We'd like to hear your stories about communication "challenges" you've had with your contractor. What was the situation? How did you resolve it? What was the final outcome?

If your story is one of our favorites, we'll post it on the main website!

My big problem was that I always felt like I was being an intrusion when I went to look at my house. Every time I went there, all the workers acted like I was interrupting them. It always seemd like they were rolling their eyes or something. And it was my house!

I was real lucky though. The boss contractor (Doug Jones) was there one day and I guess he saw that I was frustrated. So he talked to me and I told him that it bothered me. He explained that when I came to look at the house the workers felt like I was second guessing their work. I told him that was not it at all and that I just like seeing my new house getting closer and closer. He said he would talk to them and explain. The next day I went to see the work and one of the carpenters came and talked to me. He showed me some of the things that they were doing and asked if I had any questions. WOW!!! All of a sudden it was like they really cared! I guess maybe the really cared all along but I didn't realize it. Anyway it all seemed alot better after that and now I have a great house and I know how it was built.

I contracted to have several things done in my home. The job took several months & never was completed. Part was done well. Most was not. And I never knew what spacey person was gonna come do the work or when. I finally called a halt to the project & had to pay him in full. I will never have this person or anyone he had work for him do any work for me again & if asked I would strongly advise anyone else not to let them touch their home either.

I FORGOT TO SAY THAT THE JOB WAS ONLY SUPPOSED TO TAKE ONE DAY.

quote:

Originally posted by Dawn:
I contracted to have several things done in my home. The job took several months & never was completed. Part was done well. Most was not. And I never knew what spacey person was gonna come do the work or when. I finally called a halt to the project & had to pay him in full. I will never have this person or anyone he had work for him do any work for me again & if asked I would strongly advise anyone else not to let them touch their home either.

I posted this in a different message board but the issues are similar. I communicated my desires for adequate (not even superior)construction on a daily basis and all we got was below "sub-standard". This particular problem should've been referenced to framing the dwelling:
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I have been reading all these "nightmare stories" from people who were involved with shoddy builders or contractors. We also had major dilemmas when we built our house and we were the contractor. We designed our house, I drew up the blueprints and was on site everyday. My philosophy is "honey gets more bees than vinegar", so I was congenial and mildly suggested fixes to be done almost every day. I finally had to be forceful in my suggestions which yielded more unsatisfactory results and to make a long story short: a lawsuit with an award for all our troubles and delays.

The award was overturned with an appeal to a higher court which disagreed with the original judge even though I had photo documented 52 major repairs (including broken roof trusses etc etc). Not much choice of judges in Calvert County, MD especially when there is a well known attitude of: "I can overturn anything you decide in the lower court" even if you were absolutely justified in handing out the award for shoddy and dangerous construction practices.

The bottom line is:

There are excellent builders and contractors out there but there are many many more shoddy ones whose mistakes are usually covered up so quickly with drywall and exterior products, one never knows their abyssmal practices until the dwelling starts to fall apart.

The cheapest quote is not the best. Good builders or contractors usually charge more for a reason.

WE NEED LAWS that have some muscle to affect these builders and contractors where it hurts: their bottom line and revocation of licences for repeat offences.

We need more county inspectors.

We need less "red tape" as consumers to file against these builders and contractors, recoup the monies or just get things fixed properly because we really don't have the luxury of time or "more" money to hire new people.

We need the courts on our side. Lawsuit appeals to higher courts by the builders (because they have the resources and time) should be quickly decided upon reviewal by the higher court based on merit of the case and respect the lower court's decision because the lower court heard all the original evidence presented.

We need a state by state site called "Shoddy Builders and Contractors" like they have for "sex offenders". This site could post bonafide complaints, previous lawsuits and easy access or just maybe a voting scale from 1-10.

I think there are thousands of people out there that need help on a daily basis with these issues.

I am an architect. Our firm's projects are usually churches. We recently worked with a geotechnical deep foundations subcontractor (they install piles, helical piers, etc.) that was to design and install a deep foundation system for a new sanctuary. They had a complete soil and bearing capacity report, access to the site, and a full set of construction drawings. But, once construction started, they claimed they needed more money for problems with the soil. To make this short I won't go into the details, take my word for it they had more than enough information, but we caved and agreed to pay a cost increase of 16 percent. We felt that we were being screwed over, but there were other factors influencing the decision. The important thing is that the "love" was now gone from the relationship and they proved to us that they were not trustworthy.

We had an itemized list of what the additional cost was to include. The problem was that when they did the work they did not provide all of the items in that list. When we pointed that out, they then said it turned out all that extra steel wasn't needed. Since they didn't have to buy it, and didn't have to install it, we requested a credit back for the materials not provided and the work not performed. To give you a sense of perspective, we were talking about a $5,000 credit on a $240,000 contract with this sub. The sub ignored us, finished their work, failed to return our phone calls, then started claiming we had no basis for requesting a credit. But, we were patient. We were still holding $20,000 of their money with the requirement that all work and all issues had to be completed and settled before they would be paid.

Their next step was to start making threats and to call in their lawyers. We provided their lawyers with copies of all contracts, site visit reports, and meeting minutes. We also included a brief summary of what we considered a fair and equitable resolution of the issue. Apparently, their lawyers agreed with us because about a week later the president of the company called us and he was so polite and ready to negotiate a final credit amount. He gave me that old line about how he didn't know what his employees had told me, but he thought the two of us could take care of this little misunderstanding. We will not work with this lying, dishonest, unethical subcontractor again.

Yeah well Myspace, you tried saveing money by drawing up your own blue prints and being the General Contractor. I'd bet you did the same when you hired the subs, took the low bids. BOOO HOOO ! You got what little you paid for.

The complaint site is called the Better Business Bureau... Chamber of Commerce... only problem... the consumer does not check up...

We have an organization called UWIN... gives us 48 hours to resolve an issue or they have somebody else resolve it for us then we must refund the cost to stay active with the orginazation... www.877655uwin.com

I am probably in the wrong "spot", but I couldn't figure out how to enter into the communition section....this business of offering info. in the Spanish language is not right. If we went to Mexico, they wouldln't offer us English - they would expect us to learn their language...as they should learn ours if they want to live in our land. They need to adapt to their surroundings & not us addapt to them. I don't understand this.

We recently moved into our house which we watched being built.

We did all the walk-throughs and pointed out items that we thought could be problems, only to have the builder make huge jokes of it all. (Do you really want proper air vents - don't you like a hole in the wall? sort of stuff!)

Amusing and friendly, but in the long run, led to a lot of misinterpretation and things that were not properly noted and sorted out.

The company lost him mid project and the new person has been left to deal with all the nonsense.

He won't take resposiblity for the previous builder's mistakes and so ignores things that have to be fixed. It's caused a of of ill feeling and unhappiness on our part and a certain amount of resentment from the building company that we are expecting too much.

I get frustrated when I enter into a contract with an English speaking person and non English speaking people pitch up at my house with no one able to communicate when problems come up or things are not done properly.

Quite often, even the contractor is not able to communicate well enough with the staff and there are misunderstandings right from the start.