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McKenna Bailey

Professor Goeller

ENG 1201, 551

March 22, 2019

Figure 1 Contractors Stock Photo

Unprofessional Contractors

Sooner or later, home owners will need to hire a contractor to make necessary repairs to

their home. Whether it’s to fix a leaky tap, remodel the interior, install new windows, rewire, or

to put siding on an existing or brand new house, everyone will need to hire a contractor at some

point to complete a task that one cannot do by themselves. Unfortunately, consumers have to

take a chance finding a reliable and honest contractor who will perform the work. Also, many

Homeowners have had to report unprofessional conduct or just plain awful work done by

contractors when the job is said and done. For example, stolen funds, shoddy and or unfinished

work are a few of the more common complaints in reference to contractors. In order to better

understand the conduct of contractors, one must ask the questions of “How are they able to get

away with things like this so easily?”, “What regulations are affecting these contractors that they
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aren’t held responsible?”, and “Should regulations be changed so that contractors are held

responsible for what they do to homeowners?”

Figure 2 Photo of Our Home by Annemarie Bailey

My family has fallen victim to the works of several unprofessional contractors with the

first group of contractors starting the job at the beginning of this year. Our siding was damaged

in a wind storm, and our homeowner’s insurance company had sent us a check to fund the

replacement of all of our siding since it had been out of production for five years. The initial

contractors were hired to install new siding, patch holes in the fiberboard on several spots, and

create a wood trim around each of the window. The primary contractors had subcontracted out

another group of people to do this job and we were not told that they would be coming until the

last minute. Regardless, we let them continue the work despite the miscommunication. As time

progressed it was hard to communicate our desired specification because there was a language

barrier between us and the workers doing the job. Ultimately, these contractors did sub-par work

and believed that the quality of their work was not wrong, and have charged us as if the job had

been completely finished and up to building code. Examples of their poor work include cutting

off all window frames which voided a warranty we had with a previous contractor, poor

installation of Tyvek (a moisture barrier) with areas of potential leaks, and installing the siding
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so tight, it began to warp. We were also treated badly by the co-owner of this company who had

lied about his position until almost halfway through the job. When confronted about the quality

of work being provided to our home, he was very rude to us, condescending to us, or tried to

discourage us in our efforts to provide help or ask questions. Shortly thereafter, we employed the

help of the contractors that originally installed our windows to reinstate our warranty after it was

voided by damages done by the original contractors. The contractors that completed the work

incorrectly were hired because a representative of the window company falsely told us that their

company did not handle insurance claims despite having a check already cashed out and ready

from the insurance company. After getting the runaround on several occasions, false information

regarding pricing and specifics of the job, and ultimately, cancellation of our siding job, we

settled on repair of our windows and the employment of a third contractor to finish the job. The

image above is our home which has been left unsided and unfinished for several months. We

have heard similar horror stories from other homeowners about contractors like this, and have

encountered many while we have tried to improve our home. We have since reviewed our

contract from the first and second contractor and have found that there is a hush clause that

prevents clients from saying anything negative about their company or their employees. How

can this be fair to the consumers that have been shorthanded on receiving adequate services?

This is not fair whatsoever when taking the homeowner into consideration.

Aside from ourselves, there have been numerous other contractors who have gotten off so

easily without any form of legal recourse. An example of this would be Brandy Teague, a

homeowner from North Carolina, who claimed her husband’s childhood home was left

unfinished and the contractor walked out with 90% of the budget in their pocket (WMFY.com).

Brandy was told that she did not have many options to take the contractor to court. Even if they
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are taken to court, there are no guarantees that the homeowner will be paid the money the

company was sued for once the case is settled. Therefore, what would the point of suing

someone who did wrong and stole from you if you aren’t assured the money that was taken from

you? According to WMFY, contractors are rarely taken to court due to the lack of many

regulations guaranteeing anything for wronged home owners. WMFY also shows a report from

Ohio in 2016 stating that contractors were the top complaint among residents, and no changes are

being made to alleviate the inconveniences. According to an interviewed homeowner “By the

time you sue and spend money to go to court, you will spend more money than you lost,” the

homeowner continues on by saying; “We called probably 10 other contractors after we

terminated our contract and no one wanted to touch the job.” So not only are contractors taking

money from people, they are leaving the homeowners in terrible situations in which no one

wants to help them for the fear that they could be held accountable for damages the original

contractor caused. This is because the government does not enforce or check regulations as often

as they should. The previously mentioned contractor, in regards to Brandy Teague, was later

found to not have all the licenses he needed for part of the work he had done. By not having the

proper licensure to complete the required duties adequately, he should have refused the work or

admitted he could not complete it. The contractor is being reported for not having a license to do

a fraction of the work required, but cannot be charged with anything based off of the terrible

work that was done to this woman’s home. Going off of this resolution, the contractor would

have gotten away with not completing the job, and collecting 90% of the job had they received

the licensing for what was required. Even if the homeowner would be aware of their licensure,

another way contractors can get away easily would be due to their lack of experience.

Homeowners will not be familiarized on concepts such as structural integrity of windows or how
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siding should be put up properly, so they hire the expertise of contractors with the intentions of

them carrying out their job. Sadly, this expertise can lead some contractors to taking advantage

of those whom are unaware of the integrity of their home.

Some contractors have begun to scare homeowners with the threat of putting a mechanics

lien on their home to get the money they believe they deserve. We have received a threat like this

as well, they wanted $7,000 of the original $12,000 because they said they believed they had

done at least 60% of the work. The threat of a lien was given to us only a few days after we told

the contractors to cease their work on our home. The lien would prevent us from getting a loan to

complete the job with another contractor. The threat is intended to scare the home owner into

giving into the contractor and giving them the money they want. Even though they had not fully

filed the lien they would have had sixty days to do so since our home is a one family residential

dwelling they would have seventy-five days otherwise. Oil and gas liens are allotted one hundred

and twenty days, the subject of the lien effects the amount of time the contractors are allowed to

wait for the payment they believe is due (US Legal.com).

To make sure they are not getting away with anything that may be questionable,

contractors have regulations that need to be followed in order to perform their duties properly

and be paid properly for the jobs they are tasked for. According to OSHA, “To the extent that a

subcontractor of any tier agrees to perform any part of the contract, he also assumes

responsibility for complying with the standards in this part with respect to that part. Thus, the

prime contractor assumes the entire responsibility under the contract and the subcontractor

assumes responsibility with respect to his portion of the work. With respect to subcontracted

work, the prime contractor and any subcontractor or subcontractors shall be deemed to have joint

responsibility.” In other words once a contractor or subcontractor has signed a contract they are
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obligated to complete their part of the work, but many people are getting left with incomplete

work or poorly done work. Depending on what is done contractors should be paid by the hour for

the work they do, and this is not the case (The Balance.com). In fact many independent

contractors will ask for a large sum of the money upfront. This is not what they should be doing,

as the work progresses they would receive payment that follows the amount of work done.

Contractors have supplies as well as employees that have to pay for, but this is not an excuse for

shoddy work or terrible communication between them and a homeowner. In the state of Ohio

many things are required before you can become a contractor such as, having preformed work in

a relevant trade for a minimum of five years prior or have worked as a registered engineer for a

minimum of three year in the trade of the license of choice, Take and pass trade exams, as well

as carry the minimum $500,000 of liability insurance coverage (Jepsen, Thomas).

The regulations above are just a few of the list of requirements necessary in order to

receive licensing in particular trades. However, there are ways they can slip through the cracks.

Thus, regulations should be changed as measure to prevent contractors from slipping through the

cracks, and create contractors that have skin in the game in regards to their expertise. As stated

before, one of the legal requirements would be that contractors must carry a legal minimum of

$500,000 in liability insurance. Instead, the legal minimum should be raised because not only

would it provide coverage in the event of multiple accidents throughout the time period of the

insurance, it would also require the contractor to pay a higher premium which would provide a

tighter barrier to entry. The other change in regulations towards contractors deals with the testing

procedures of licensure for particular trades. When contractors take their exams for licensure,

there should be multiple types bundled together rather than just one license that they are going

for. This creates an additional barrier to entry that not only creates more transactional costs, but it
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requires contractors to get an overall general knowledge of houses and how to retain their

structural integrity. This way when a contractor is presented with a job that they are unsure of,

they can be better prepared to handle the work rather than lying to the homeowner about their

qualifications in order to receive more money.

A handful of contractors can be deemed unprofessional due things to lack of experience

on the job, rudeness and condescension, or just simply walking off with your money without

barely touching the job altogether. However, if the work is not done to the homeowner’s

standards something that should be asked is: “Did the homeowner elaborate on what they wanted

the contractors to do? Did they have it all planned out or just tell them the bare minimum?”

(NYT) These would be useful in figuring out if the homeowner has a reasoning for how upset

they are or if they just don’t like the work and want their money back. With our initial contractor,

the co-owner responsible for the construction aspect of the job argued that we were setting high

expectations, and the level of quality and attention to detail on the job was top notch. After

employing our second contractor, we became aggravated with their lack of follow-through, their

deceitful statements, additional charges for work we were lead to believe was covered in the

initial estimate, and having to settle for products different from what were ordered we tried to

negotiate a price reduction. We reached out to the president of the company he was not receptive

to our request to lower the price of the job as he concluded we were looking to simply stretch our

dollar at his expense. His justification was that the estimates that his salesmen provided were

below what the whole job should have been quoted for and compared it to, “…him paying us to

complete the siding job…” because it would not have worked in his favor. If you’re looking to

steer clear of these situations, one of the best solutions for these issues is to do research about

these contractors before they are hired to work on your premises. Contact the Better Business
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Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce in the community where there business resides, check out

reviews on sites such as Angie’s List, or attempt to get personal references from former clients.

If you do not like their attitude towards you or around other workers, confront the contractor

about it in the moment and communicate the issues you are having with their attitude (Home

Advisor). However, many contractors do not care about the attitude of their subcontractors and

they just want their quality of work. Speaking directly to an employee for a subcontractor about

their attitude would more than likely make the issue more prominent.

In my personal opinion, contractors are a very vital resource to homeowners. They are

trained to complete projects that otherwise, many homeowners would be unable to handle for

themselves. This is crucial for everyone who needs to complete some type of remodel or simply

repair a basic issue in their home; such as plumbing, electric, or air. Because these people are

trained you would expect them to perform their job without hassle right? Well as stated before,

that is not always the case. Yes, there are good contractors who can complete the work without

issue as well as being very personable and friendly, not everyone is the same and at some point

we may get someone who is unpleasant who only complete sub-par work for their own benefit.

That is incredibly unfortunate for anyone on the receiving end of this behavior, it may cause a lot

of pain and heartache with all the money problems this will most likely put the homeowners

through. Many people suffer from money troubles as well as issue with their homes, it’s very sad

that many people are left stranded with bad work done on their home when no other contractor

will touch it in fear that they could be included in charges against the original contractors. This is

what happened to my family as well as Mrs. Teague, no one wanted to try to help us restore our

home because they did not want to be held accountable or be included in the current lawsuit with

the previous contractors who had done poor work on both our and Mrs. Teague’s homes. It is
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very unfair to homeowners to be left like this with no real way for us to receive help until we

have settled the claim with any other contractors. Overall, I believe there should be more

kindness expressed by contractors and homeowners alike to help each other when something has

happened, contractors could be a bit more generous and assist in fixing a home to the best of

their ability without repairing the home so that they cannot be included in any legal issues that

are occurring beforehand, and homeowners could be more clear with their wants to any

contractor they plan on hiring so there are no issues with how they conduct their business that

may lead to a poor job done.

In conclusion, contractors need to be held accountable for ensuring their work is

completed correctly, in full, and to their customer’s satisfaction. Mrs. Teague faced hardships

when attempting to remodel her husband’s childhood home, because of an unprofessional

contractor who could not admit that the job was not right for him. The contractor, much like the

one we have struggled with decided to leave the home in utter disarray and take money from the

homeowners, believing nothing that they had done was incorrect. A majority of homeowners are

taken advantage of like this because of how easy it is for irresponsible and unprofessional

contractors to slip through cracks in the regulations that were set for their practices. In regards to

our situation I sincerely hope that the contractors have since learned their lesson and will refrain

from participating in questionable as well as rudimentary acts. Regulations should be air tight

and better enforced on contractors. Someone with basic construction knowledge could just as

easily print off business cards and claim to be a contractor to make a quick buck, instead of

actually taking the time to learn their trade of choice and give homeowners good quality work.

Not every contractor is bad or not trustworthy but communication and a large amount of research

should be put into the efforts when finding someone you can trust to repair or remodel your
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home. Contractors should be put through more intense testing to learn their trade and prove that

they do not have any unsavory intentions to use their position to take advantage of naïve or

uneducated homeowners. On the other hand many homeowners will not know everything about

how to install siding or fix a leaky window, so it would be wrong to critique their actions or

craftsmanship without actually knowing how it is done, if it is blatantly wrong and there is proof

of it then the homeowner would be correct to correct their work. Overall, regulations should be

improved to help homeowners and contractors to work together to complete necessary duties in

order to transform the homeowners house into a home.

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Works Cited

Abubey, Faith. “How State Laws (Don't) Protect Homeowners With Contractor Issues.”

WFMY, WFMY, 6 Oct. 2016, https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/local/2-wants-

to-know/how-state-laws-dont-protect-homeowners-with-contractor-issues/329405585

Bailey, Anne Marie. A photo of our home. 7 Apr. 2019.

Dept. of Labor, US. “UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.” Occupational Safety

and Health Administration,

https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_id=10605&p_table=STA

NDARDS

“General Contractor Problems and How To Deal With Them.” Home Improvement Tips &

Advice from HomeAdvisor, 2 July 2018, www.homeadvisor.com/r/prevent-construction-

problems/.

Jepsen, Thomas. “2019 Ohio Contractor Licenses: HVAC, Electrical, Plumbing, Search.” 2019

Ohio Contractor Licenses: HVAC, Electrical, Plumbing, Search, ContractorQuotes.us, 7

Jan. 2019, https://contractorquotes.us/ohio-contractor-license/

Kaysen, Ronda. “Being Ghosted By the Contractor.” The New York Times, The New York

Times, 8 June 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/realestate/being-ghosted-by-

the-contractor.html
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Murray, Jean. “Laws and Regulations Affecting Independent Contractors.” The Balance Small

Business, The Balance Small Business, 14 Mar. 2019, www.thebalancesmb.com/laws-

and-regulations-affecting-independent-contractors-398603.

Serino, Danielle. “Why Ohio Is One of the Worst States When It Comes to Protecting

Homeowners from Bad Contractors.” WKYC, WKYC, 16 May 2017,

www.wkyc.com/article/money/why-ohio-is-one-of-the-worst-states-when-it-comes-to-

protecting-homeowners-from-bad-contractors/439997932.

US Legal, Inc. “Ohio Construction Lien Law.” Construction Liens, 2019,

https://constructionliens.uslegal.com/state-laws/ohio-construction-lien-law/

US. “What's the Difference Between an Independent Contractor and an Employee?”

Children's Bureau | ACF, 23 Oct. 2018, https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/resource/the-

difference-between-an-independent-contractor-and-an-employee