What's the best way to handle dismissing a contractor midway through a job?

Business Management Client Relations
1

The work being done by my contractor and his team isn’t up to the standards I expected. The attention to detail has been shoddy. In addition, we just went through the rough-in permit inspections and didn’t pass, so now my contractor is asking for extra funds to cover an added round of inspections for his team’s faulty work.

What’s the best way to sever this relationship and replace him? How should I negotiate getting some of my deposit back?

2

Fire him before its too late.

3

Hi Anonymous,

If you do want out of the contract, read the terms and conditions and let them know in writing of your intent.

Also… review your contract and speak to the person that you agreed to purchase the work from. Let them know about your concerns, and how you do not have any intention of paying for re-inspection fees due to failed inspections for faulty work. You may need to review the contract and see if the reason it was failed was due to preexisting conditions that were not part of the scope of work that you agreed to pay for. If the failure requires additional work that was part of the original contract, they should give you a quote to add on to the work, and have an addendum to the contract.

Most contractors are reasonable and want to do a good job. After all, bad word of mouth travels fast and far. You should be able to have a good conversation and have them give you the service you paid for.

Best of Luck!

4

Discuss work that has been completed and come up with a number that both parties are comfortable with before parting ways. The customer should ALWAYS be taken care of first imo

5
  1. See what the remedies in your agreement are first.
  2. Be sure you are documenting (pictures, emails/texts to contractor, date of each occurrence) and be organized in case you have to go legal route.
  3. List all grievances and notify contractor in writing (email) giving them 48 hours to remedy AND requesting written response back of how they will remedy and also make up any lost time on project.

If they are unresponsive you have grounds for termination.
If they respond you must hold them to their remedies and the time frames set. Then move forward.

Firing is easiest but usually more costly to bring someone in midway. You have heard the saying about the squeaking wheel gets the grease… well if you are painstakingly diligent in constantly requesting and scrutinizing and documenting… contractor will start to get the picture and be more diligent in micro managing his people unless he is a totally poor GC.

6

What does the contract say about them not fulfilling their end of the deal? Generally a contract will state that the contractor’s responsibility is to perform a job up to a certain standard. This doesn’t imply that the work will be perfect, but since their work failed inspections it would be reasonable to enforce the stipulations laid out in the contract.

Stopping the work seems like a good idea at this point. Don’t let it turn into more than it needs to be. Keep it simple, it’s a contract and they aren’t fulfilling their end of the deal.