Problem with contractor... and now he's threatening a lien on my building

[Brittany Farrell]

This is my first time posting here, so please, go easy on me. :)

I have a commercial property in a small town outside of Lincoln. My relative is my main tenant. I had a crazy incident where a huge section of the roof blew off in wind storm in May 2022. I had hired a contractor in the Fall of 2021 to do some proactive repair work, but his "fix" apparently left the roof vulnerable to the elements. When I tried to contact him afterwards, he was nowhere to be found, and rumor had it he was in jail. My insurance ended up having to foot the bill. (And thankfully it did.) 

I was careful to select another contractor because I didn't want to end up in the same situation again. I checked his licensing, insurance and bond before he started the work. It was only supposed to take a month for completion. Fast forward a year 1/2, and the work was just completed and the work order was just finally closed out by the City. In the interim year 1/2, I spent countless hours trying to track the contractor down to do the work. At one point, two of the caps blew off and into the alley below endangering the general public. At another point, the wind blew down a brick wall he had just "secured" onto the epdm mule hide layer he had just laid down. It was nightmare after nightmare with this guy to the point where I double checked his licensing, but apparently there are no real qualifications even for commercial work in NE? Is that possibly true? I truly want to do the right thing, and this guy did "finish" the job despite it being bad workmanship. Like really bad. After an entire month of not being able to get ahold of him this summer, I contacted another roofer who said it was poor quality all around. Here's where I'm at. I've paid him 2/3 of what is owed, and I "owe" the final 3rd. There is a 5 year warranty per his contract on the work done. I am worried I won't be able to get ahold of him, should their be a failure in his workmanship. When I expressed this to him, he ensured me that if this were to occur, his insurance would cover it in a Summary Claim. He even wrote me a written statement about this, which I submitted to his insurance agent for verification 2 weeks ago, and haven't been responded to. 1) Do I just pay the guy and be done? And hope for the best? After all, he did eventually come through and complete the work and the city did sign off on it. This feels naive. 2) Do I withhold payment until his insurance company will verify his statement about payout should he vanish? What if this leads to a lien and a court proceeding? I have no idea how that would play out in court, but I can't afford to pay attorney's fees on top of the balance. I also can't afford to have the roof blow off again and have no recourse. I have documentation of my call logs and all of the failures that took place while work was in progress. I've exercised so much grace and patience with this guy throughout this year 1/2 debacle, so him threatening me while I'm trying to make sure I'm protected really doesn't feel good.

Thank you in advance if you've made it this far... I'm very conflicted but open to any honest and good-willed feedback!

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Brittany Farrell:

Rule #1: I don't respond to threats.

He's threatening to put a lien on the property. So what? I get tenants threatening to sue me all the time, but they never do. Many people make threats as a means of scaring you. I can see it's working.

I would not pay someone for a half-a$$ job that took 15 months longer than it should have. 

It's not enough to verify someone has a license and insurance. You need to find contractors with a long history and strong reputation. I recommend networking with other investors and asking for personal recommendations, using companies (not individuals) with strong reviews on Google, etc.