Homeowner Suing Me

Mike Finley

I was doing a bathroom remodel and the homeowner wanted me to save the sinks in the vanity to reuse in the new vanity. So while removing them, I cut the caulk around the edges on top and loosened the clamps underneath, disconnected the plumbing, I discovered that they weren't budging. I tried to gently push them from the bottom to no effect. Only thing left to do was try to gently pry them up. Big mistake ancient porcelain and metal cats paws don't mix, chips and finally big cracks!

Showed them to customer and she freaks totally out, swearing a blue streak about stupid ass contractors and how they always end up not doing what they say. I'm standing there with her sink in 2 pieces in my hands not knowing what to do. Husband comes in and tries to consol the wife, gives me the stare of death and says I better just get the f out and forget about seeing any money, they aren't paying me a cent because of the damage I caused to her antique porcelain sinks and they will hire another contractor to come and finish the job, that if I don't like too bad, they are going to sue me for the deposit and any money paid because of incompetence.

Now I'm out $2500 plus all my lost time, lost a good potential customer and waiting to get served a summons, all over a freaken old sink!

Mike Finley

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Actually just made all that up. I actually have a customer that wants me to try and save a few fixtures and reuse them, got me thinking about what could happen in a worst case scenario in regard to trying to save something. The customer thinks its just a matter of unhook, and set aside, the item will be in perfect condition and look brand new once set in place in their new whatever.

In reality I know that this is embarking on the unknown. Just using the sink as an example: A sink could take a hour to clean up, getting all the old caulking and crap off of it so it looks decent when installed again, there could be cracks under the faucets that will show when the new ones are installed due to them having a smaller foot print and the customer won't know if you are telling the truth that they were there already or you are trying to cover up for doing it installing the new faucets, you might be openning a huge can of worms when something new isn't compatible with something old that is wanting to be saved and the work around might cost you a lot of time running around or even worse waiting for a special order to come in. It could break in the removal process. You will spend more time being careful in the demo because of trying to protect it from damage.

Today I wrote a brand new clause into my contract to cover recycling or saving of existing fixtures and materials holding me harmless and advising the customer that there was no guarantee at the outcome of trying to save or recycle existing items.

Grumpy would be proud of me, my contract is 3 pages now. :Thumbs:

Teetorbilt

I can't help with the past but in the future use wood shims as wedges, tap them in gently and go do something else for a while. Come back and give them another few taps, keep the pressure even, eventually it will 'pop'. See if you can locate 'mold release' wedges too, they are thicker and made of plastic.
I use the same technique to take mirrors off of walls. The key is to apply pressure and wait. Wood and plastic do not scratch or chip.
In the school of life, you just paid for another degree.

Mike Finley

You posted to quick buddy, I was pullin da provebial leg. But actually you give some good advice. Okay, it's midnight here, that makes it 2:00am out there, I'm having a hard time focusing because I am so tired, but what the hell about you? I thought I was unusual because I've gotten by on 6 hours of sleep my whole life, but you must be doing it on 4!!!!

JustaFramer

Dude that's not funny. Just the other day I did the most rookiest of things on a side job. I ********************ing broke a 15 year old tile while removing a threshold on this POS door frame. Lucky for me it was easily remedied with a metal transitional piece.
Talk about nightmare and fear of my rep tarnished for ever.

Grumpy

When ever the customer asks me to remove and save something I ALWAYS write into the contract, even if I think it's gonna be simple, we will take the utmost care in removing X however there is no guarantee it won't be damaged during the removal.

For example I did a quote for a condominium building yesterday where we would need to remove the siding around some windows to properly cap the windows. I wrote in the contract "1. We will remove siding around exposed wood window frames. We will be as careful as possible but siding may become damaged during removal. There will be an additional charge to replace damaged siding."

LOL Mike ya got me!

TimWieneke

"I ALWAYS write into the contract, even if I think it's gonna be simple, we will take the utmost care in removing X however there is no guarantee it won't be damaged during the removal."

Right on. I ran into a set of blueprints that had a vinyl window being removed/re-used ($150,000 project - why re-use a vinyl window!?!?... I dunno). Had to specify that we couldn't guarantee it would survive the removal or function after the re-installation.

Tim

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As Steve the Foreman would say, "Forgive him Lord, for he doesn't know what he's doing."

Teetorbilt

Mike, I never was a big one for sleep, can't seem to get anything accomplished when I'm doing it.

Mike Finley

See, you guys are all ahead of me, I never even thought of it until now. I also messed up because I should have explained to this customer that saving something can save you some money, but it will be offset somewhat against the extra labor used to either salvage it out of whatever it is attached to and the labor of whatever it takes to clean it.

Grumpy

I am asked often to remove and repitch gutters. I explain to the customer that typically to remove a length of 20' or longer aluminum gutter, I can almost guarantee a wrinkle... I then go on to tell them that it would actually cost MORE to remove and save the old gutter than it would to tear it all off and replace.

Floorwizard

We remove and replace wood moldings everyday, and we remind the client that they may break.
they are welcome to try and remove without possibly breaking them themselves, or they can try to find a company that will guarantee they will not break, but I am not budging on that clause.

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"

Grumpy

I run into this when ever we do new construction type windows in a remodel... but window moldings, not floor moldings

Here Here! I have an identicle policy as FLor.

onhand

I hate you Mike! I was ready to do all sorts of legal investigation for you! JERK! LOL! You got my blood pumping early this morning!!!!! :Thumbs:

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Ted :Thumbs:

Tom R

Personally, - - I think Mike may have missed his calling, - - (not to put down his carpentry), - - but he mighta-oughta-coulda-shoulda-woulda made a great writer!!

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http://www.tr-built.com