Why does contractor ask check by made payable in his name?
kitchenconfidential2
14 years ago
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growlery
14 years agosue36
14 years agoRelated Discussions
Due Dilligence - Questions to ask BEFORE you sign a contract
Comments (19)saftgeek - I hate to admit it but you are all too correct about far too many attorneys! I was a high school teacher for 20 years before deciding to go to law school and I have been deeply appalled by the how truly unethical and dishonest some lawyers are. In the six years I've been practicing law, I've run into more dishonest, downright sleezy lawyers than I met incompetant teachers in twenty years of teaching school... and people are always knocking teachers for being incompetant! Shyster lawyers make me ashamed of this profession just as incompetant teachers sometimes made me ashamed of the teaching profession. I would urge you or anyone else who has evidence of a lawyer behaving dishonestly or unethically to report them to their state bar association. It might not do any good but then again, it just might. At least in Texas, I think our state bar tries to disbar the unethical lawyers whenever they can find them. It certainly sounds like your ex-boss was exactly that type. I also truly am not trying to paint GCs as dishonest. I believe the vast majority are honest folks who do their best to do a good job when building a home and, if they make mistakes, try their best to fix them. BUT, as in all professions, there are some people building homes that are either lazy, dishonest, or so downright disorganized that the homeowner who ends up hiring one of them needs to be able to go to court and get help. And, unfortunately, the contract promulgated by the Texas Association of Builders is specifically designed to protect these bottom-feeding GCs from facing the music for their bad behaviour. The funny thing is, I KNOW that it was the TAB's lawyers who drafted the d--n contract that protects the bad builders, so when I'm knocking the contract, I'm also slamming some of the members of my own profession! I actually suspect that most builders who use the TAB form contract do so because it is available to them cheaply and they don't know any more about what it really says than the homeowner does. And, so long as there are no major problems with the build - nobody is any the worse off. But, I defy any honest person who has ever READ the TAB contract to argue with a straight face that it is a fair and balanced contract. Among other things, it requires the homeowner to waive the "implied warranty of habitability". Basically an implied warranty of habitablity means that courts have said when two parties enter into a contract for one to build a home for the other, there is an implied understanding between them that the finished home will be inhabitable. The owner doesn't have to make sure to insist that language be put into the contract SAYING that the house must be able to be lived in when comleted...the courts will assume that since the contract was for the building of a home, the finished product must be something one can inhabit or it is simply not a "home." But, just in case someone WANTS just a shell - or something like that - to be built, courts will allow the parties to agree to waive the "implied warranty of habitability". Asking the homeowner to waive the implied warranty of habitablity might be fair if the homeowner wanted to build something totally new and different and the builder said, "you know, I can build that for you but I don't think it'll be something you can live in when I get done, are you SURE that's what you want?" But, I think you would have to agree that, except in those rare instances, a house should be inhabitable, just like a car should be driveable, a suit should be wearable, and a wedding cake should be edible. Would you agree to buy a new car from a manufacturer who insisted that you agree to waive the "implied warranty of driveability"? Would you purchase a suit from a tailor who refused to warrant that it would be wearable? Would you order a wedding cake from a baker who refused to guarantee that it would be edible? Why would you buy a home from someone who refused to warrant that it would be habitable????? Nevertheless, the Texas Association of Builders - with the help of its attorneys no doubt! - realized that implied warranties can be waived and that most homeowners don't ever really read or understand the contract they sign. So they put language into the form contract that waives the warranty of habitablility on every single home built under it. That means the homeowner may think he is contracting for a turn-key home but, even if the house he gets is so defective that he cannot possibly live in it - say the sewage pipe has broken in the wall so that there that raw sewage has contaminated all the insulation - the homeowner cannot argue that the builder breached the contract by building an UNIHABITABLE house. Fair????? The TAB contract also requires that the owner agree upfront to "binding arbitration" in the event of a dispute. This doesn't sound too bad...unless you happen to know a couple of facts about binding arbitration. First, arbitration is MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE than small claims court even though most building disputes are going to be over amounts small enough have brought the claim in small claims court. Second, arbitrators are selected and PAID by the parties to the dispute which means that arbitrators make more money if they are selected for more cases. If an arbitrator wants future work, they have to make sure that the party that is more likely to bring them future business is happy. Care to guess which party is more likely to NEED to hire an arbitrator for a second or third or fourth construction dispute? Some studies have shown that homeowners win less than 5% of claims that go to arbitration but win about half of claims that are tried in a court of law. Even those few homeowners who are nominal winners in arbitration almost never win enough money to actually repair their homes! The TAB contract also requires that the builder receive his final payment, in full, (i.e. NO RETAINAGE) at the time of the final walk-through even though it also specifies that a punch list of items to be corrected/completed/repaired will be made at this same time. In theory the builder is supposed to return and finish the punch list. But, WHY should the unscrupulous builder bother? After all, he has already been paid in full AND the homeowner can't even sue him in small claims court due to the binding arbitration clause I already mentioned? Do you think that is fair? I could go on and on about other clauses that are in the TAB contract but I suspect I've made my point. A builder who insists on using the TAB contract after having some of its many unfair clauses pointed out to him may not actually BE dishonest but, IMHO, neither is he the kind of straight shooter I really want to deal with. Straight shooters are willing to play on a level playing field....See MoreContractor says his accountant wants me to pay him
Comments (54)Hi Dearests! :) This is SO EMBARRASSING that EVERY DARNED TIME I get time to get on here and read, there's no time or I'm about to fall asleep (as is the case now - and I have to get up early)! I'm SURE I look like an opportunist just totally taking advantage of your advise, expertise and patience but please believe me that I simply have less time than I'm used to. Thank you so much for continuing this dialogue. I've gone into the worst depression over this! I just want to turn this over to someone else to represent me who's capable/competent enough but there's no one (or I don't dare ask) and I can't afford a lawyer nor do I want to get that legal. My contractor came back into town last Wednesday, Jan. 19th, if he meant what he said about his schedule, and every day I hope I don't hear from him. I just can't deal with this and barely know how. I mean Rohl said I could have a new sink but if I order it, I'd have to have the old sink out first in order to know which sink will be close enough in measurement to fit into the spot. I don't want to go pick up a new sink and leave it sitting on the side lines for weeks or months and then find out too late in the game that it won't fit in the old spot! So that means I need to get the old sink out, which brings me back to square one. I need to find new contractors or carpenters to get quotes from and feel so low I can't imagine figuring out where to turn, who to ask...who to trust. And who will be willing, after that last guy said he basically won't touch it with a 10-foot pole. My contractor's going to probably show up any day now to "finish the work" and then I'm also told by friends that I should no way let him finish the work but should deduct that which needs to be deducted and then pay someone else with the money. But he could file a lien on my house or whatever the terminology is. On the other hand I may never see him again since I paid him a partial payment that he may figure is close enough... Just to be clear: 1. My contractor bought the sink, not me. I mean I paid him sometime after that but he bought it using his own card. Not the dishwasher or counter or tile honing, cutting and installing which I bought, but the sink, faucet, disposal, flange and tile itself, yes. Now it's always possible he paid in cash and kept the whole order in my name since I had the items on hold in my name in which case there's no evidence he paid for it but who knows... 2. I truly believe that the sweet, young-sounding Rohl guy that I spoke to didn't really care and just called it defective for a couple of the reasons listed above by you guys but I do think if he has any experience at all (and he may not), that he suspects it was over-tightened and doesn't care - he just wants me to be a satisfied customer. My instincts and my own experience tell me so. And I don't think less of him or the company for it. 3. I have no proof that my contractor tightened the flange. I think it's possible that he didn't. But I don't think it's probable that he didn't. The timing of the cracks and the fact that no one else touched the area below it besides him and the way the hairline cracks splay out around the drain all tell me there's a better chance he cracked it than that he didn't. But it doesn't matter much if it can't be proven or that no forensic scientist - haha - will be coming around to pay more than the sink's worth to determine that. As for the issue of lying, I think there's a lot of context here to be considered. I believe he cracked it, and that Rohl is giving me a new sink but knows that he cracked it. My contractor bought the sink and installed it and messed around with it cause he didn't want me to bother his precious plumber when the leak needed to be stopped (don't get me started on how he thinks so highly of this totally flaky and rude plumber) and then it cracked. I think that covering my ARSE after everything else that's gone down is let's just say a fairly reasonable choice at this point, even if some think of that as lying. I get it, but I think that when you believe what I believe about what's really happened, it's not quite the same thing. And even then, I'm still willing to compromise at least a little - just because I'm not a one-dimensional human being and I believe my contractor isn't either. In my favor, sure, I guess, though yes I'm still really super uncomfortable about this whole thing and am as curious as the rest of you to know how strong I'll be and how well or disastrously this whole thing will turn out before it's truly over!! Ok that's it for now - it's 1:35 a.m. and I've gotta be up at 7:00. Yaaaay! ;) More soon. Thank you everyone - I am SO GRATEFUL that you're here. In fact you've been here "for me" more than just about anyone else, I swear!! That includes friends and family members and certainly contractors! How crazy is that!?...See MoreWhy do contractors think we're stupid?
Comments (39)We hired a contractor, a staining and finishing guy who said he could refinish the woodwork in my bathroom (it was previously painted), and also remove the white wash stain on my cherry bathroom cabinets and restain that with a natural stain. He first tried stripping the whitewash with an orange stripper, which I told him beforehand would not work on a whitewash finish - the orange stuff is not a strong enough product. He refused to work with any marine strippers, so instead he started sanding my woodwork - now it has SWIRLS all over it, he broke half of my moulding trying to get it off the walls, and then told me that the windows couldn't be stripped without breaking them. He insisted that he smash out my double hung windows (frame and all) and replace them with a new double hung that I could get for about $60 at a local hardwood store. He showed up at my house drunk when he suggested the smashing out the window bit, and I told my husband I don't ever want to see him again. After stripping the original paint with a paint gun, I have now repainted my woodwork AND my cabinets myself. I am still trying to salvage the rest of the moulding that was destroyed. It's a shame that anyone who walks around with a business card and does some advertising can call themselves a "professional". What a joke!...See MoreContractor refused to fix his mistakes unless we pay
Comments (10)Thank you for responding. How elderly? My dad is in his 80's. This contractor knows that my parents are not likely to go to court (at their age). I have done my best to step in to try to get the contractor to fix his mistakes at no additional cost to my parents, but he reminded me that the contract is with my parents, not me. I do need to get on that contract. About the kitchen cabinets, my father wrote to him that there is to be no space above the cabinets. The contractor never discussed anything with us, and suddenly one day those 36-inch cabs arrived and were put up without our knowledge. I then told him about the problem, and he agreed to order taller cabinets. I thought the cabs were being made, but I found out that he never ordered them. The addition was supposed to be finished at that point, so we felt stuck with what was installed. I'm sure he would have charged us for a new set of upper cabs and labor. He made a mistake for the fridge space, and he refused to fix it unless my parents paid. This was holding up installing the appliances and other work in the kitchen. My father felt like he had to pay to get the work going again to completion. I told the contractor that he cannot charge for his mistakes, and his response was: "if you want the changes, you have to pay." This week, a subcontractor was there to do work, and the contractor was not there to supervise. If it were up to me, I would have fired his sorry butt a long time ago. The addition is almost finished now (over 8 months over). This post was edited by grass-cat on Fri, Jan 9, 15 at 10:17...See Moreplumeriavine
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