A question for the lawyers in the house: Should I worry?

[Timothy Sparrow]

Hello BP'ers,

Wanted to ask all of you a question regarding a recent situation with a contractor that I'm dealing with.

Back in May of 2013 I renovated a kitchen in one of my rental properties. I hired an electrician to do all of the electrical work to the tune of $2500. Just an FYI, we did not pull permits (I know, I know). I paid him half ($1250)up front and he did most of the wiring. After the sheetrock was finished I called him back to finish the job (install all the appliances, do all the recessed lighting, all the switches, etc. He never returned my call. I left messages, texts, and received nothing for 3 weeks. I finally said the hell with it and called another electrician to finish the job. The second electrician cost me $1500 to finish everything the other contractor didn't do.

After a month goes by the electrician calls me up finally and tells me "I'm ready to come by and finish". I told him that because he never returned my calls and I needed to finish the kitchen, I hired another electrician. He was all huffy and puffy and told me he was going to report me for not having a building permit. I wasn't too worried because I knew he would be shooting himself in the foot if he reported it because it would put his own license in jeopardy.

Fast forward to November 2014 (today).I received a bill from that electrician (over a year later!) for $500 with the invoice for "Owners choice to finish job with another contractor". In the invoice he states 2% interest will be charged every month it is late.

My question is, Do I need to worry here? Should I just ignore this invoice? Does he have any recourse to file suit and if so does he have a case?

Thanks in advance for all your help BP'ers!

[Wayne Brooks]

He's just a blow hard, piece of sh$$.  I'd ignore it all together, period.  If you really feel the need I'd send him a two sentence response.  "You failed for a month to show up to finish the work when notified, and didn't even return repeated phone calls.  No need to bother me with this any further, and I won't respond any further to the matter".  Note: this is my...kinder, gentler way of responding I'm working on, as opposed to my previous contractor days type response....which have been a two word response.  Not sure which one's more effective though, in this case.