Contractor Headache

[Giuseppe Amato]

Hi Everyone, this is my first time posting here and I'm excited to be part of such an informative and knowledgeable forum that is involved in the real estate world.

I’m interested to see what kind of advice I receive regarding the situation I'm currently in..

I own an investment property in Wilmington, Delaware and the townhome has a mudroom extension on the back (5x10) that needed to be demolished and rebuilt from the bottom up because it was old, leaking, etc. So after getting a couple estimates, (back in 2012) I decided to hired a contractor who I felt was trustworthy and would complete the job in a timely matter (which he stated it would be a few months).

Long story short, he completed the job after over a year and the mudroom still has leaky issues, roof issues, black mold problems which seem worse now than before. I’ve been super patient and willing to work with him but he would constantly give me the run around about following up with the issues. I even drove from New York one weekend to meet with him and he never followed up with me to let me know he canceled our appointment to look over the problems.

I’m frustrated and fed up with his poor professionalism, lack of communication and horrible service/quality. I’m ready to take legal action but I wanted some additional advice and see what actions you guys would do.

Thank you.

[Dawn Anastasi]

In the meantime, is the property occupied?  If so, the tenants who are living there should not have to put up with a leaky, moldy mudroom.  You should find someone else to fix it ASAP.