[Laurifer]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible.

My parents hired a guy to dry wall their house for a total of $5500. He ended up taking 4 months to do a job that should have taken a week. My parents didn't object to this because he was somewhat of a friend to our family. Before completing the final room, he left the job and said he wanted more money. He had been paid $4500 up to that point.

He is now suing my parents for an additional $18,000 for additional work he claimed he did (which is not at all true) and says he has video recordings of the work he did. We have since confirmed that he is basically a pathological liar and would most definitely lie in court. He has vastly exaggerated the work he has done, such as explaining the construction of 4 cubbies in a wall to "the construction of 4 additional rooms."

There was never a written contract for any of this work since he was a family acquaintance. The only "evidence" he has is a diary orchestrated to vilify my parents (he sent a copy to them along with the threat of legal action) and the apparent video recordings. In his diary he confirms that the verbal contract was $5500, even though he now wants a shit load more.

I'm just wondering how much of a case does he have against my parents? They're very concerned about this and I'd like to be able to give them some advice that might calm them down.

My parents have photos of his faulty, sub par work and quotes from other dry wall contractors that are within a normal range of pricing, nowhere near $18000 CAD, to present in court.

Thanks!

[Dr. Howard]

I don't have legal advice, but wonder why Canada seems live a haven for shitty and shady construction contractors? I have friends and family with equally insane stories as well as Mike Holmes/Holmes on Holmes filming his show in the toronto area.

[Laurifer]

(06-21-2015 01:42 PM)Dr. Howard Wrote:  

I don't have legal advice, but wonder why Canada seems live a haven for shitty and shady construction contractors? I have friends and family with equally insane stories as well as Mike Holmes/Holmes on Holmes filming his show in the toronto area.

Yeah, actually everyone I've told this about has some kind of story relating to a bad experience with contractors up here. I think its because its somewhat of an easy industry to get into and you make cash fast, and when things fuck up the dirt bags can take off and be hard to track down.

[Northwest]

I don't have legal advice either, but;

My family had a very similar story with a contractor, and I'd definitely agree its because its such an easy industry to get into here. Perhaps the popularity of HGTV adds to this.

Assuming you can afford it, I'd recommend a good lawyer. I know in our case we ended up doing a mediation and having to pay the contractor a small portion of what he claimed my parents owed him. In our case the contractor had forged documents such as invoices and estimates. By the sounds of it the evidence your guy has submitted is hand written? This may add to the weakness of his case.

[Menace]

Not a Canadian lawyer, so this is not legal advice. I would recommend for your parents to hire a reputable contractor to go over the construction and workmanship and document everything in writing. Get proper estimate of what the work that was done should have cost. Should not be too expensive to do this. Then, I'd call the guy's bluff and tell him to file suit. Tell him you will counterclaim for poor workmanship (or something similar).

This is another reason why you should never 1) hire family friends to do anything major, 2) rely on verbal agreements for complex construction projects.

[lavidaloca]

I practice in Ontario. But as a disclaimer this isn't legal advice. I second Menace's advice. Some of the keys if it continues beyond the demand letter phase and a claim is filed:

1) Quotes
2) Someone in the field who can explain what was faulty, how it can be fixed, the cost of fixing it
3) Contemporaneous notes - If they exist can be useful

In law there are 3 things I like to consider when judging the strength of my case:

1) Facts
2) Emotions
3) Law

Believe it or not often the facts and emotions are the ones that dictate what the judge decides. On almost any case that makes it to trial there is law that can be used to support both sides case.

It's rare for someone to be able to lie in court on major issues and not be caught on it or lose credibility in my experience. Judges typically have a good read of people plus their evidence ends up at some point being incongruent. It's much more difficult then you'd think to lie in court or on documents. There is almost always a slip up or mistake that takes away their credibility.

All hes done is send a demand letter by the sounds of it. These cases are frequently tried in small claims court. The judge has heard the same story before.

[Merenguero]

Does Canada or whatever province this happened have any requirement that home improvement contractors be licensed? If so, was this guy properly licensed? If not, your parents may want the local consumer affairs office and file a complaint. This may be a way to keep this guy from further making threats to sue. Where I am in the U.S., acting as a home improvement contractor without a license is a criminal offense and unlicensed contractors cannot recover anything from a homeowner. If the license thing is a non issue and this guy never sues, problem solved. If they are sued, they may be able to file a Counter Claim for breach of contract due to this guy's failure to comply with the (verbal) contract. Tell them that in the future, to put everything in writing. I think a judge would have a problem with both sides due to the contract never have been reduced to writing.

[Laurifer]

Thanks for the replies guys. I've told my mother what you all have mentioned.

They have had other contracters provide quotes and time lengths for their work if they were to do the same job, which my parents will present in court.

The guy comes off as a crazy nut so I hope that serves as an advantage to my parents. He also confirms in his own diary that the agreed amount was $5500 so I hope it makes it a cut and dry proceeding.

Edit: Also he claims to be a "master tradesman" but has no GST number or any sort of licence for any of the work he does. Not sure if that is needed in Alberta. Can this be used against him?

[CodyB]

(06-21-2015 01:42 PM)Dr. Howard Wrote:  

I don't have legal advice, but wonder why Canada seems live a haven for shitty and shady construction contractors? I have friends and family with equally insane stories as well as Mike Holmes/Holmes on Holmes filming his show in the toronto area.

Because people don't like to do paper work.

Happens in Australia too. Tradespeople will give you a discount (around 10%) to do the job off the books.

This does my fucking head in, as I own a SME and everything is done above board here. We had a guy come in to do painting and he didn't even have a damn bank account. I had to give him $2,200 in cash, I basically had to twist the pricks arm for a receipt. Surprise, the dude didn't have a registered business number or tax number.

It's important that there is always a paper trail. Not just for ludicrous cases like OP's but also insurance and tax returns. As an estimate, I'd say about 25% of my expenses go to labourers like builders, painters, cleaners Etc. It fucks up your tax and insurance if you need to claim it.

Paper trail people.