Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>I'm a specialty Insulation contractor. I recently completed a labor only project, we accepted more than 10% down per customer request but now he doesn't want to pay the balance. How do we stand in in case? work is 100% complete with pictures
I'm a specialty Insulation contractor. I recently completed a labor only project, we accepted more than 10% down per customer request but now he doesn't want to pay the balance. How do we stand in in case? work is 100% complete with pictures
phase 1
down payment= $1,000.00
phase 1 =$1,000.00
total paid $2,000.00
phase 2 =$1,750.00
not paid, but completed
total cost $3,750.00
1 reply
Aug 1, 2018
Provided you are licensed to the extent required by California, there may be multiple avenues toward recovery. First for this amount, you could proceed in small claims court - this generally enables a more streamlined and cheaper recovery process than filing suit in "regular" court for a breach of the contract.
Additionally, a mechanics lien may be appropriate. In CA parties who contract directly with the property owner only need to send preliminary notice when there is a construction lender on the project, and wage laborers are not required to send preliminary notice. A mechanics lien can then be filed against the property within 90 days from completion of the work as a whole (or 60 days from the date the property owner filed a notice of completion or cessation).
Additionally, there is always the route of just filing a full-blown lawsuit in regular court for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, failure to comply with prompt payment statutes, etc.