Legal Question in Construction Law in Maine

Home Construction Contract Breach

We are in a dispute with our contractor, who says that we owe an additional $20,000+ for changes and cost overruns. The only signed change order (for $3100) has my wife's and my signature forged, with his wife's initials. When we used our bathroom allowance, he told us the allowance was $13,500, but now he says that he accidentally switched this with the heating costs, so we owe the difference, plus his cost overruns. The contract calls for 3 coats of stain, but he only did 2. The contract called for backfilling our foundation with ''new'' materials, but it was backfilled with our loam. Consequently, we need to have extra loam trucked in if we want to have any landscaping. The contract called for completion within four months; they finally stained the house this month, one year later!

There are many such items in our dispute. We cannot refinance without putting ourselves in a payment position that puts us at financial risk.

He never told us of problems until it was too late to recover costs in any other part of the project. He greatly underestimated the labor costs, and we think that this accounts for a large chunk of the extra time and money.

What is legal standing here?

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