Any recourse for contractor not completing scope of work

[Thai Tran]

Hello,

For one of my rental properties, the contractor that the property management used to get my property rent ready did a poor job with the work and some of the work in the scope of work didn't appear to have been completed.  I have been in contact with both the property manager and the contractors who doesn't seem to be taking responsibility.  The cost of work was about $3200. However, they are unwilling to give me back a refund on the work.

I was wondering what people have done in this situation with contractors.  Would filing a small claim court work.  My property is out of state so traveling out for any legal proceedings may not be ideal.  Thanks in advance.

[Daniel Bork]

@Thai Tran. In the future working with contractors only pay for part of the total due and have an inspection of the work completed before continuing on. If all is done according to the scope of work and to yours or your PM satisfaction have the contractor finish the work and only pay him after a final walk through has been done. It’s unfortunate that there are so many unreliable and shady contractors. But on the contrary when you have a good one be sure to pay them promptly and keep work coming to them. Also it’s worth paying a bit of premium to those good hard working reliable ones. Good luck !