contractor abandoned job what should I pay him?
I hired what amounts to be a handyman to complete my basement, we settled on a price of $7000 for his labour and I provided all materials, I did front him $500 for misc expenses, I began to notice several mistakes in the drywall in early October and he stated he would repair them, I then got a message on my answering machine a week later stating he hurt his finger and would call me back when he felt better. I never heard from him again when he sent me a bill by mail in January for $5200, problem is he did not do most of the work, what he did do was board and partially sand 1534 sq ft of dry wall he installed 184 sq ft of laminate flooring and installed 6 pre hung doors. Wanting to be fair but also acknowledging he abandoned the job and did poor quality drywalling that I had to hire someone else to finish I have proposed the following
For the boarding and partial finishing of 1534 sq ft of drywall -$1534
For the installation of 6 prehung doors-$240 8 hrs labor@$30/hr
For the installation of 184sq ft of flooring-$276 or $1.50/ sq ft
A total of $2050, I did not have a signed contract and I had to hire others to finish the job, does this sound fair?
I think It’s a little too fair. If this “contractor” did poor work on the drywall that had to be redone, then he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain. You should calculate how much of his drywall work was salvageable and then pay him that percentage. If the doors and flooring look good, you can keep those totals, but don’t pay for work that has to be redone. If you bought a hamburger at McDonald’s that was missing the meat, you wouldn’t pay for its replacement.
If the current contractor accepts the shoddy work you described – then by all means
pay the handy man that amount – -next time get someone with proper credentials
to do the work -
whether it is fair depends on the charge rate for contractors in your city
u may offer your rates to him, to see if he settles and if he does not settle, the otpion is to go to court to settle it.
I wouldn’t pay him a dime. If he wants money, take me to court.