When you first purchased your home, it may have felt perfect for the time being. You knew that some aspects of it were outdated and that one day you would want to take the time to make some major improvements to the property. During those first few years, you may have focused more on handling your mortgage than considering additional expenses for the property. However, more recently, you felt the time was right to move forward with making your house into an even better home.
You undoubtedly did your research when it came to finding a contractor to carry out the various duties associated with your home-improvement endeavor. Whether the person came with glowing referrals from people you knew personally, or the contractor had relatively good reviews online, you felt comfortable hiring the person for your project. Unfortunately, after some time, you began to feel as if you had made a mistake.
Problems with a contractor
In a perfect world, everyone would do his or her job as best as possible. Of course, we do not live in a perfect world, and as a result, you ended up with a contractor who seemed interested in money but not in actually getting the work done. If your contractor continually came up with reasons to delay the project, kept increasing the costs, unnecessarily deviated from your desired plans or failed to complete the job entirely, you may understandably feel upset about the situation.
What can you do?
First, if you believe that your contractor has not carried out his or her duties properly, remember that the person works for you. This means that you can (and maybe should) fire the contractor for not properly completing the work. You may want to go over any contractual documents you signed relating to the project to ensure that the contractor cannot sue you for breach of contract and that he or she breached the contract first.
Speaking of suing, filing a lawsuit against the contractor may be a step for you to take if you believe the contractor owes you compensation. Taking your funds without performing the work, costing you extra money unnecessarily, breaching the terms of the contract in general and other issues could warrant legal action. If you believe that taking such steps could suit your circumstances, you may wish to discuss your predicament with a Massachusetts attorney experienced in construction litigation.
