My subcontractor is threatening to sue me (General Contractor) for breach of contract, failure to pay for job completed.
I'll try to make a confusing situations short.
To start, I got a bid from a subcontractor to raise and level a house for me. We made contact, discussed the job, he made up a written contract, I reviewed it. After review I was told he was going to jail for past DUII Charges and that he was referring the job over to his son since he himself would be in jail for 6 or more months, starting immediately. After talking on the phone with his son and setting a time to meet and sign the contract which needed some alterations, I did some research on-line to check on his Oregon Contractors License and discovered it was not valid. Somewhat surprising since he's been doing business in the area for as long as I've known him (APRs. 20 yrs). So then I checked his son's license which was good.
Okay, meeting with son, leave job site right after telling son on phone where my office was, get to office and there sits the father, asked him where's his son. He reply's," I got a reprieve from the court and will have time to do the job" I replied," I cannot do business with you since your license is invalid" He reply's, "We'll be doing it under my sons business."
Meanwhile my phone is ringing off the hook with my presents being requested back to my job site. He's standing in my office requesting a down payment as the contract shows. I reminded him that there was less work to be done than what his contract showed so we changed the figures on the contract and he initialed it, and I wrote out a check for the agreed apron down payment and made it payable to his son's business.
Few months later made second payment, as agreed, check payable to his son.
Month and a half later he's asking me for the final payment, which at this time is months beyond the finish date he quoted of 3 to 4 weeks. I told him I needed to check the job out first and would write a check as soon as things checked out okay.
To make it short, his job was not done, period. I have over a 100 before and after pictures to show it. He wouldn't finish it; clients were raving mad at me for things not getting done. I called him up to meet at job site, told him since he's not going to finish his job, I'm going to and that I would be back charging him for my work. I showed him in person everything that was unfinished and mentioned the fact that there is enough work left to where it may cost more for me to finish up than what he has coming on his final contracted payment. He looked it all over, said fine, and left.
Couple of weeks later his wife came by, gave me a bill, I gave her a back charge statement and the remaining balance owed to her in cash. She told me to hold on to the cash and that she wouldn't sign the statement showing she was paid until her husband, which at that time was in jail for those previous charges I mentioned earlier, had a chance to look over the back charge statement I just gave her. I told her fine and she left.
Just last week I got a certified letter from them threatening to sue me in the amount of $250,000.00 for Breach of Contract and failure to pay for job completed according to contract. Which we know wasn't true. I noticed they where suing me using his name and business. Which clearly was not who I was doing business with, so I thought. Now, I go back to look at the contract and notice 2 things I overlooked previously. One, the contract was made out to my dads business (which was the case for seven years until my dad lost his license earlier this year, so this would be my first contract this year under my business name), 2nd, it was signed by him with his business name. Yet his initials were on there for the changes we made the day he showed up in my office and finalized the contract. I never signed anything except the down payment check I made out to his Son's Business.
What do I do? His letter says to pay immediately or I'll be hearing from his Lawyer.
I'll try to make a confusing situations short.
To start, I got a bid from a subcontractor to raise and level a house for me. We made contact, discussed the job, he made up a written contract, I reviewed it. After review I was told he was going to jail for past DUII Charges and that he was referring the job over to his son since he himself would be in jail for 6 or more months, starting immediately. After talking on the phone with his son and setting a time to meet and sign the contract which needed some alterations, I did some research on-line to check on his Oregon Contractors License and discovered it was not valid. Somewhat surprising since he's been doing business in the area for as long as I've known him (APRs. 20 yrs). So then I checked his son's license which was good.
Okay, meeting with son, leave job site right after telling son on phone where my office was, get to office and there sits the father, asked him where's his son. He reply's," I got a reprieve from the court and will have time to do the job" I replied," I cannot do business with you since your license is invalid" He reply's, "We'll be doing it under my sons business."
Meanwhile my phone is ringing off the hook with my presents being requested back to my job site. He's standing in my office requesting a down payment as the contract shows. I reminded him that there was less work to be done than what his contract showed so we changed the figures on the contract and he initialed it, and I wrote out a check for the agreed apron down payment and made it payable to his son's business.
Few months later made second payment, as agreed, check payable to his son.
Month and a half later he's asking me for the final payment, which at this time is months beyond the finish date he quoted of 3 to 4 weeks. I told him I needed to check the job out first and would write a check as soon as things checked out okay.
To make it short, his job was not done, period. I have over a 100 before and after pictures to show it. He wouldn't finish it; clients were raving mad at me for things not getting done. I called him up to meet at job site, told him since he's not going to finish his job, I'm going to and that I would be back charging him for my work. I showed him in person everything that was unfinished and mentioned the fact that there is enough work left to where it may cost more for me to finish up than what he has coming on his final contracted payment. He looked it all over, said fine, and left.
Couple of weeks later his wife came by, gave me a bill, I gave her a back charge statement and the remaining balance owed to her in cash. She told me to hold on to the cash and that she wouldn't sign the statement showing she was paid until her husband, which at that time was in jail for those previous charges I mentioned earlier, had a chance to look over the back charge statement I just gave her. I told her fine and she left.
Just last week I got a certified letter from them threatening to sue me in the amount of $250,000.00 for Breach of Contract and failure to pay for job completed according to contract. Which we know wasn't true. I noticed they where suing me using his name and business. Which clearly was not who I was doing business with, so I thought. Now, I go back to look at the contract and notice 2 things I overlooked previously. One, the contract was made out to my dads business (which was the case for seven years until my dad lost his license earlier this year, so this would be my first contract this year under my business name), 2nd, it was signed by him with his business name. Yet his initials were on there for the changes we made the day he showed up in my office and finalized the contract. I never signed anything except the down payment check I made out to his Son's Business.
What do I do? His letter says to pay immediately or I'll be hearing from his Lawyer.
