Client was difficult and rude throughout the construction process, so we did work clearly outside of scope just to keep the peace. We did the work, and I sent an invoice along with an email requesting just to discuss the change orders. That invoice, as well as our original contracted amount final invoice, have both been ignored. The change order email requested a discussion, and we were willing to negotiate where needed but they have gone radio silent and won't pay anything. Can I include the change order amount in my demand for payment or should I just stick to my original contracted COD amount?...Read More
I lend $50k to a LLC with a deed on a property. The note has expired 2 months ago. And this LLC owns another property and this LLC is selling this property, so I would like to put a lien against the property they are selling to get my money back....Read More
I've just finished my first large job as a company. It was a learning process. I billed the customer weekly to bi-weekly for majority of the project. I billed them on 3 or 4 occasions for cost of equipment and operation. The last payment being recieved beginning of October. It is now March, after receiving their final bill, they are trying to dispute the rental charges from 5 months ago...Read More
Hello, last Friday my contractor sent me a Notice of Intent to Lien. I do not disagree that he is owed money, but it should be for less than he is asking for. Is it better for me to pay him for what I believe is owed, or will we need to go to court either way?...Read More
I was hired by a Colorado GC to install as specified in the plans provided by the architect (this included which specific products to install). There is an issue with the manufacture of the products themselves, but they were installed properly. I am being told that I have punch list items to complete because the products are not working correctly. The products are defective, but install was correct. The GC should have already received 3 draws on this project, but is saying they have not received any payment. There is a pay when paid clause in the contract. The project is in CO.
Due to the corona virus, the site (it is a visual arts center owned by a university) is shut down so I couldn't do the punch list even if I wanted to.
What steps do I need to take to preserve my lien rights? How can I send an NOI when they aren't even open?...Read More
My construction company was hired to convert a garage into a two-bedroom, one bath living area with a living room and a little space for laundry. We met with the homeowner to get the info for an estimate. She informed us that the tenants living upstairs had reported her to code enforcement because she had someone doing work in the garage and did not pull a permit, resulting in a Stop Work letter from Pikes Peak Regional Building Dept. She said that when the inspector came out, he could only see a small portion of the garage, so that is all she would get a permit for...seemed a little shady but whatever. After two hours of her telling us what she wanted and us telling her what was feasible, we felt we had the info we needed to give a proper estimate.
Submitted the estimate which she agreed to and then emailed her a contract. She was adamant about getting the job done ASAP so she could sell the property, so we started before she signed the contract. That was on 02/05/2023 and as of today (06/05/2023) I still don't have a signed contract. She signed the estimate.
In the contract we put down a completion date of 04/30/2023 which we did not meet that deadline because of personal tragedies and the homeowner requesting additional work and changes. No change orders were signed. When we were 90% done with the project, we needed money for materials and labor to finish. We presented her with a $26,000 invoice for the 'extras', which included a full kitchen, three additional subterranean egress windows and several other items. She said that was too much, and she would not pay for it. What we charged her for all the extra work was well below the national average and more than fair. She still owed $2500 on the original contract, which she paid 05/30/2023. She agreed to pay $17000 for the extras. We told her we needed $8000 to finish the job, and she cut a check on 06/02/2023 for $3000 and said she would pay the $5000 on Monday. We went to the job Saturday morning to find she had changed all the locks. We have called her and left messages but no response.
Do you think filing a lien would be successful? How should we handle the homeowner reneging on the agreement we had and changing the locks with no notice? Is her paying $3000 toward the extras invoice significant?...Read More
my company was run off a window replacement job last Thursday (the day we were going to finish trimming the exterior of 6 windows, the customer texted me at 6:22am to tell me my crew was not allowed to work at his home that day, we proceeded to show up to his house to remove our tools and enclosed trailer so we could work at another job that day, one thing escalated to another and the local police had to get involved to assist me with a civil recovery of my companies property as the customer backed a truck up tight to my trailer and deflated his tires. We were able to get out property out of the customers home and remove our trailer with the assistance of the local Oak Creek, CO police. He reported my company to my local building authorities in Routt County, CO for not pulling a replacement window permit, as the homeowner wanted to cut as many costs as he could so we verbally agreed he would dispose of jobsite debris, customer would self perform painting his own interior trim and pull his own permit. We know we should have put these details in writing. moving on, we don't feel like its a safe environment to return to try to finish this job. We also have an inspection report that indicates he has created some sabotage to the work we have completed, as the inspection report indicates that my company cut into headers above windows, and cut through sheathing on the customers home. there was 3 layers of siding, no wood sheathing on this old house, 3 layers of interior wall materials, if anything we had to add new dimensional lumber to several window opening as the existing window openings were in pretty poor condition. The customer is texting us constantly, they are now saying we killed one of their animals, we assume they are referring to some chickens they have loose in a fenced in area due to lead exposure. many facets the customer is working on to get something out of us we presume. We have zero intention of trying to complete this project (6 windows of exterior trim and 1 window of interior trim remain), we really have no intentions in trying to collect a final payment from this customer either. happy to provide our contract agreement for your review, our contract is very iron clad. My current worry is what recourse does customer have being he ran us off his property before we could finish the job in total, and can we just call it a day and leave things where they currently stand. should we be preparing to file a lean and credit back the monetary value of the work we were not allowed to complete in the final invoice again we have no interest in trying to take this guy to court or collect the remaining $10,800 owed to the contract price I am prepared to site "abnormal site conditions"...Read More
We are a subcontractor in Colorado, we entered into a contract for $43K. The contract that was signed states that retainage will be 10%, however I thought that Colorado Limited this to 5%. The customer is stating that the subcontract agreement supersedes the law. Is this accurate?...Read More
We were contracted by a client for work in Colorado for construction staffing. The structure is a warehouse and it was used for manufacturing. Is there anything we can place a lien on in order to get paid for the $8K + in work we provided?...Read More
I’m a contractor hired to do a remodel. I needed someone to do some hourly yard work and he ended up owning a painting company so I went ahead and hired him to help with finish work. He asked me if he could bring his crew and I told him no because I don’t hire subs to manage people on my jobs without knowing their work quality. He assured me that each person he had worked with before and he held them to high quality standards. I told him he could have them do general labor and only labor I assigned such as hard work and prep. The first few days were great. I went wrong by allowing them to continue the work through the weekend without supervision. The job was to be completed May 7th. May 8th I returned to the job site and they weren’t done. He had people with no painting experience painting and caulking. They botched some of the work and I asked him to fix it. He told me he did but he didn’t. I gave him specific tasks for those individuals to do but he had them do other tasks. I specifically told him that their work quality was poor and I didn’t want them working on any finish work at all without my approval. When I got there he had two women there unsupervised and they were walking around doing busy work. They were not doing the task I assigned. They were there all morning without his direction and since I do not speak Spanish I couldn’t communicate with them. I text him and told him how upset I was. He promised he would take care of everything by the end of the 8th. I came in on the 9th and the work was not done. He had not prepped any of the areas. There was paint all over the brand new floors. He caused me to have to spend my own time, unpaid, correcting his work and I completed the job 5 days late fixing it. I have pictures of his finished work. I have text messages where I disputed his work. He was paying them hourly and I expressed that I saw he had them there paying them when they weren’t working. He tried to charge me for almost 100 hours he could not account for. After a discussion with him I paid him what I thought was fair for the amount of work completed, which was about 80% of what he asked for. He had someone work on the exterior paint of the house without my authorization and the man used the wrong paint leaving areas I had to repaint. Now he is telling me he is going to put a lien on the property. It’s an investment property and just went live on the market today. I don’t want the investor or new owners to be stuck with a lien but I feel he was totally in the wrong. I feel like I have clearly stated what I needed through text. He had people riding the clock and he botched the project and left me about 75 hours of work to fix. There’s no actual contract but I know the texts can act as so. He misrepresented himself and the people he hired to me. I feel this is fraudulent. He also explicitly went against my wishes, that I stated in my text. I think the amount he wants is around $1500. I’ve asked him for time sheets and a list of what each person worked on with an accountability of hours and their qualifications and he proceeds to threaten me. I advised him if he decided to pursue legal action I intended to file a counter claim for the work I had to repair. I’m hourly and I did not charge my customer for the work I did to fix the disaster he left me. I’m sure I will need to talk to a local attorney but I’m hoping to get some answers here to help ease my mind through the weekend. Thanks in advance for the advice....Read More
We live in a state where the intent to foreclose is not required but we want to send one anyway to the non-paying customer as well as their current lien holders in hopes them realizing that we are going to foreclose if payment is not made. We have filed a legitimate mechanics lien with the county clerk and it is in force currently.
1. Do we need to send the document to each owner listed on the property? Does it matter if the owner's listed are married or not?
2. If they have more than one mortgage should we send it to all mortgage companies?
...Read More
Our contract with the GC states "anticipated start date" because at the time of signing we did not yet have permits nor notice to proceed from the airport so we couldn't put in a firm commencement date. The permits and NTP were received and the actual construction started two months from the "anticipated start date" and five weeks later I receive a $140K PCCO for a start date that was not known when the contract was signed. Their justification is that buried in the GCGR is their Staff Plan which shows starting on the "anticipated start date". The actual work (anticipated) is in the contract only once. Commencement of work is defined as being after permits and NTP are obtained. Is this a legitimate PCCO for lost time I should approve?...Read More