It's rare to have a completion date and any sort of penalty for going beyond the completion date by any substantial amounts in a residential contract. These are common in commercial contracts because every extra day a business is not in business is a loss of income. But I am not sure you want someone rushing to finish up details at the end of a project to get it done in your own house anyway. I have had quite a problem with contractors over the years. I had one who came highly recommended but the scope of the project was beyond his capabilities and he just sort of disappeared leaving some tools behind. The problem was that it was very difficult to get someone to come in and not want to take out any of the old work and start from scratch. Eventually I found someone who would take over without completely undoing all the previous work. (Which wasn't close to finished). ----- I had a well known plaster restoration person (nationally known, actually) who thought my project was too simple (not a lot of ornament) and put an apprentice on the job who made a complete mess, dropped and broke pieces of the run plaster cornices, and was just way in over her head. He came in, saw what she was doing, fired her, and abandoned all the equipment including scaffolding on site and never returned another phone call or letter again. It would have been too expensive for him to undo her work and do it over at his agreed price. Luckily I don't think he had actually been paid anything yet but a small deposit, if that. I found someone else, waited more than six months for them to be available and paid about twice as much as it would have cost if they had taken it on new. ---- I should add that I dodged one big bullet. I was awaiting an estimate from a recommended contractor and he was suddenly and completely off-the-map, phones not connected, anything. I thought he was dead. He wasn't dead, but he ended up in prison (vehicular homicide and other charges) for running over a pedestrian while smoking crack. ___ Finally, I have a contractor who does great work great work. But he suffers from depression and his domestic life is always a problem (different women involved, serially). It takes him about a year to do a bathroom. He started tiling this last one in December of 2016. It's not done yet. (so it will take Two years, in all) When you talk to him about it, he says "I know. This is entirely my fault. I would not blame you if you fired me right now". But who am I supposed to get to finish a project that's 80%or more complete in terms of his part of it? The other contractors I use (plumber, electrician, HVAC, roofers) have all been great. But they are all much more expensive than average, you wait for them to be available and other issues.

FYI...this thread is linked in the "Other Items of Interest" topic in the "New to Kitchens? Read Me First!" thread. So, there shouldn't be a need to bump this thread up to the top and knock someone else's request for help today off the first page.

After some discussion, we're agreed that they will build new fencing themselves in the same style we're using (the husband does construction), I just re-read your post. Have you considered hiring this neighbor for the project instead of the other contractor? Forget the above. Since the project is 2/3 completed....what happened is that you are reneging on the original terms of the deal. IF you ever have any thought of using this guy again, you need to honor the original deal. If that means eating the entire cost of the fence on that side of the property, you eat it. (Just tell yourself that if you were on a corner lot, you'd be paying for all of that side anyway because there would be no neighbor to split costs with.) The revised quote for less fence has a 'you broke the contract' penalty included. And no, you won't find this as a line item on the bill. Or a 'putting the horse before the cart penalty'...because you proceeded w/ the project before you had everyone on board. However you want to look at it. As far as the non compliant neighbors---since one of them is 'in construction', he/she may be a little miffed that you didn't ask him for a quote on the project. Or not. May be that since he is in the biz, he thinks the quote was inflated. Or, just reluctant to pay for labor to do something he considers everyday DIY. Also given that they have been in the house for only a couple of years, that the house has needed extensive work, they are likely to consider the fence a Low Priority item. And, being in construction right now, he is likely to be flat out Too Busy to worry about a fence.

Hi all! The light fixtures were installed (outside of one that is on backorder). Looking back at previous draws, the $2,700 is NOT included so the money really is due. We are simply concerned to the what-if other "misses" come up. We've worked hard to stay within our means and just assumed that our final paperwork and draw had everything taken into account.