req'd by the Louisiana New Home Warranty Act (he photocopied the relevant pages from a law book and included them), and the GC would reimburse us for the cost of the home inspection -- because it was only through the bull-headedness of the GC that we had to hire an inspector. I'm sure there will be more drama to come.....

I'm sorry for your trouble, phillipeh. Your story encourages me to act as GC on my planned project. I know many people with similar problems, albeit not quite this bad.

Thanks for updating, phillipeh. Sounds like your attorney has been quite thorough. You mind if I ask where you are in La? (We live in La., also)

Please continue to update us as the story unfolds...

We live in Baton Rouge. I expect to hear from our attorney this week, so I'll post another update!

We heard from our attorney. Since the GC's attorney had not responded to our most recent letter of Feb 7, our attorney called them. He spoke to a junior attorney who stated that the case was moving in the wrong direction: we want more to settle than their client wants to pay.

Our atty advised us to decide whether we want to litigate or settle. My wife really doesn't want to litigate (too much expense for -- probably -- a judgement that isn't worth the paper it's printed on), so we're trying to come up with a settlement that is acceptable to us and which they will agree to.

I feel for you. Good luck with the resolution of your dispute. We bought a spec house several years ago that had just started construction and worked with the seller/builder to complete and buy the house. That was our first foray into home building. It was a complete nightmare. Unbeknownst to us, the seller was using an unlicensed contractor who cut a lot of corners. We were moving from thousands of miles away and were completely unaware of several major deficiencies until we moved in. It took us a lawsuit and over 2 years to get all the issues fixed, and during those 2 years we felt like we were living in the middle of a construction site bc he'd come and start projects and leave them uncompleted literally for months. One time, he tore out our entire shower one afternoon and didn't return for 3 months to put it back together, which he was able to do in 1 day. It was a nightmare. I guess the good thing was it was a learning experience for us. It didn't scare us away from homebuilding, but rather it made us feel more empowered bc we had a better idea of how to do things right. Now, we are onto our 3d and final build, and still we have little issues come up inevitably. They are frustrating but we are patient bc we know that they will get resolved based on the contract and our meticulous record keeping. It sounds like you have those things in your favor as well. Anyway, when issues do come up, what surprises me is the automatic defensiveness and knee jerk reaction to disclaim responsibility. It pains me to have to school people, and I wonder why those that work on the house don't realize that we'd all reach our end goal much more happily if they completely owned up for those things that they are responsible for without complaining about it. It also kills me how they make you prove up the clearly wrong things they did--like you did with your stairs. It has your running around gathering a ridiculous amount of evidence for a simple point. Anyway, good luck with everything. Dealing with a dispute over your home is no fun.

The attorney called today. There has been nothing but silence since his most recent letter (6 weeks or so). He feels they are just hoping it goes away. They had already handed it to a junior attorney. We also found out that the GC cashed the cashier's check marked "Final Payment" on March 26. As far as we know, that means he can no longer sue us since he accepted the "final payment."

Unfortunately for us, we are now going to have go to small claims court to recoup any money. We did send a letter directly to the GC today demanding he pay for the stair remediation or face s.c.c. I have a feeling I'm going to have to file suit against him....