How to deal with a contractor?

[chanty]

A house flipper bought the house next door to us before we moved in and it was torn down and is now well into contruction of the new house. His laborers have been totally obtrusive. They've ruined the corner of the lawn, broken a window, were connected to our a/c for a couple of days without our knowledge, had a tarp covering our chimney where our carbon monoxide vents, I could go on. At some point recently they leaned a bunch of stuff against our house. I noticed it this morning and called (no answer, no answering service) so I texted him and sent him photos. Nothing was done about it and now I sit at home,it's 10:30pm, there's a windstorm happening and all the shits blowing around and banging. I texted him again to let him know and no response. I then texted him that I was calling an inspector in the morning to check it out. He's texted me back telling me that I'm aggressive and to stop sending him threatening texts. He also said that he would come in the morning and move it. I said it was my right to call an inspector on a construction company if my property is being abused and to manage his project properly and we wouldn't have these problems. He's impossible!!! Thankfully I've photgraphed every angle from the day we moved in and the construction process. Should I just call an inspector everytime there's a problem or what? This is the first time I've texted him about an issue, but I felt it was important to move these construction items off of the house asap because of the windstorm. There was no one at the site today for me to speak to ask them to move it. 61kmh winds tonight!

[poults]

Re: How to deal with a contractor?

I would call the inspector and get it sorted properly, he clearly isn't taking you seriously and sounds like a right cowboy with the ac and covering the chimney up and with the other damage aswell.

[Illuminate]

Re: How to deal with a contractor?

Chanty that's intrusion on to your property of the highest degree. They cannot just come in without consent and block up chimneys etc. To keep it short and simple, some options I would think about immediately:

1. Depending on how angry you are and if you are willing to spend money you can sue for damages. This requires hiring a lawyer, going to court, etc. But for the potful decision, this could be the one that pays off the most. Firstly, keep taking photographs and even record video of their shoddy work. Do make sure to record date and time on everything - photos, videos, etc.

Check up on the other neighbours on the other side, and see if they've had similar problems If so maybe you guys can all fight the case together and hopefully split up on the legal fees.You can also use your neighbours as witness'.

What the builders have done is completely against the law, assuming Canada follows the common law system they have trespassed without consent and unjustly enriched from your AC, and using your land as a storage site. This is not right. Again depending if you're willing to go by the courts then that is your best option.

2. I'm really unsure how council systems are set up there in Canada, but the first thing I would do tomorrow is to call the local council, or your city mayor etc. and notify about this. (I hope) They can charge the builders for their bogus work. They will immediately contact the contractor and depending on how bad the damages are, pay for broken items in your property.

3. Directly contact the inspector and again do not worry about the builder. see how he would like it people came and blocked his chimneys. The longer you leave it, the greater he may damage your house.
Question is the inspectors are they independent or part of the local council? If they are independent, they could take a while to process things, and may not have many rights.

To finish up. Do one of the things immediately,
Keep taking photos even of the slightest hair line of cracks,
Don't worry if he's threatening in any way, fight his ego with yours, because at he end of the day it's your house!
More importantly, is your house covered by insurance? Some policies may not claim wind storms as it is an act of god. So, if the damage caused by the builder has further damaged your own house by the wind storm, make sure that this is recorded. As you may loose out from your policy.

Well good luck Chanty and let us know on your progress.
Also, pm me if you need any further help or questions, always happy to help.

[Jenks]

Re: How to deal with a contractor?

If he's doing that kind of shady stuff already, i'll bet he's missing a ton of permits on his property to do the work he's doing. Call the inspsector ASAP, i'll bet you can get him shut down pretty quickly, then call an attorney.

[Garrick]

Re: How to deal with a contractor?

no need to elaborate on the good advice already... but good luck chanty! i hope everything works out.

the same kind of stuff to a lesser degree happened to me (my water for my sprinklers was turned off unbeknownst to me for a couple weeks and it killed my grass and a couple plants, they littered in my yard constantly), but the builder was the same one that built my house so they fixed everything quickly when i brought it to their attention.

[chanty]

Re: How to deal with a contractor?

Thanks for the advice...it's much appreciated. I am diligently photographing everything and writing down conversations. He has moved everything off our property and away from the house today. I will be calling a city number (311) that deals with bylaws and permits to file a complaint and hopefully have someone come and have a look at his shady project. The time his tarp was covering our chimney, we had to call the 311 number and they recommended we call the fire department immediately. The contractor also had open flame torches (salamanders?) in there to keep the mortar warm with ripped tarp blowing precariously close to the flame. The fire department showed up said none of it was safe and shut off both torches and tied off the tarp that was covering our chimney. An inspector came the next morning and ordered him to take down his illegal scafolding. So there is an inspector on the case and a complaint filed.

[Garrick]

Re: How to deal with a contractor?

^ awesome. didn't take long for his project to go bye-bye.

hopefully now he knows YOU MEAN BUSINESS! lol.

[chanty]

Re: How to deal with a contractor?

^ The tarp ordeal happened about 2 weeks ago. Apparently that didn't make him realize he can't screw us around. Like I said, he's removed everything off of our property and far, far away from the house. I will be calling the city again to report what's happened and hopefully have a solid file with them incase Rambod gets out of control. Yes...that's his name. I've had tons of fun with it!

[Illuminate]

Re: How to deal with a contractor?

Well done Chanty. Good to hear he's going down.