I hired a general contractor to remodel my house. My house is in
Seattle area (Washington State). The remodeling charges based on time
and material, with some parts being done by fixed bid from
subcontractors. I am having disputes with the general contractor, and
I am looking for advices on how to handle the disputes and protect
myself:
1) Are there any dispute specialists/agency (e.g. attorneys,
government agency, etc.) I can go to for help or to complain? Where to
find them (in Seattle/Bellevue/Kirkland area in Washington State)?
2) any other hints on how to handle the disputes.
3) How to verify whether what the general contractor said to me are
reasonable and true?

The project is still going on right now. Initially, the contractor
gave us the time and cost estimation. Now, even though we didn't
change much from our original remodeling ideas and scopes, and the
project hasn't even finished yet, it's already taking much longer time
and much more money than the original estimation. We discussed our
concerns (timeline and cost) with the contractor several times. We are
having disputes. Basically, we think that:
1) We were mis-led by his original estimation on the time and cost
when he took on the job. Originally he estimated 2 - 3 months and now
it's already 4 months and will need at least another month. We told
him at the very beginning that we were time sensitive. Also, we've
already paid 140% what he originally estimated.
2) He took too much time on some of the work - which both increased
the cost (as I pay every hour he works on the project) and affected the timeline.

Right now, I want to be able to finish the remodeling quickly with
quality. And I am wondering whether what he charged me in the past was
reasonable and (if not) whether I could get back some of the
overcharge.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 21 Mar 2006 10:02 PST

Do you have a written contract with these folks?

If so, can you give us a brief rundown of what it says?

Thanks....and good luck,

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by mountain2006-ga on 21 Mar 2006 14:51 PST

Regarding contract, I have a written contract with the general contractor.
The contract includes:
1) The definition of the scope of project, and budget estimation and
work summary for various parts of the project.
2) One section on "Delay in completion": it just says that the
contractor "agrees to pursue work diligently through to completion.
Reasonable allowances shall be added to the agreed time for starting
and/or completion for the time during which XXX is delayed in said
work due to inability of XXXX or home owner to ....". It doesn't
specifiy any kind of penality or things like that if the project is
dragging too long.
Though in one of our emails to the contractor, we did specify a date
when the project should finish. The contractor agreed with the date at
the time. Now more than one month passed the deadline, the project is
still going on (and need probably at least another month to finish).
3) Billing policy, and other sections on deposit, work safety, etc.

If you are paying by the hour, doesn't it make sense that the
contractor would make it take as many hours as possible to earn as
much money as possible? Did you not have any guidelines or limits put
in the contract?

Unfortunately, as I was inexperienced at the time, the contract didn't
have any limits set. Though at the very beginning, we told him we had
a tight timeline and needed the project to finish as soon as possible.
In one email we wrote to him before the project started, we explicitly
mentioned 1/15/2006 and he didn't raise big concern of the timeline.
But we don't have any terms in the contract about it.

As to 1/15/2006, there is one variant: the delivery date of kitchen
cabinetry was unknown. As he told us (orally) before, it only took a
couple of weeks to finish after kitchen cabinetry was delivered.
The kitchen cabinetry was available for delivery on early Feb.However,
it's almost the end of March already. According to current progress,
it will take at least another 3 weeks to finish. So instead of 2 weeks
after kitchen cabinetry delivered, it will take 2 months.

We takled to him multiple times about the progress. Now we think he
doesn't really respond to our request well (as you said, the longer he
works on it, the more money he will get).
Thus we feel we need to seek other ways to deal with him (e.g.
attorney, some specialized agency).