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Covid 19 job shut down by management/association

I was on seminar and we actually have a high rise condo in Chicago combining two units that we have our contract like 45% completed and due to the states shut down the buildings management and association will not allow us back. We have 3-4 days work to collect large payout and due to not working the last 4?5 weeks have had all of both units materials come in and have had to pay for them. Now we may have storage fees/charges next week and the units cabinets hit town next week too. What can we do?

1 reply

May 7, 2020

If you're struggling to float the costs of labor or materials, suffering in silence won't help. Discussing the matter with your customer and hashing out a stop-gap solution could work. Or, sending an invoice for the work that's actually been done might be an option. Even if payment is being requested outside of the normal invoicing schedule for the job, a customer might be more flexible if they know that their refusal to pay will create significant issues on their job. What's more, if friendly approaches won't work, then threatening to file a mechanics lien could force them to work with you.

Handling the storage of construction materials with a customer

It's pretty common for construction contracts to allow certain costs to be passed along to the customer. So, even if those weren't anticipated costs in your contract, there may be other language in the agreement that allows you to pass those costs on to the customer. Before taking any action one way or the other, it'd be wise to talk things through with the customer. They may volunteer a solution to the problem. Or, asking that they cover or split the cost of storage might be another option. Finally, while it's usually a better idea to try and talk things through, simply presenting the customer with the storage bill and requesting payment might work too. If the customer is insistent on not paying the storage, then requesting that they store materials on site - like in their parking lot/garage, in the unit(s) being worked on, or in some other storage area might be a good alternative.

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