$20k is not worth retaining an attorney. It's a lot of money but so is a lawyer.
What I would do instead is pay for an hour of an attorney time to look at your note and give you feedback on how to edit it and ask for the $. You would need to pursue it in small claims court.
This was going to be my advice too. We paid an attorney $500 to draft a letter for us to send to our contractor. Our next step was going to be to file in small claims court but the contractor made it right.
I am looking for permits now. His company is fairly robust so I can't imagine he wouldn't permit (why am I defending him) but honestly it is all a blur and I was a hot mess. Evidently maybe I still am?
Edit: it appears that no permits were pulled for renovations, other than electric.
I am looking for permits now. His company is fairly robust so I can't imagine he wouldn't permit (why am I defending him) but honestly it is all a blur and I was a hot mess. Evidently maybe I still am?
I didn't mean to make you feel bad. My H is a building inspector that busts big contactors every day for not pulling permits. I used to work with his department a bunch and saw this all the time.
What I would do is call the department who handles the permits and ask them what was pulled, etc. Explain the scope of work done and ask what you need to do to rectify the issue. Get it all squared away.
I am looking for permits now. His company is fairly robust so I can't imagine he wouldn't permit (why am I defending him) but honestly it is all a blur and I was a hot mess. Evidently maybe I still am?
I didn't mean to make you feel bad. My H is a building inspector that busts big contactors every day for not pulling permits. I used to work with his department a bunch and saw this all the time.
What I would do is call the department who handles the permits and ask them what was pulled, etc. Explain the scope of work done and ask what you need to do to rectify the issue. Get it all squared away.
I already feel bad, but not because of you. LOL. He clearly did not file any permits. I'm going to call tomorrow, and if he screwed up, I'm going to have the lawyer add this to the letter he is drafting.
I am looking for permits now. His company is fairly robust so I can't imagine he wouldn't permit (why am I defending him) but honestly it is all a blur and I was a hot mess. Evidently maybe I still am?
A lot of contractors will do work without permits. First two renovations they even asked if we wanted them to get permits or not. Our last remodel, one told us we couldn’t “skip” permits because we had multiple neighbors with portapotties outside, so they knew inspectors were in the neighborhood frequently and were worried about getting caught. Our city in particular is horrible about permits and inspections - it adds a TON of time to get the permit and a TON of time spent on hold waiting for an inspection so they can move to the next stage. (Contractors who have bidded basically told us they charged us more than if we were 5 miles west in a different city because of the hassle of dealing with our city permitting.)
I am looking for permits now. His company is fairly robust so I can't imagine he wouldn't permit (why am I defending him) but honestly it is all a blur and I was a hot mess. Evidently maybe I still am?
Edit: it appears that no permits were pulled for renovations, other than electric.
It’s not uncommon for a subcontractor to pull a permit without you knowing for small Reno items like plumbing, windows, etc. and contractors generally know all the loopholes to avoid it. If they are replacing something like a toilet they wouldn’t have to but if they were putting a new toilet in a new location they would. I think one was needed when we replaced our dishwasher because our gas line wasn’t up to code but the installer didn’t know that until he took the old one out and he handled the paperwork.
Did you sign a contract or get a quote or invoice with his company name on it? Without some sort of contract (even quote + verbal) you might be out of luck. I think you can look up contractor licenses on your state website. Did a subcontractor do the work and this guy acted as a GC? If so, he could be calling the subcontractor and asking them to fix it or compensate you. Often contractor warranties only last 1 year but it it was a concealed issue that is causing major issues due to being done incorrectly you can have recourse for longer. I’d consult a lawyer to review the letter and not demand money but give documentation for the $$$ amount with backup quotes and ask what they are going to do to make it right, with a deadline for responding.
Especially when it comes to roofing or waterproofing, there are good warranties but water issues usually come from incorrect installation (which is excluded from warranties and a contract protects you from shoddy work).
Another option is claiming home insurance but usually people want to avoid that because they don’t want premiums increased in the future
Also don’t feel bad. This happens all the time and it’s not necessarily because the contractor is shady or trying to scam you. Finding good labor, subcontractors and contractors in 2020 was super challenging. Even the better contractors I’ve worked with don’t always provide all the oversight they should which is a problem when they have guys working for them that cut corners or don’t know what they are doing. They tend to move on quickly when a job is done and it’s really hard to get them to come back to fix things when they are busy with the next project. Hopefully the letter will be the wake up call they need to make your issues a priority.
I think it's possible he didn't need any permits for the work in my house (and I think he THOUGHT we were good for the ADU since the former was small). He didn't move any plumbing or electric, and the door he moved was only about three feet to one side.
And yes, his subs were horrible. In three years, he has had three specific chances to same things right with me and each time, he absolutely did not. So, eff him. At this point, if my friend's letter doesn't do the trick, we'll hire a lawyer who can. I know it's small potatoes to them and I'll end up with only 70% but I don't care.
ETA: ellipses84 -- I have all the invoices and two separate contracts. Most of our chatter was via text and I may need to try to recover those (at one point he said he would reimburse me for the electric work I had to fix , said clearly in texts, and of course I saw nothing; but it acknowledges that the original work was not acceptable).
Sigh. You needed permits. He knew you needed permits. Hell, you now know you need permits just based on the fact that the secondary electrician pulled them to fix the original work.
Did you update your insurance when you increased the livable square footage of your house? Because if something happens you have no official paperwork stating that your ADU was so many feet, and your basement was converted to XYZ feet. There's a lot to this that people don't understand or know about until it happens.
I double checked with my H, and confirmed that any egress door (door leading to the outside) is most likely structural. He hedged quite a bit because he didn't want to speak for other jurisdictions about what they would need, but here it would need to be permitted and have an engineer's report that it could be moved.
FWIW, contractors here do stupid shit all the time. There's a house on our block that a realtor was flipping. H stopped in when he started seeing drywall being taken out. They had removed a load bearing wall and thought they were just removing "cupboards". H could see where the ceiling was bowing and could make the entire thing flex with just his hands.
Yes! Thank god. All insurance is updated and includes the ADU.
Includes 200 ft of the ADU because that's all you permitted. Also, the basement wouldn't be covered either as it has not been approved as a livable space.
I am looking for permits now. His company is fairly robust so I can't imagine he wouldn't permit (why am I defending him) but honestly it is all a blur and I was a hot mess. Evidently maybe I still am?
A lot of contractors will do work without permits. First two renovations they even asked if we wanted them to get permits or not. Our last remodel, one told us we couldn’t “skip” permits because we had multiple neighbors with portapotties outside, so they knew inspectors were in the neighborhood frequently and were worried about getting caught. Our city in particular is horrible about permits and inspections - it adds a TON of time to get the permit and a TON of time spent on hold waiting for an inspection so they can move to the next stage. (Contractors who have bidded basically told us they charged us more than if we were 5 miles west in a different city because of the hassle of dealing with our city permitting.)
We have a lot of work happening in our neighborhood, too, including our across the street neighbor, so the inspectors are out a lot. Plus our village attorney lives down the block, our mayor lives around the corner, and our town councilperson also lives down the block. We have brand new neighbors next door who came from a place where permit process isn't so diligently followed. They started a shitton of work, not even discreetly. They got shut down. The husband was telling my husband all they were doing was "a little bit of work." My husband was like, over here, it doesn't even matter. We went through it, too. They got hit with oodles of fines and penalties.
Post by Leeham Rimes on Jan 4, 2024 17:23:42 GMT -5
I’m currently investigating a contractor for unlicensed/permitted work, he’ll swear to his clients they don’t need permits and it’s very not true. Unfortunately for the homeowners, they pay all the penalties. He’s got a lot of nerve, based on what I’ve already found.
OP, if it’s only the contractor who told you that you were exempt from permitting, I’d try and verify that on your own. A lot of the work listed here, in the states I’m authorized to work, (which granted, isn’t your state) absolutely needs permitting. There are exceptions based on size but that’s for non habitable structures.
Last Edit: Jan 4, 2024 17:24:02 GMT -5 by Leeham Rimes
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