Contractor with health Issue

[Pete Harper]

I have a dilemma with my contractor on a duplex flip. The current situation is he is off the job because on a health issue. He called earlier this week asking for more money in order to meet payroll. My fear is he will not be able to finish the job. Not to sound too unsympathetic but he was been a problem since the beginning of the project back in September. First issue was during demo, he and his crew all came down with Covid in October. We lost three weeks right there. Then in November after they recovered I noticed little progress on the duplex. They were in the framing stage and I didn’t see anyone on the job site. I live locally and stopped by on a regular basis. I started hounding him and finally he finished the framing. Next he underbid the electric, he didn’t notice it was a two wire system and needed to be upgraded to three wire. I cut him an add on check and finally got an electrician on the job. The electrician was the slowest guy ever taking six weeks to wire 2400 sqrft. Meanwhile I start nagging him on plumber. He tells me Plumber can’t work at the same time as electrician? Then plumber comes out and wants a $11k add on because the inspector wanted something. I follow up with inspector to clarify code and he said the add on was not required. Contractor didn’t bother to tell inspector this was slab construction. I paid $7500 for plumbing fixtures but don’t see them on the job site. WTF? I asked for invoices for plumbing and HVAC, no answer. That brings us up to date. I’m about 2/3 through spend. We are two months late on the project. The house is still bare studs, slab is jackhammered up for plumbing, plumbing roughed-in still needs to be inspected. He is off the job recovering from heart stints, his crew have been taking advantage of him drawing wages and not working. He doesn’t have a good foreman to fill in.

I was already frustrated with the guy before the latest health issues. What options do I have?