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[emmd2001]

Jurisdiction/Place:

Had a private contractor paint a hallway and stairs in my house, along with install tile in a bathroom and a new spotlight in the ceiling. Although the job was "complete" in the rough sense, there were many areas that needed fixed and/or touched up. Specifically, there are well over 3 dozen areas on the walls that he painted that did not take the pain and I now have white spots showing through a yellow paint. Additionally, there are many areas where he got yellow paint on the ceiling and the white baseboard molding. And when he installed the tile, he pulled off the door frames and baseboard molding to install the tile, and in doing so cracked several pieces of molding and scratched up the paint on the wall in the bathroom he was tiling. When he put the molding back up, he left it with nails sticking out and nailholes that were never filled or painted.

He was paid with the understanding that he was going to come back and fix these problem areas. He had stated on multiple times that he would fix them, both to my wife and myself. However, he then decided that he would NOT fix them unless he got paid more to fix it. Monday, he came over to look at it and then said he would repaint the wall. He even called the house shortly after he left to make sure that I purchase painters tape so it was there when he came back to repaint.

Today, he came back to the house, and refused to repaint any of the areas. He told my wife that "I was going to repaint it for you but I changed my mind." This now leaves me with an entire hallway that will need to be repainted, and multiple areas of molding that will also need to be repainted. Additionally, there are still several pieces of molding around the door that are cracked, and all of the nailholes that need to be filled and repainted.

What legal grounds do I have here? Is this a case that would have merit in small claims court? Any thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated.