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My builder breached his contract twice. Now what?

My builder was supposed to have my home completed by 7-1-2020. The contract did provide a "45 day window" so he had wiggle room. House wasn't done on 8-15-2020 either. Agreed to sign a change order to extend his completion to Friday, 9-18-2020 (today). Today came and went and house isn't completed. And I learned today that the G.C. actually scheduled to have an open house at my property on Saturday, 9-26-2020 ..... without asking me. I just want to be done with this guy. He's breach the contract twice now. I don't want him holding an open house. Given the contract is breached, wouldn't he have had to ask me for permission to do this? How do I get him off this job? If I hire a new G.C., do they have to file for a new building permit?

1 reply

Sep 21, 2020

I'm sorry to hear about the troubles you have been having. If you want to terminate a contractor on the terms of breach of contract, contract terminations should generally be executed under the terms of the contract itself. If the contract for work creates guidelines for when a contractor can be terminated and how the termination should be done, you should follow the contract. There are 3 common causes for breach of contract in the construction industry which include: defective performance, schedule and delay issues, and failure to perform. In your case, falling behind on schedule might not be ideal, but it might not be a breach either. The terms of the contract, particularly a "no damages for delay" clause will specify. In addition, you can read more about Construction delay claims. If you want to bring a breach of contract claim you should first check the contract to be sure the contract doesn't require you to bring the dispute up in a particular way. To recover under a breach of contract claim that means filing a lawsuit. Lawsuits are expensive and risky, which may give reasoning as to why you should talk it out before the dispute goes too far. If breach of contract claim is brought, likely you will need to hire a lawyer. A Wisconsin construction attorney can look at your claim and the surrounding circumstances and give you their opinion on the case and offer some legal advice on how to proceed. I hope that helps!

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