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Paid work in full, not completed

Hi there- I prepaid a contractor $1250 in New Orleans to stain our back deck, and seal the bricks under the deck. He has completed about a third of the work, despite being paid in full in June. At this point, we’d just like the work completed, or receive a partial refund. Is this the kind of work you handle?

1 reply

Dec 14, 2018

I'm sorry to hear about your delay. While this isn't the sort of thing that zlien handles - there are potentially some things an owner might do to compel their contractor to return to the job. For one, if the contractor is licensed, threatening to file a complaint with the Louisiana State Licensing Board might help spark a fire under the contractor. Further, notifying the contractor that, if unfinished, they may face other repercussions such as a small claims suit for the recovery of funds could also help to corral them to finish the work. Indicating that they could instead refund part of the price paid could be another option - though that might be a long shot. Where a contractor has a small amount of unfinished work but refuses to return to the job site - another short term solution might be to hire someone else to finish the work and request reimbursement for the cost of finishing the work from the original contractor who went MIA. While convincing a contractor to willingly return payment might be a long shot, at least the work would be complete and there would be a set amount of recoverable funds if the decision is made to seek a formal method of recovering payment (such as small claims court or a lawsuit).

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