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What does the law say about time penalties?

I have a tile contractor who was hired to install tile in my clients home. Should have taken at the most two weeks. The job took over two months. He would tell me he was on the job, I would tell the client he was there based on his word, and he never showed. This happened at least 4 times. It eroded my relationship with the customer. I had another phase of the job that was already invoiced and I lost that portion because of the lies the sub told about doing the work. He also had a sub that went to the owner and builder before work was completed and caused such problems claiming non payment, the job had not been invoiced yet, and caused me to be asked to not come back to inspect the work. This was a new builder I was working with. I lost the 15K in the wood portion of the job and any potential work going forward due to this installer. He also continuously lost product which had to be reordered. On top of this a police report had to be filled because he sent an obscene picture. What are my rights?

1 reply

Jan 20, 2020

When construction disputes reach a level where significant income is lost, and when that dispute isn't merely over something like nonpayment from the customer, it might be wise to consult a local construction attorney. While there are clear recovery methods for nonpayment - like leveraging or pursuing lien rights - the recovery tools available for complex issues like the one above may require an attorney to sort things out. Generally, though, one of the first steps toward sorting things out will be to withhold payment from a non-performing subcontractor until the dispute can be sorted out. Further, legal claims against them could be available - like breach of contract, lost profits, and potentially some other contract claims depending on the terms of the agreement. The viability of those claims may well hinge on how well it can be established that their work was unacceptable and improperly delayed. Further, if their behavior was truly out of line, there could be some civil or criminal claims on the table based on that behavior as well. Unfortunately, though, potential claims would be highly dependent on the situation as well as the project documentation. So, to best understand what claims make the most sense here, it'd be wise to consult a local construction attorney - such as one of these Texas Construction Payment Experts - to see what recovery tools may be on the table.

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