Can I sue a contractor for not completing the construction of my house in the time promised? (build, home)

[hcgCali]

My first step is to get all the documents together and present it before someone that knows construction laws.

You need a contract attorney, not a construction(defect) attorney.

No one can really help you without reading the contract. I'm betting you signed the builder's standard preprinted contract which is designed to totally protect him, and most certainly would not contain a "time is of the essence" clause with penalties to his own detriment. It may also have a arbitration/mediation clause.

The statute of limitations to file a contract action in your state is another consideration.

You are hoping to sue on a reliance theory. However, to recover lost profit you must be able to establish losses to a "reasonable certainty." As pointed out above, you would have to prove you actually had a buyer and lost him because of the delay. You cannot recover on merely speculative damages such as comparable home values at the time. What you can recover, assuming you won your case on a reliance theory, is your expenses incurred due to the delay.

Let us know how it goes with the attorney.

[MotleyCrew]

I agree with the above advice regarding hiring an attorney. Your success in a law suit would depend on how your contract was written and if you have a time clause/penalty included. As to whether or not you could have sold the home and made money is pure speculation. Best of luck to you.

[BigJon3475]

Did you ask to change items in the home after they were built to the blue prints?

Or was everything built exactly to the blue prints and you are happy with that?

Very important part of trying to go after someone for time constraints.

So many home buyers want to change things on a custom home then when it takes a lot longer and more $ they begin forgetting that they asked for change orders in the middle of a build. If this is a cookie cutter home sorry....if it's custom it's very important factor.

If you asked for changes you can clearly save yourself some money from trying to hire and attorney and just cut your losses and sell the home. Or are you trying to make someone else pay for the slumping economy?

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by Donn2390

You can sue for anything, but winning, and then collecting, is something else again. The proper way to do a construction contract is to get the time estimate from the contractor, add 10% for unforeseen problems, and then write into the contract a penalty clause for the extra time it takes. A daily penalty usually keeps them right on target. A week or two of penalty will eat up all of their profits.,
Sounds like it's too late to do that in your case, so how much are you planning to sue for? $5k (perhaps more, depending on the state) or less, go to small claims court. Over that amount requires an attorney, and you may get in deeper than the end results merit.

The only problem with putting serious teeth in a delay clause is that you tend to wind up with a lot of cut corners. Moderation is key.

[hkalsi]

We have a contractor who does good work but is excruciatingly slow.

1. He started the project 4 months back
2. The aprox. date for completing was Nov 10th
3. Looking at the state of the project, seems like if will take another 6 months.
4. On an average he works 2 days a week or less
5. We are stuck as we will incur substantial costs if we go with someone else

Is there anyway we can make him do the work faster?

[froglipz]

Completion date in the contract along with what penalties should be spelled out in your contract.

[cargoman]

Originally Posted by ejpabon

Thanks for all your comments. It's obvious that I am not experienced in this field. I am taking into consideration all your advise. My first step is to get all the documents together and present it before someone that knows construction laws.

We had purchased this house with the intent of selling to make a profit. It was to have been $20K. They did complete the house just not in the time frame that had origionally been stipulated. We never wrote a letter to the contractor but we went there to speak to him in person and spoke on the phone that his delays were costing us money.

I will keep you all informed so that maybe it can benefit others in similuar situation.

Thanks for all.

seems like one hell of a headache to go through the entire home building project just to sqeeze out 20k.....if everything went as planned.

[sholomar]

Seems like the norm these days.. construction projects taking twice as long and running double the budget, at least within government. Efficiency is not something people are good at these days.

[johngolf]

Originally Posted by ejpabon

The contractor promised (and we signed) for the house to be built with 4-6 months. They completed over 1 year later. Since then we have paid interested on the construction loan and now after closing because the house never sold we have a 2nd mortage (ARM). If they would have completed the house as promised we would have had time to sell it and made a profit from it. Instead, we are loosing money. Can we sue this construction company for not complying with the contract? Does anyone know?

You speculated, you lost.

[foundapeanut]

Originally Posted by cargoman

seems like one hell of a headache to go through the entire home building project just to sqeeze out 20k.....if everything went as planned.

WOW! 20K only! Does that 'profit' take out for closing costs, agents fees.

No offense but you need to learn how to invest wisely. This deal is very high risk.
Now you have carrying costs till what is your selling season.
You could very well end up losing in this deal. You have to consider things might not go as planned.

What about your old house, can you sell it easier and move into this one?