What should I consider before terminating my general contractor?

[Adam Dudziak]

I have been working in house rehabilitation for about 10 years. I’ve done all the work myself but my most recent project I brought in a general contractor to help scale my business. We established a contract that includes three draws, which I’ve already paid two. We established an estimated completion date (June 30th) which he has not been able to hit. I’m starting to worry that this job will not be done in a reasonable timeframe but he keeps giving me every reason in the book why the job is taking so long.

I’m considering terminating our contract and finding someone else to finish the job. We are almost a month over our estimated original 30 day deadline and seeing that this is a house with about 1000 square feet, I do not feel that is reasonable. I have not paid the third draw yet so I was going to use that for another contractor to finish the project. I wouldn’t even mind giving the balance (if any left) to pay the original general contractor because he’s started many projects but he just hasn’t finished.

Does this sound like the right direction? Is there anything else I should consider before removing my general contractor? We did not include any language about terminating the contract or what would happen if the estimated timeframe was not met. I’ll definitely consider that on my next project....