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UI need some legal advice to decide if legal action is feasible and whether it will be fruitful.
I had bought a piece of land in a tier-2 city. Since the size of plot was big(~4000 sqft) and I couldn’t reach on a decision on how much to build the house on. Meanwhile, I contracted a small time contractor and asked to put boundary around the plot and build a small 200sqft out-house for small parties and later can be used as servant quarters.
The contractor quoted a very competitive price and didn’t even demand a huge advance, just 50K. Even arranged for his brother in law architect to prepare drawings of the whole plot(outhouse+actual house) free of cost. Too good to be true, right?
An agreement was drawn for just boundary and outhouse. I paid the 50K. He started. More than half the work completed and I paid a proportionate amount of 4.5L and mutually decided to pay the rest on completion. But he stopped after some time and insisted I confirm the drawings of the actual house, which I did. Applied for loan. Everything was done.
But I had a bad feeling. So I made up an excuse of having some trouble at the bank and requested to complete the outhouse and boundary part and later sign an agreement seperately for the house. This is where the Contractor turned uncooperative and stopped work completely.
Now, it has been over eight months and he refuses to work till he gets the contract for the actual house and wants to formally sign an agreement to which I don’t agree. Plus the quality of work is not very great. But I have got my money’s worth. I have proposed a mutually agreed short closing of the contract. But he refuses.
What legal action can I take? Also, will it be feasible while being fruitful in the long run?
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UNAL
It’s a common tactic to hold clients & get more profitable or big work from them because he knows you are going to build your house and being a first timer you’ll follow contact and will not want a half finished job and won’t like to take a loss.
I suggest that you get a Certified valuer and get the value of the work done and price for all the things other than the wall like cement, sand, etc
Get a lawyer to draft a notice saying the quantity & quality of the work is shit and you want to either complete for 90% of the original price or rework per client satisfaction or fck off or else there is gonna be a case.
They’ll most probably try to bring in politicans or talk but you sit tight. They’ll leave.
If you have paid more than 50k over the quantity of work, go to the police otherwise it’s not worth it greasing more than a few palms.
Give a month gap for everything to settle and start your work with new team.
As for as construction, get a architect and a Civil engineer ( for labour) and fund the materials yourself. Pay labour & materials every week. Or get a architect & a Civil engineer for contract.
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UBeing in the industry for more than a decade gives anyone knowledge outside the technical side.
Also I worked in the city known for bad clients lol.
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DI have had experiences similar to OP and would have valued good advice from someone like you at that time. Thanks to the good folks in online forums trying to help each other!
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UReally I think this is like giving back to community because I too learn a lot from here and other subs.
What did you do & how was it resolved?
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DI lost nearly 2 lac to 2 contractors altogether. First faked his experience and started doing a pathetic job. I stopped him, but couldn’t get my money back. The 2nd too money and absconded. Planning to get out of this country soon 🙂
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UWherever you go, there will be frauds. You have to be cautious about anything with liquid money.
Also most of the fraud contractors has political connection and you just have to visit someone above his level. Just saying you have political connections will reduce your troubles a bit less even if you haven’t. I say I visited Collector office or to the mayor’s office or MLA office but I don’t even know who the collector or mayor or MLA is. But it installs a little fear. That’s how I got a government servant to do his job too.
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