Good contractors have a lot of hard work to do
Recently I was asked to come to a gentleman’s house in San Diego to talk to him about his roofing problems. When I say problems I don’t just mean a bad roof, but more importantly a bad contractor.
This homeowner was skeptical at first, and as I got more information it became obvious that he had little or no confidence in me or any other contractor. In his case, the skepticism was entirely justified. He had signed a contract and the company was supposed to start work a few weeks later, but before they could start the financial aspects of the deal spun completely out of control, eventually forcing the homeowner to cancel the contract.
The homeowner said that the contractor had returned shortly before the job was supposed to start and claimed that he needed a $6,000 deposit to cover material costs. This raised a red flag with the homeowner, and rightly so for a few reasons:
1. State contract law limits deposits to $1,000 or 10% of the total job cost, whichever is lower,
2. The contract that the homeowner had signed specified a deposit of $4,000, which was illegally high but still not as high as what the contractor now demanded, and
3. When I quoted the job myself I saw that the material cost was about $2,000.
Thankfully, the homeowner stood up to this contractor and told him no, but it didn’t end there – the contractor got upset and threatened to put a lien on the house, since the owner had signed the contract (needless to say, the contractor doesn’t have a right to do this).
After this experience, a mutual friend referred me to speak to this homeowner, and convince him that not all contractors are as bad as the one he first dealt with. The more I looked into the case the worse it seemed. Here are some examples that also should have raised red flags:
• The contactor did not have a license number but did proudly state that they were “Affiliated with a Licensed Contracting Company”
• The checks were supposed to be made out to an individual, not the contracting company
• The price was stated (good) but it was left open-ended (bad), with a vague clause stating that the cost could go up by 25%, for no specific reason
• The overall scope and tone of the original contract seemed to indicate poor knowledge of construction terms (or at least carelessness) – for example the contractor referred to “30-year [manufacturer x] torch down composition shingles” and “6x10 plywood sheathing”. I’ve been in this business for over 18 years, and have never heard of torch down shingles or 6x10 plywood.
• He pricing was probably 25% higher than most contractors would have quoted for that job.
After seeing all the problems this homeowner had, I can understand why he was leery of “all” contractors now. The interesting thing is this homeowner is an intelligent man – college educated with a master’s degree – but he signed the original contract because he was so taken in with the smoothness of this questionable contractor. He mentioned how much he liked the contractor (at least until he started demanding huge deposits) and that the contractor had been very engaging, personable and apparently honest.
If there’s a lesson to be learned here it’s that even smart homeowners don’t necessarily know the ins and outs of construction or contract law. This particular homeowner would probably have gone through with an overpriced deal if the contractor hadn’t gotten too pushy. Homeowners should never be afraid to get a second opinion from an independent source, and to trust their instincts if a deal seems bad.
So lucky for this homeowner he did not get burned, but unfortunately for the good contractors out there we all just took another hit on the chin. It will take a lot of goodwill and hard work from quality contractors to offset one bad contractor like this.