Contractor Advice

[Jeremy Scott]

Hello,

I am finished with my first rehab and the home is now under contract. Thankfully, we will make some profit but I have learned something about contractors: they always OVERpromise, and they UNDERdeliver.

In our specific case, we selected our general contractor after various quotes and interviews. We were sold on the fact that he prides himself in doing the job "under budget" and within 6 weeks or less. To total the time, the rehab took him 4 months. He was doing 6 projects at one time and it was apparent he could not handle the situation. On top of that, he said our house cost him $4,000 more than what he originally anticipated, which was over 20% of our contract price. We ended up halving that and forked over an additional $2,000. I understand if things unforseen come about, but he had his own guys check the plumbing and electricity and said his number was on the high side to be safe, and he was confident he could come in less.

To be fair, his craftmanship was excellent and the finished product has been pleasing. My question to anyone willing to share wisdom on the subject is this: is there any way to legally word a contract in order to prevent another $4,000 "overcharge"? I feel like if the contract was worded in a way that it could not exceed a certain percentage cap of the agreed upon contract price, then the contractor would say it cost that percentage over budget every single time to add profit for himself. Any advice is greatly appreciated.