I am an interior/ exterior painter whom was denied access to finish exterior painting work as agreed in upcoming spring season without just cause.. What recourse do i have?
1 reply
Feb 24, 2020
Generally, a customer can't sign a contract then unilaterally decide not to proceed without that contract. If a termination for convenience provision was present in the agreement, then the customer may be able to get out of the contract relatively easily. But, even then, that'd require a termination and not just blocking a contractor or sub from accessing the site.
Generally, a claimant can pursue a breach of contract claim if they've been wrongfully terminated or otherwise kept from performing the work under their contract. Before pursuing legal claims, though, it might be helpful to send a formal demand to the customer requesting access to the site to perform the work. Alternatively (or additionally) a contractor might make some headway by demanding payment for the future work that would've been done under the contract. Further, requesting written correspondence about your status on the project could help provide some clarity about how to move forward, too.
In addition to the above, if the work previously done wasn't fully paid, there should generally be some options for recovering payment - like sending a Notice of Intent to Lien or actually proceeding with a mechanics lien filing.