Builder Woes

lowell5slide

Hey guys wonder if you can help me. my partner and i did some work for a builder (painting) we ended up doing like 3 houses for him but one house gave us fits just couldnt get it done it was a nightmare well one of the guys we hired to finish it didnt pay his guys so a lien was put on the lot so the builder wouldnt pay us our balance about $7,000 well we paid the guy out of our own pocket ($1600 ) well now even though we did that the builder refuses to release the funds because he says that we took so long to finish that one lot that he has like $ 10,000 in interest cause he couldnt sell the house Well he has two to three houses that have been sitting a long time so I dont know if he could have sold it or not. we didnt have a contract with a time frame. well do i have a leg to stand on to get my money like a lien or something any help wouldbe appreciated its like 7000.00 dollars . some of the money is for a lot in a totally different subdivision not even related to the other lot thanks for any input

Home Pro

Put a lien on the property...

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The Home Pro's

Grumpy

First off the way the Law is written here iin IL, the builder can't hold money from one contract due to errors, problems etc, on another contract. Now if you lumped these 3-4 houses into 1 contract, I think you are F***ed.

Yes you can file a lien and I encourage you to do so. No again the way the law is written if you don't have a time frame in the contract he can't hold money for late completion, because there is not latency.

However once you get lawyers involved it's lose lose even if you win. I'd lien the property and add the lien fees to an new invoice, then send him a statement with the original invoice, lien fees, and late fees. Once you lien the property he will not be able to sell it so chances are if he has the money he will pay it.

joasis

Lawyer up...he has to sue you for the claim, he cannot hold funds...step 1, file a lien, step 2, lawyer up.

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