Legal Question in Construction Law in California

Hi. We're in California. Our general contractor has a payment provision in the contract which states that he must be paid within 2 (TWO) days of request. He submitted another progress pmt request recently; however, we questioned the amt of work that he'd done to support the lg progress pmt he was requesting. In addition, serious concerns were brought to our attention by other contractors & consultants we asked out to look at his work, with all saying that he was using inferior product & workmanship was shoddy. We asked that he give a detailed list of the work he'd done to substantiate his lg progress pmt AND that he'd address our concerns about his work. He refused to do either thing, and simply told us if we did not pay him his progress pmt, we were in breach. We told him we weren't going to pay until he agreed to address our concerns & provide the detail of work performed to substantiate the pmt, and the general contractor packed up his tools, workers and left. He then sent us a letter stating we were in breach of contract because we did not pay within the 2 days stated in the contract. His contract is typed out and not in legal format. Can anyone help me, suggest what to do?


Asked on 2/16/12, 2:34 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

First thing to do is file a complaint with the Contractors State License Board immediately, and make a claim on his license bond for abandoning the work. Second thing to do is give him two business days to return to work or you will declare the contract abandoned and replace him. After two days, if he does not return, replace him and prepare to sue him for anything over and above the contract price, less what you already paid him, it costs you to complete his work. Be sure to document carefully EXACTLY how much work is done so far, and do not make ANY changes to the work to be done without written change orders to the new contractor that detail what, if any, increased costs are involved since you can't charge the old contractor for that.

Read more
Answered on 2/16/12, 3:13 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Construction Law questions and answers in California