How to Deal with a Difficult Home Builder

This is one of those universal problems that anyone, anywhere can go through. A contractor who tries to grab every penny from you by doing the job you desperately need done, at their own pace.

Good or bad builders, they always come with an obstacle you must hurdle over, but there are a few ways you can deal with a difficult home builder by employing a few of these tactics.

Steps

Make a promise to yourself to resolve every problem. Every issue that arises needs to be solved, from the beginning make it clear to your builder that you are someone of honesty and communication. if you don’t communicate, it’ll cost you more and slow down the build.

Before work starts, call a meeting with your contractor(s). Bring you friends, father, uncles etc for back up and advice, and to show you have experienced advisors.

Have all your concerns in writing. Create a date and addressed stamped paper with a header ‘Concerns regarding this project’ (whatever the case may be).

Use subheadings to make it clear and leave a space at the bottom for signatures from everyone who attended your meeting including the head of the build.

Be calm but show how important your concerns are. Discuss each task until your builder commits to fix all the issues. Put their recommendations in writing and ask for a completion date.

Setup your meetings. Agree to the next meeting and have your builder sign the document you prepared with this date. Keep a copy and give him a copy. Be sure that everyone at this meeting attends the next one and the problems are addressed.

Keep good records of everything that goes on. This will be part of your defense if anything happens, whether you sue or get sued etc. Be prepared, expect the worst but hope for the best, and you’ll never be surprised when something unplanned occurs.

Tips

Although you’ll want everything to be perfect, choose your battles wisely. If you have the money, you can ask a builder to redo the job but learn to choose your battles wisely. You can get the most important jobs done and always get another contractor to finish off the little jobs you want perfecting.

Don’t hesitate to invite others to your meeting. It will send the right message to the builder(s) and make him/them more accountable for the work.

When putting all the issues you want resolved in writing, ask the builder for the specific terminology so everything is clear in their language so to avoid any misunderstanding.

Hold meetings to run down the scheduled agreement to see what has been completed and the deadlines for works to be finished.

Be sure to let your builder know that you can provide what he needs within reason. Create a team atmosphere and you’ll get allot more accomplished in a shorter span of time.

Advice

Be ready for your builder to show up late to meetings or work but be a good boss and be reasonable. If the builder does a good job, you can have a some leeway and treat them like people instead of mules especially if family matters are the reason for their tardiness.

Also, don’t be afraid to walk away from the deal if you don’t feel you trust or find the builder very uncooperative. Go to their superior or ask your builder to buy you out and step back from the deal.

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