What do you do if a landscaper doesn't do all of the work he promised?

Question

My fiance and I hired a guy to come and roto-till and level a large section of our backyard this past weekend. We met with him a couple of days before and told him what we wanted done, we agreed (verbally) on a price for the work, and he and his "guys" came on Friday to do the work. We didn't check the work thoroughly enough before he left, and on Saturday afternoon, we started doing some work on the yard and found he hadn't roto-tilled the entire area agreed upon, only random sections of the area in question, evidence of this is weeds that were previously there are still there, right side up, with their roots very densely packed in the dirt....and also there was a large (about 1'x1') piece of concrete buried about 2 inches below the surface of the dirt. When we called him to talk to him about it, he got very defensive, and blamed the guys he had working for him. He insisted that if he had known we wanted it roto-tilled deeper, he would have charged us more.

This guy doesn't work for a company, he does this on the side....am I **** out of luck? I'm not asking him to give our money back, only to do the right thing and fix what was done wrong. What should we do?

Answer 1

depends upon what you want in the end. You can't legally force him to redo the job, but you could ask him.

If you want revenge, turn him in to the IRS. Chances are he isn't reporting his income from his "side" work. And if he is convicted on your lead, you could receive a reward, which you pay a real contractor to complete the job.

Answer 2

Try talking to him after he's cooled off and see if you can reach an agreement (and be nice !). If that doesn't work, I don't know if it's worth proceeding. As far as damages, you're only entitled to a fraction of the contract price (which you'll have to prove without a writing....) that is proportionate to the amount not done (again, proof might require measuring, etc).

Without knowing how bad it is or how much money we're talking (or how much of a jerk he is--principal has value too), sounds like one to just let go...

Answer 3

You are out of luck, I'm sorry to say. It was only a verbal agreement of what he was to do, not a written agreement with your and his signature on it so you don't have a leg to stand on. Fix the work yourself and know that you have learned a lesson-always get an agreement in writing of what is to be done with both signatures, yours and the workpersons.

Answer 4

If you have a signed document stating the work needed to be done and the expected payment, just take pictures and you have a good case in small claims court. If you don't have written proof, it becomes much harder.

Answer 5

you're S.O.L verbal contracts dont hold water. chalk it up to a good lesson learned. if you havent paid him yet, dont, he can threaten you with a small claims suit but it would likely cost him more in legal fee's. and besides a judge could rule in his favor. it's a case of your word against his. if you paid him already, let it go, and dont be afraid to tell your friends who might not be looking for similar work to be done about your experience.

basically you havent got a legal leg to stand on unless it's written in black and white and signed by both parties

Answer 6

Sounds like a small claims court thing,Boy are they a pain in the butt,A written contract is the best way to win that one

Answer 7

if you have a written paper with his signature, talk with a lawyer, they all provide free consultation.