Contractor Responsibility

[barncat]

Don't you think it's a no brainer that a contractor is responsible for any damage they do to a property while doing work. For example my situation is we had a contractor remove some trees and do some grading in our yard. We have a stone driveway. The contractor graded the portion of my driveway that did not have a car parked on it while grading the yard, hence removing stone and leaving lovely grading lines in my driveway. I now have mud where they graded the driveway. I want it fixed, which I don't think is too much to ask, the contractor can fix it cheaper then I can hire someone so it makes sense to me for him to fix it. The contractor said he will look at it and discuss so he doesn't have a disgruntled customer. There's also other issues with the work, but I have asked for an explanation and they said they will provide this weekend by walking their measurement of the cleared area (they are claiming an acre was cleared but we measured a half acre = $4,000 difference in price).

From my experience it's easier to have someone else do the work, but next time I will take some time off work so I can actually supervise the work. We found out that a large portion of the land we couldn't clear because the county declared it wet lands. Unfortunately the contractor did not think this would make any difference to us and never called to let us know and continued work. Once I found out by calling the contractor myself and asking the status of the work, I put a stop to all work so I could see the size of the land we could not clear to make sure I still wanted them to proceed. They had already done $1,500 worth of work so I decided to continue even though if I had been contacted immediately after the county's decision I wouldn't have cleared anything. This has been an unpleasant 2.5 month process that I just want to end.

 

[huntr1]

Yes, contractor should fix what they screwed up. Don't pay them until it's to your satisfaction. You do have a contract, right?

 

[barncat]

Yes, contractor should fix what they screwed up. Don't pay them until it's to your satisfaction. You do have a contract, right?

Yes we had a contract, even though we did a verbal modification of the contract over the phone and they performed work that we had verbally agreed they would not do. I still owe the remainding balance which needs to be discussed since the area cleared is less than the contract amount and the driveway issue.

It's a big mess and I think it will become more unpleasant trying to work out an agreement with them that we are all satisfied with.

 

[GWguy]

Depends.... I had some guys come in to drop trees, and in the contract it specifically said "not responsible for property or lawn damage".

If you signed a contract, check for the fine print....

 

[river rat]

I am NOT defending the contractor, worker's should be careful at residences.

However, having said that, the contractor probably is not responsible and here is why:

In most contracts there will be fine print stating they are not responsible for any damages to driveways, curbs, landscaping, etc.

Reason is.......too many people have gotten repairs that was NOT damaged by the contractor, so the contractor is forced to print this clause. Now, most contractors use this to their advantage. If he is a decent contractor, the repairs will be fixed.

It is obvious to you that he did the damage, but, how many times do you think people have demanded repair and it wasn't even a contractor fault in the first place.

Bottom line, unless you have proof of what your driveway looked like before they started, he prolly will not repair it.

If he does repair it. He is a good contractor and worthy of a referral.