Home Renovations...The Nightmare on YOUR Street!

OK. So you have hired a contractor to start your home renovation project. In short

order he starts asking for more money for things he did not figure and which you did not tell him.

That's just the beginning..The job slows down because some of the subcontractors or workmen just don't show up. Those who do show up park on your lawn, throw trash in your yard and don't pick up anything before they leave for home. The site and the house is a mess and getting worse. The ones who do show up trash your kitchen and bathroom, throw cigarette butts everywhere, play their radios at full volume all day with "music" you cannot stand at any decibel level, spend a good percentage of their time on cell phones and more. You try to bring these concerns up to the contractor but he is tied up on another job and has left the real work to the subcontractors with little or no supervision. They all just come and go as they please. The project may never, ever get finished..You check your copy of the contract and there is no specific commitment for a completion date. If there happens to be one (very unusual on a contractor drafted agreement) there is no indication of any penalty or incentive for adhering to that completion date. In the meantime you are paying interest on a construction loan and are at his mercy.

Materials suppliers file liens on your property because they have not been paid even though you have paid the contractor for the items delivered. Subcontractors start not showing up because the contractor is behind in paying them. They will start filing liens also.

By the time you realize what is happening it's too late to do much about it to help yourself. Odds are that the pressure is having a detrimental effect on your domestic bliss and perhaps your own job performance at work.

If only you had been told about the potential (and unfortunately very common) pitfalls before you started. If only you had been exposed to knowledge acquired by others who have been there' and been given tools and information with which to handle the situation and prevent this disaster.

It's interesting that in these situations it's your house, your money and yet you end up having absolutely no control over any of it, including the quality of the finished product (if it does get finished.)

Perhaps the real "Nightmare on Elm Street" is not supernatural monsters but rather an innocent homeowner being driven to near financial and emotional breakdown by a residential contractor.

Home Renovations...The Nightmare on YOUR Street!

By: Hal Herndon

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