What can mom sue her contractor for?

[Mom's Problems]

My mom entered into a contract to have her original 8'x16' screen room turned into a 16'x16' enclosed acrylic window room. She signed the contract on May 20th and gave the demanded 50% down payment of $9,100.

Jerry, the person that she dealt with was listed as the company's field supervisor and the owner/licensed certified residential contract was listed as Ken.

Time continued to go on and Jerry kept telling her that the delay in getting started was due to the building department. We later wound out, by looking at the blueprints and attached paperwork that the drawings were not even faxed over to the engineering company until 7/20. They were actually faxed over by Jeff, a contractor from a different company that he paid to draw them up. The engineering company completed and certified the blueprints on 7/31. Jerry then finally applied for the permit on 8/16 and it was approved on 9/5.

Jerry sent a person named Paul and his crew out to do the job. The first thing that they did wrong was to actually pour the add on slab 9'x17' instead of the 8'x16'. They then continued to build the structure and it just did not look right and it took so many calls to Jerry to get him to come out. He did not understand why we were demanding for him to come out, since the building inspector already approved it.

When he came out, he was rude and not polite at all. That was until I pulled out the blueprints. He did not know how to read them, so I had to show him how the blueprints are for a hip roof and they built a gable roof. The work was even very poorly done.

They then had to take most of it down to change it over to the hip roof. The work was so bad and I had to keep showing Paul how the work was not done properly. I was not being nit picky. Beams that were to be joined by receiving joints were not and there was up to a half of inch space in-between them and you could see the screws just out there in the open. He finally walked off.

Jerry then paid Jeff, the contractor from the other company, to come out and look at the work. Jeff told him that it was all built wrong and had to all come down and be rebuilt. Jerry paid Jeff $1,000.00 a day for 3 days to take down everything that was wrong and to get it back started right.

Well the composite roof panels that were taken down off the roof ended up disappearing and they substituted them for plain composite ceiling panels that are not even put up and cut correctly.

They ended up dropping off the acrylic windows that were custom made, but they were not what was agreed upon and written in the contract. They windows were to be 8' with not spreader bar. The company had notified all of their customers back in Feb that they are no longer backing them and would only make them with a 2" spreader bar 3' up from the bottom. The acrylic window company still shows those windows on their website as 8' with no spreader bar. So actually, the contract was fraudulent, because Jerry knew months before the signing of the contract that the windows that she wanted and paid for were no longer available.

They wanted to install the windows before they even came close to completing the roof or work that had to be done inside, but mom refused to allow the windows to go in, because they are not what the ordered.

My mom refused to let them take the windows back, because she did not feel that the work that was done was worth the $9,100 that she paid them seven months prior. Jerry's assistant or whatever kept calling my mom every five minutes yelling at her and telling her that they are calling the police and sending them right over to arrest her. The police of course never showed up and later she called back to say that they went to the building department and put a stop work order on all work on mom's property and that their attorney will handle the matter from then on. Therefore, they actually walked off the job.

Even before this, Jerry would use four letter words at my mom over the phone and would always try to intimidate her.

We have now done our homework and Jerry has five cist and deist orders for being unlicensed between July and October of last year and under two different names. The county building department is still telling us that he is working legally under someone else’s license, because anyone with a license can just let anyone they want to use their license and not have to be involved at all. The State Investigator has told me that that is a bunch of bull.

Now finally after that long intro to the problem, here is where we are now. We have had three other contractors come out to give a quote on how much it would cost to have finished. They all have said that the workmanship is so poor and would not meet code that the whole thing needs to be taken down and all started over. I believe this, but to be on the safe side, we are having a nonbiased inspector who is a general contractor, a certified residential contractor, and a licensed roofing contractor, to come out and give a professional report of the condition of what we were left with.

We also found out today that the concrete was not put in right and is now sinking and tipping up and the only thing that can be done is to take it all out and redo it all. Before this started, I was in the process of polishing the concrete to give her a nice polished floor. I spent around $1,500 on diamond grinding pads and many hours to get it to look nice. Now if it has to be all taken out, I will have to start all over and probably spend around another $1,500 on a new set of grinding pads. Can we sue the contractor for this expense?

I was also in the process of putting in a 32'x12' pond with a large waterfall and completely landscaping the rest of the yard around it. I have not been able to do the work, because with the structure having to be taken down so many times, there is so much aluminum and other debris all over the yard. It really looks like a junk yard.

All of this has caused my mom a lot of stress and depression. Can she sue for what she has suffered, because of all of this?

She has also not been able to use her old screen room or new acrylic window room for 8 months. Can she sue for the lose of use of the room and yard?

Why I am asking all of this is because we are putting a report together to submit to the company's owner/licensee, who we have never meet, spoke to, or been able to get him to return a call, with an amount that we will settle for to keep us from filing our report to the State, because he will be the person that is ultimately responsible and will face the chance of being charged all of the fines and take the chance of losing his license and livelihood.

What we are looking at right now is to be paid back the complete deposit, pay to have the concrete removed and replaced, and all of the damages that where made to the house. We do not want to be greedy, because we really are hoping to be able to settle with him, but want to be reimbursed for what she is untitled too.

If you have gotten this far, please let, let me know all that we would be untitled to sue for.

Thank you,
Chris