UT Reader Asks: What Can You Do If Your Contractor Stops Working?

• May 29th 2013

by Shilpi Paul

In this installment of UrbanTurf Reader Asks, a DC homeowner wonders what to do when his contractor stops coming in to work before the project is finished.

I've hired a general contractor to renovate my one-bedroom condo. The project started out well; it moved along quickly and the quality of work was high. The GC was responsive, offered a lot of his own good ideas, and kept up the momentum. Probably 80 percent of the job was complete within the first couple months.

But now the work has started lagging badly, and the GC is all but unresponsive. I worry the remaining 20 percent could take as long to get done as the first 80 percent -- if at all.

I haven't lost all hope that the project will get back on track, but I worry about what to do if it doesn't.

I haven't paid the full job amount yet, and of course I won't remit the final payment until everything is done. But the outstanding balance may not be enough of a lure, as I know that the GC has other much bigger jobs than mine he's working on contemporaneously.

I was hoping UT readers could offer some suggestions about how to induce the contractor to finish the job in a timely manner.

Should I threaten legal action? Or maybe start with threatening a bad Angie's List or Yelp review?

Readers, what do you think? Post your thoughts in the comments section. If you would like to submit a question for UrbanTurf Reader Asks, send an email to editor2013@urbanturf.com.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/ut_reader_asks_what_can_you_do_if_your_contractor_stops_working/7125.