Contractor Taking too Long to Finish past estimated completion date on contract

[Scott Gullaksen]

Hi,

I am rehabbing a property in Philadelphia with intentions to flip it and I am a Realtor. The estimated completion date was April 1st initially and then with some added work that came up, we signed an addendum for an estimated completion date of April 17th. The contractor has told me that he would be finished on time, but know he is not showing up some days and obviously on other jobs. I still have a final payment of $5500. The total job was $36,000 and it has an estimated date of completion, but I did not write in any penalties if he didn't finish in time. I would say 75% was done and 25% left, but this last 25% has been about the same for the last 3 weeks. I have a feeling this might take another 2 months at this rate. I would love to just fire him and get someone else to come in and do the rest of the work in 2 weeks and just eat the difference. I had a contractor out and they said there is $8k worth of work left. (25% OF THE WHOLE JOB COMES OUT TO $9000.) I also have date stamp pictures from today (5-8-14) showing all the work that needs to still be done.

I have been told that if I were to fire him the contractor can file a mechanics lien for the last $5500, which does not make sense to me since he is well past his deadline and there is more than $5500 worth of work left. So can my contractor really take his good old time and finish whenever he wants with no recourse? Any suggestions?

He is being non-responsive now and I do not know what to do.

Please help!!