QUESTION
I signed a contract with an unlicensed contractor for siding on my house. He started work the second week of May 2012 and is still not finished.
Asked on Jul 22nd, 2012 on Litigation - Virginia
More details to this question:
He has not showed up to work on my home since June 29, 2012 and has not returned my call. His price for labor was $1800 and I have paid $1100. At this point, he has done more work than I''ve paid for, but I feel that his labor should be discounted or I should be able to call the contract void due to his lack of communication and not showing up for the past three weeks. What are my options?
1 ANSWER
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First, you need to read the contract to see what is says about the deadline to complete the work, and what rights you have. If there is no written contract, he has a reasonable time, as determined by a judge, to do the work. If you have not heard from him in a month, you should send him a letter demanding he return to work by a certain day. If he does not return to work by that time, you should send a letter telling him you are terminating the contract. Once you have terminated the agreement, you would need to hire someone else to finish the work, and if the cost to finish is less than $700, the contractor is entitled to the difference, if it is more, he owes you the extra cost. The fact that he is not licensed does not prevent him from being paid for his work, so long as his work was done competently.
Answered on Jul 26th, 2012 at 5:29 PM