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How can I NOT HAVE TO allow my contractor the opportunity to correct things, otherwise he is not liable for returning my money?

TexasLawsuitRecovery Options

My contractor was paid for specific projects and have not even started them 7 months later. He was given money to buy my counter top slabs, but not only he didn't buy them, he has been actively lying, to make me believe he has them in his subcontractor shop, about whom he refuses to give me the location of. He has also requested and I paid him money for down payment for fabrication and cut of slabs above mentioned, that he never bought. He has also taken 3.5 months to assemble and install pre-fabricated kitchen cabinets, which should have been a few days worth of labor. On top of that, 11 of the 18 cabinets he installed were installed wrong. He said he made changes in the order but turned out he didn't, and 2 of the cabinets were the wrong size. I have him on tape saying because i blame him for all the problems to his face, he stopped caring to finish the work in my house. Also, after asking him for over a month to give me any invoice or estimate so I could get the appropriate amount of money in a loan increase so to finish construction and him providing me such paperwork in January 2019. He is now, 8 months later giving me invoices from work done since day 1 of construction, he tried to backdate them but I caught it. When I sue him, Am I still obligated by law to let him finish the work if he wants to??? How can I NOT HAVE TO allow my contractor the opportunity to correct things, otherwise he is not liable for returning my money?

1 reply

Aug 19, 2019
Under the Texas Residential Construction Liability Act (RCLA), it appears that a homeowner must give notice to their contractor and provide them the opportunity to cure the alleged issues before a claim arising out of a construction defect can be filed. Otherwise, a claim to recover damages against a Texas contractor based on defective work will generally not be successful. You can learn more about that in this resource from Nowak & Stauch. However, for claims not specifically relating to defective work - like breach of contract claims, potentially - notice is generally not required before suit can be filed, and providing an opportunity to cure might not be necessary.
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