Op - what estimate did the attorney give you for legal fees? Even though you might have a valid claim, you need to look at the cost benefit. Plus, the contractor might not have any assets so you may end up with a judgment you can’t collect plus be on the hook for legal fees. Even if the court awards you legal fees, your attorney isn’t going to wait to collect from the contractor - you will have to pay. And, again, if the contractor has no assets, you will get nothing.

Is it unfair? Yes. But you should probably focus on moving forward.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you contacted the contractor’s attorney INSURANCE?

This person lawyers. Always ask for proof of insurance BEFORE starting a project. We are building a deck. I have a certificate of insurance from my contractor’s insurance company, issued to me, before the contract was signed.

That’s liability that covers injury to people and property the contractor causes. It is not a performance guarantee.

CGL for the damage to the OP’s property
Contractors E&O for shoddy design work
Performance bond


But sounds like OP didn’t perform due diligence on verifying any of it

Op here

So in the eyes of the court, if a contractor performs work without insurance/license he is not liable? The customer who hired him is liable?

DP, there's liability and then there's your ability to recover any money from this guy. The insurance is who would typically pay if he is liable.

Have you hired a lawyer? If so, direct your questions there (and maybe ask Jeff to delete this thread).

And sell your house and rent. Otherwise you have a long road ahead.

Why would I sell the house and rent?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you contacted the contractor’s attorney INSURANCE?

This person lawyers. Always ask for proof of insurance BEFORE starting a project. We are building a deck. I have a certificate of insurance from my contractor’s insurance company, issued to me, before the contract was signed.

That’s liability that covers injury to people and property the contractor causes. It is not a performance guarantee.

CGL for the damage to the OP’s property
Contractors E&O for shoddy design work
Performance bond


But sounds like OP didn’t perform due diligence on verifying any of it

Op here

So in the eyes of the court, if a contractor performs work without insurance/license he is not liable? The customer who hired him is liable?

DP, there's liability and then there's your ability to recover any money from this guy. The insurance is who would typically pay if he is liable.

Have you hired a lawyer? If so, direct your questions there (and maybe ask Jeff to delete this thread).

And sell your house and rent. Otherwise you have a long road ahead.

+1. OP being unable to let this go for a minimal amount of damage is not promising. Especially since she characterized the issue as “cosmetic” and not structural.

Op here
No. Read my first post again. I said there were code violations plus cosmetic damage. There are actual safety issues.

It’s not “minimal amount of damage.”
2/3 of the work has to be torn out and re-done completely.

There are safety issues.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you contacted the contractor’s attorney INSURANCE?

This person lawyers. Always ask for proof of insurance BEFORE starting a project. We are building a deck. I have a certificate of insurance from my contractor’s insurance company, issued to me, before the contract was signed.

That’s liability that covers injury to people and property the contractor causes. It is not a performance guarantee.

CGL for the damage to the OP’s property
Contractors E&O for shoddy design work
Performance bond


But sounds like OP didn’t perform due diligence on verifying any of it

Op here

So in the eyes of the court, if a contractor performs work without insurance/license he is not liable? The customer who hired him is liable?

DP, there's liability and then there's your ability to recover any money from this guy. The insurance is who would typically pay if he is liable.

Have you hired a lawyer? If so, direct your questions there (and maybe ask Jeff to delete this thread).

And sell your house and rent. Otherwise you have a long road ahead.

+1. OP being unable to let this go for a minimal amount of damage is not promising. Especially since she characterized the issue as “cosmetic” and not structural.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you contacted the contractor’s attorney INSURANCE?

This person lawyers. Always ask for proof of insurance BEFORE starting a project. We are building a deck. I have a certificate of insurance from my contractor’s insurance company, issued to me, before the contract was signed.

That’s liability that covers injury to people and property the contractor causes. It is not a performance guarantee.

CGL for the damage to the OP’s property
Contractors E&O for shoddy design work
Performance bond


But sounds like OP didn’t perform due diligence on verifying any of it

Op here

So in the eyes of the court, if a contractor performs work without insurance/license he is not liable? The customer who hired him is liable?

DP, there's liability and then there's your ability to recover any money from this guy. The insurance is who would typically pay if he is liable.

Have you hired a lawyer? If so, direct your questions there (and maybe ask Jeff to delete this thread).

And sell your house and rent. Otherwise you have a long road ahead.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you contacted the contractor’s attorney INSURANCE?

This person lawyers. Always ask for proof of insurance BEFORE starting a project. We are building a deck. I have a certificate of insurance from my contractor’s insurance company, issued to me, before the contract was signed.

That’s liability that covers injury to people and property the contractor causes. It is not a performance guarantee.

CGL for the damage to the OP’s property
Contractors E&O for shoddy design work
Performance bond


But sounds like OP didn’t perform due diligence on verifying any of it

Op here

So in the eyes of the court, if a contractor performs work without insurance/license he is not liable? The customer who hired him is liable?

No, insurance is financial backing of negligence. If the contractor has no insurance and no company assets, there is no $ to pay you. Always get 3 references.

You can go to court, but if they have no $, they have no $.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you contacted the contractor’s attorney INSURANCE?

This person lawyers. Always ask for proof of insurance BEFORE starting a project. We are building a deck. I have a certificate of insurance from my contractor’s insurance company, issued to me, before the contract was signed.

That’s liability that covers injury to people and property the contractor causes. It is not a performance guarantee.

CGL for the damage to the OP’s property
Contractors E&O for shoddy design work
Performance bond


But sounds like OP didn’t perform due diligence on verifying any of it

Op here

So in the eyes of the court, if a contractor performs work without insurance/license he is not liable? The customer who hired him is liable?

DP, there's liability and then there's your ability to recover any money from this guy. The insurance is who would typically pay if he is liable.

Have you hired a lawyer? If so, direct your questions there (and maybe ask Jeff to delete this thread).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're going to spend $35K to get $35K. (In lawyer fees and by your own time.)

Probably. And by OP’s earlier post it seems she thinks someone else will pay her attorney’s fees. That is a really unusual occurrence and she shouldn’t count on that.

OP here, I thought the losing party pays the attorney fees?

Oh geez OP. You need a lawyer. No it is not standard in a contract case for the losing party to have to pay attorneys fees - unless there is a clause about this in the contract, which they may well have been.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you contacted the contractor’s attorney INSURANCE?

This person lawyers. Always ask for proof of insurance BEFORE starting a project. We are building a deck. I have a certificate of insurance from my contractor’s insurance company, issued to me, before the contract was signed.

That’s liability that covers injury to people and property the contractor causes. It is not a performance guarantee.

CGL for the damage to the OP’s property
Contractors E&O for shoddy design work
Performance bond


But sounds like OP didn’t perform due diligence on verifying any of it

Op here

So in the eyes of the court, if a contractor performs work without insurance/license he is not liable? The customer who hired him is liable?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you contacted the contractor’s attorney INSURANCE?

This person lawyers. Always ask for proof of insurance BEFORE starting a project. We are building a deck. I have a certificate of insurance from my contractor’s insurance company, issued to me, before the contract was signed.

That’s liability that covers injury to people and property the contractor causes. It is not a performance guarantee.

CGL for the damage to the OP’s property
Contractors E&O for shoddy design work
Performance bond


But sounds like OP didn’t perform due diligence on verifying any of it

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you contacted the contractor’s attorney INSURANCE?

This person lawyers. Always ask for proof of insurance BEFORE starting a project. We are building a deck. I have a certificate of insurance from my contractor’s insurance company, issued to me, before the contract was signed.

That’s liability that covers injury to people and property the contractor causes. It is not a performance guarantee.

OP stated the contractor damaged her house. It’s also not hard for a lawyer to allege that defective work causes damage to the property.

Your lawyer can work with that!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you contacted the contractor’s attorney INSURANCE?

This person lawyers. Always ask for proof of insurance BEFORE starting a project. We are building a deck. I have a certificate of insurance from my contractor’s insurance company, issued to me, before the contract was signed.

That’s liability that covers injury to people and property the contractor causes. It is not a performance guarantee.

OP here.
Yes, he stated (on his website) that he is "fully licensed and insured" but we didn't check. We have since (since realizing the terrible job he did) attempted to look up his license on our state's registry and do not see one for him.

He was actually recommended to us by a different contractor (plumber) who did a fabulous job for us. Since the plumber was so great, we trusted his recommendation more than we should have, it seems.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you contacted the contractor’s attorney INSURANCE?

This person lawyers. Always ask for proof of insurance BEFORE starting a project. We are building a deck. I have a certificate of insurance from my contractor’s insurance company, issued to me, before the contract was signed.

OP here
We will in the future.
Expensive lesson learned.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you contacted the contractor’s attorney INSURANCE?

This person lawyers. Always ask for proof of insurance BEFORE starting a project. We are building a deck. I have a certificate of insurance from my contractor’s insurance company, issued to me, before the contract was signed.

That’s liability that covers injury to people and property the contractor causes. It is not a performance guarantee.