Our first investment property was affected by the December 2023 tornado outside of the Nashville area. Luckily, our insurance is covering our rent and utilities until January 2025. My fiance and I were able to find a contractor who was able to do all the work for the house. We did our research and the person we picked had great reviews. We paid him in installments and we're at our final stop of rebuilding our entire kitchen and finishing up small details like filling up nail holes, bathroom vanity installs and etc. After we paid him our next installment of $45K, he basically disappeared in July and after reaching out to him and his wife who also works with him, we've gotten minimal contact back/excuses/delays of when the final work is going to be done. It's been a couple months now and we're trying to figure out what to do as we are at the near end of our insurance coverage. Right now, I believe they're in Ashville, NC and that's why they haven't been as present in our area. They're based out in Georgia and it seems like they move from one storm to the next.

We've given this contractor about $255K, $45K of that being funded towards the next project of the kitchen and now we have about $60K left to finish the house. I would love some advice on what to do. File a Lien? Get a contractor law attorney? File him to the insurance board of TN? File them on BBB? Or take the $60K that we have to finish out the rest of the house and let them walk away with $45K? Or a combo of one of the followings I mentioned?

We have until the end of January 2025 before rent and utilities come out of our own pockets. I already met some new contractors who said can finish the work within the $60K budget, however, they did mentioned some things the contactor did wrong with our house that they would have to fix (leak in our roof from our chimney, new gate hinges because they put the wrong ones on there and other small things). Ideally, I would like the old contractor to finish/fix his work that they did but Im not sure if it's worth the hassle given our time constraints. If anyone has any advice that would be greatly appreciated. If there is any information that I missed, please let me know I can explain our situation further.

Nashville, Tennessee

0 Votes