would you withhold payment?

[gator75]

Ok so here the story goes. I had posted last week about us redoing our kitchen and how they hd kept us waiting for 6 months with no kitchen. Well they finally came this week and things look nice but don't mesh lets say. For example they put in 3 drawers right off our stove and we go to open the 2nd drawer and low and behold the drawer hits the stove , so i ask the installer about it and he says there is nothing he can do and that he told the owner of the cabinet company , ok so that does me no good

Then the 2nd thing was our floor. We had not intended on repklacing our flooring it isn't that old for heavens sakes and what happens they measured the cabinets wrong and so the subfloor is showing and ther is a 6 inch gap between the cabinets and our flooring. They say they have a flooring guy comming i hope so and i'm not paying for that. also they measured our dishwasher and they say that thopening is big enough but dh and myseld don't agree. won;t know for sure until plumber comes this afternoon.

So question is would you withhold payment until these things are corerected? what do you think. I have taken pictures of all the wrong and am prepared to do battle if i have to.

 

[dngnb8]

So question is would you withhold payment until these things are corerected? what do you think. I have taken pictures of all the wrong and am prepared to do battle if i have to.

Yes

And if they are licensed, follow up with complaints if they harass you. File BBB reports etc

I hate contractors.

 

[Bonnie40]

Absolutely! Paying them in full is essentially saying your happy with the work. There is no way I would be happy with what they've done. A reputable cabinet company would not have make the mistakes you mentioned....

 

[ols386]

Yes, I would withold payment until they make it right.

 

[shortbun]

Yep, no payment until the job is done and satisfactory.

 

[princessnoelly]

Yes. 20% to 40% until the contract is complete.

 

[dawson5]

Ok so here the story goes. I had posted last week about us redoing our kitchen and how they hd kept us waiting for 6 months with no kitchen. Well they finally came this week and things look nice but don't mesh lets say. For example they put in 3 drawers right off our stove and we go to open the 2nd drawer and low and behold the drawer hits the stove , so i ask the installer about it and he says there is nothing he can do and that he told the owner of the cabinet company , ok so that does me no good

Then the 2nd thing was our floor. We had not intended on repklacing our flooring it isn't that old for heavens sakes and what happens they measured the cabinets wrong and so the subfloor is showing and ther is a 6 inch gap between the cabinets and our flooring. They say they have a flooring guy comming i hope so and i'm not paying for that. also they measured our dishwasher and they say that thopening is big enough but dh and myseld don't agree. won;t know for sure until plumber comes this afternoon.

So question is would you withhold payment until these things are corerected? what do you think. I have taken pictures of all the wrong and am prepared to do battle if i have to.

We with-held the final $3K payment to our housing contractor because of unfinished and damaged items--totaled more than the final payment. He never came back until we put the house on the market. He then changed two handles (casement windows, from contractor handle to finished handle), took 5 minutes and that revived the status. I think they have up to two years to finish, we put the house in the market after 2.5 years. Just read up on contractor liens, so you do everything by the book and document everything to protect yourself.

 

[DisneyChula]

Definitely withhold payment. Like a PP said, once you pay in full they will deem it as you were satisfied with the job and how they responded to the remaining issues. If you pay them the final payment without your issues being taken care of, then you will (most likely) never see them again!

 

[lizabu]

Agreed...don't pay until you're satisfied. Once you pay you will never see them again.

 

[ZuZugal]

What will your leverage be if you pay them in full?

And as a PP said, document everything...dates, names, pictures, etc.

 

[Coach K]

I would put the money you owe them in an escrow account. That way they their lawyer cannot come back at you for non-payment. This shows that you have the money but there are concerns that you have about the job that needs correcting and that the money will not be released until the corrections are done.

 

[gator75]

Thanks everyone I knew the answer but wanted to see what others would say. We are going around tonight and documenting what isn't done. One of the things that made me the maddest is that they turned our double sided fridge and put the fridge in a cabinet they didn't ask me about this, so now when you open the fridge it hits up against the inside grage door so they will be changing that back.

I like the escrow acc idea does anyone know how i set one up our house is paid for so we dont have to pay into it.