GC Never pulled permit and now we're Red Flagged

[Sophie P.]

We bought a house in Marin a few months ago, we had 5 contractors come out to bid on some minor kitchen work we wanted to do. The General contractor we chose seemed honest, trustworthy and came highly recommended. The first week he seemed to be doing a good job but after that it went downhill - the GC was never on site, he had 2 subs who worked long hours and were very nice guys but didn't seem to have the finesse or expertise required to do the job. Even I could see that lines weren't straight, dry wall was not done correctly and the electrical didn't look right. When we questioned the Gc about this he always had a different story - *he had drilled through the PG&E cable at his own house so couldn't be at our house that week as he had to tend to his own house. * he had fallen getting out of a cab and he couldn't walk for the next few days * he had spent all the money we'd already paid him on fixing up his own house and couldn't pay his subs that week So many red flags and warning signs along the way. Last week when my husband questioned him about his work list and why things had not been done correctly, the GC grabbed his tools and stormed out after telling my husband that we are too meticulous. The things we had requested were merely that he maintain California construction standards. After he left we had a proper electrician and a great plumber come out and look at the work and turns out that everything that the previous GC had done is not to code and all had to be pulled out. It's costing us upwards of $3,500 to reverse. But the real nail in the coffin is that we suddenly had the county inspector rock up at our house and red flag it saying that they were notified that we are having "unpermitted work being done in our kitchen"?! Which means that the GC never even pulled permits?! The only thing that we can think is that that GC knew he hadn't pulled permits and is now trying to "get back at us". We paid him about 80% of his fee, he hadn't completed the project and it turns out all the work he DID do wasn't done correctly. If there is anyone that can provide some advice on how to deal with a situation like this, it would be greatly appreciated. We feel like we really got "screwed" on this one especially because we tried to follow all the correct steps in hiring a GC.