Update. My house with the explosion and the builder

[MsDisney23]

Well it never seems to end. I did finish the house on Saturday. The builder did get my bill for the $5000.00. He called me today and got very nasty and rude with me and outright told me that he is not going to pay me. That I was treating him unfair, my price was unreasonable! He was pissed off because I went to see the City builder officer today. The city officer has helped me out alot on this mess. Bottom line builder was going to screw us out of fixing our basement. I held his feet to the ground on it, and Kaboom, concrete dust throughout the whole house.

On the phone one day the building officer whisper in my ear, that my builder was involved in a conterfiting bust, turns out he was the one printing the money. So I checked all of this out, and long and behold it was true. Now years have past and the guy seems to being doing real good, But he decide's to screw us instead of taking responsibility to fix the problem (his old ways came back) Now we are the first one to have a major water problem out of the 200 homes he has built. Go figure it had to be us.

Now today he accuse's me of trashing him to the City officer. Not true! He told me that I could contact my lawyer, that I can not get blood from a stone and he is not going to pay me! He tells me that he did compensate us for doing the work. Hello, he had to fix the problem as we where still within our one year. He then told me that he has fulfilled his obligation to the home warranty.

He then tells me that every time he talks to me, he is getting sick, that I am riding his ***. Well hello. I have only spoke to him one time in Aoril. Not one time did he offer me the money, so I send him a bill.

Bottom line is this, if he was going to screw us on fixing the basement, sure he is going to screw me on my bill.

He then ask me what I wanted from him. He said the grade work needs to be completed, the punch list and he said it would be worth it to him to pay me the $5,000.00 if he knew he would never have to hear from me again. I said no problem. Now he said he would call me tomorrow that he needed to sleep on it. I told him to sleep on it for 2 nights if he needs to.

What to do, he knows that I know about his past. I could care less and told him so in so many words. Now if I get my lawyer to take this to court, I will not get that much, but the lawyer will get alot. What to do. wonder what the builder say and do. What should I do. I am upset with all of this.

 

[annemariec]

How awful to go through this mess! I'm sure you are upset. Document everything, with dates.

Is he willing to do the grade work, the punch list and pay the $5,000? Or does he want to forgo the grade work and punch list and only pay you for the damage so that he will never hear from you again? (It seems like it's the latter.) Is that what he wants to sleep on?

It sounds like a sticky wicket. Knowing the character of the person you are dealing with it wouldn't be a bad idea to get a third party involved.

You may want to consider a mediator rather than a lawyer. The terms you work out between the two of you and a mediator would be legally binding and it would cost you a whole lot less than a lawyer.

Good luck!
Annemarie

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

Make sure that the ink is dry on the money if he decides to pay you!

 

[Lucky4me]

It sounds like you called his bluff and he's going to pay up. I'd take him up on the offer of never talking to or seeing him again. The guy sounds scary.

 

[jipsy]

You know I've been following your story for quite some time now, and I just don't understand some things:

On March 27th you said:

I am almost finished, I have one room left to do and then I have to wash, iron and hang all of my curtains. Builder is having my heating/aircond. system, carpets professional cleaned on Tuesday.

I have spend hours in each room, everything had to be cleaned, washed, oh what a mess. I am wondering what to charge the builder for my cleaning. I was thinking of $1,000.00 I have well over a 100 hours of hard labor put into this cleaning, plus all the cleaning supplies that I had to purchases, and this not include all the curtains that I have yet to launder, iron and hang. My doing my own curtains I am saving him a ton right there. Would you say that $10.00 an hour is a good price.

Now for the bright side of things, I will have one of the cleanest houses in my area. My basement was also just powerwashed! I am so tired, this has been a terrible thing that happen, but in the end all worked out fine.

Then later on the same day you said:

I am almost done, Yahoo, one room to go and it is my laundry room, I am so tired, dh is going to get me a bowl of ice cream and I am off to sleep.

Forgot to tell you, that builder is also getting DH a load of top soil, not sure what that is worth, but the more I cleaned today, the higher the price........ lol.

I can tell you that a load of top soil can be worth alot of money depending on where you live, FWIW. You could easily find out by calling around locally how much that was worth.

THEN, on April 23rd all of a sudden you post that you are still cleaning? And suddenly your bill has multiplied by 5:

Update, Remember my new home with the explosion
and the massive clean up. This happen on March 18th. so almost one month now, and guess what I am still cleaning. I have had to take everything, I mean everything in this house and wash it.

and on April 24th you said:

Today as I type, I have my washer/dryer going, I have to wash every piece of clothing inside of my walk in closet. Everything in there is also covered with dust! I have yet to get into the basement.

I am here again, as you stated back in March that you had already cleaned everything and that your basement had been powerwashed then?

Then here on May 1st you said you are cleaning again, but this time just a spring cleaning, but you are washing your clothes once again?

Cleaning out my bedroom draws today
I do this every Spring and Fall. time to get rid of things that I no longer wear. Plus the draw's always look so nice afterwards. I take everything out clean the draw's and what I want I goes into the washer. I donate the rest. Was wondering how many of you are also doing this job?

and now on May 3rd you say:

I did finish the house on Saturday.

I do empathize with you and I am sure it is a terrible thing to go through. However, if I was the builder and was facing these inconsistencies, plus I had already given you a load of top soil plus professionally cleaned your carpets and heating and air conditioning, I don't think I'd be willing to pay you $5,000 either.

 

[C.Ann]

If you're willing to take less, you could probably take him to small claims court - although I've heard you seldom see the money anyhow..

Whatever you do, I would NOT sign anything that releases him from further problems that may occur..

 

[dumboiu]

Just wondering if MsDisney23 ever answered jipsy's questions.