how to give 5 day notice on AIA

[gerretw]

Hi - I have been doing residential construction since the late 70's but now I find myself in the commercial world. I am doing a job and the electrician we hired has been nothing but a dick. He is very competent - 90 % of his work is commercial Recently he passed his final - and shut down the power for all of the work he did. Some how he mickey moused the panel or transformer - there is no flipping breakers to turn it on. He doesn't want to wait for his retention - he said as soon as we cut him a check, he'll turn it back on. Previously he didn't pay his supplier - it went 90 days - we had to pay it on the 89th day out of his retention to avoid a lien.

Now he is pulling this crap. So I emailed him " per the AIA contract line #3.4 that you signed, you have 5 days to restore the power" That line allows us to hire another electrician to fix it and take it out of his retention. He has told me several times in the past if anyone touches his electrical work he will void the warentee. This job is on California.

I don't believe he has the legal right to viod his warrentee if we exercise our rights - correct? And if we enforce this clause it says "the contractor may, by appropiate Modification.." what is that about - is there some special form to use? I hate to just capitulate to him. G

[GaryJR]

I'd call Mickey Mouse

[parkwest]

Wouldn't your lawyer have the answer to this? I have a suggestion but it wouldn't be pretty...

And I'd be cutting him his final check as dual checks, one for him and one for his supplier... then put him on the DO NOT CALL list.

And how can you pay him his retainage if you have been paid it yet? What does you subcontract with the electrician say about all of this?

[Ted S.]

Regardless of whether or not he wants to wait for is retention, what does his contract say about retention? Is it not that easy?

[Overbuilders]

Dear Santa, we need spell check for Christmas.

[Dick Seibert]

Whenever you've got a subcontractor in financial problems, you've got problems, you have to advance him money very judicially, it looks like you've done that. His contract implicitly assumes that his system is fully functioning, call him and tell him that he is to make the system functional immediately or you are going to bring someone else in and deduct it from his retention, retentions are in the contract and the industry standard procedure. Legally he can't do what he's doing and he probably will have to be forced to legally honor any warranty, so forget about the warranty, he probably doesn't have the money to bring or defend a lawsuit.

[gerretw]

As to why he hijacks the power, he asserts he is super a-b and has done a perfect job and he has to suffer while all of the other F**off contractors putz around making him wait on getting paid. So he adopts a don't give a s*** attitude: I don't care - take as long as you want - nobody is going to use my power till I get paid.

What we have to do is either get the Exec. Dir. to pay him off early, or pressure him into hotting it up. I expect at this point, since I have had no response, is that he is waiting to see if I have the balls to go through with hiring someone else.

I wondered if he was over extended- he claims to run over $250K in materials a year, says his supplier bought him a free trip to Hawaii last year. It was weird how he hung us out to dry for $4k in materials and his supplier didn't cut off his credit on his other jobs. I alternatly think A) he did it because he could B) he charged materials for another job to our account and when our job ran long, he couldn't cover it so he decided to pressure us into covering it to avoid a lien.

He has a big attitude problem and apparently thinks he is perfect.

[gerretw]

His personality and attitude put aside, my real question is - what is the proper way, per the AIA contract, to give him 5 day notice? And if he ignores it, is there any notification one has to give him when hiring the other sub to fix his work?

Has anyone had experiance with this? Did it work out? Was it worth it?

G

[Joe Adams]

Most contractors avoid use of the AIA contracts if at all possible because they were written to protect the architect and property owner.

One of the costs of doing business is hiring an attorney to draft contracts that protect you, the contractor.

My recommendation is to consult an attorney to properly advise you on enforcing the tenants of the AIA contract.

I know this is not what you want to hear but in this case you'll be a lot better off paying a legal expert for his/her advice than relying on anything you get here for free.

[parkwest]

If this electrician is holding up the job, if it was me, I would send him an email cc'ed to my attorney telling him that he has exactly 24 hours to rectify the situation or you will take steps to fix it and bill him. And then get another electrician on the job immediately.

The way you describe it, it sounds like extortion by your electrician to me. Where did you find this guy? And what did his references say when you asked them about working with this guy before you hired him to work for you?

[gerretw]

He is very competent and was highly reccommended by a fellow electrical contractor who was too busy to do the job. I did email my attorney and he advised to remind him of the contract he signed, threaten calling the state license board etc. and avoid getting into litagation land.

The more I think about it, the more agree with Dick Seibert, he is hurting for cash. I think if negoations fail I'll go to the building inspector and tell him what he has done and get him to issue a correction notice. Just keep applying the pressure till he fixes it. G

[dgbldr]

I think if negoations fail I'll go to the building inspector and tell him what he has done and get him to issue a correction notice. Just keep applying the pressure till he fixes it. G

None of the responses above have suggested this course of action. Sounds to me like you already know what you want to do and are looking for us to validate it. I won't. Most inspectors don't want to get involved in petty disputes between contractors. I know my inspectors would say, well it worked when I inspected. If you claim sabotage, call the cops.

My opinion: email with receipt or certified overnight letter, then immediately bring another electrician to fix it and take it out of his pay. Also do not pay him anything without lien releases from both him and all his subs/suppliers. Screwing around and negotiation with these types does not usually work and waste a lot of your (hopefully) billable time.

Also sounds like you need a better lawyer.

[parkwest]

...I think if negoations fail I'll go to the building inspector and tell him what he has done and get him to issue a correction notice. Just keep applying the pressure till he fixes it. G

I agree with dg on this. It's not the inspectors job to run your jobsite for you.

Don't play games with this sub. Negotiations were done before both parties signed the contract. He has to be fired for insubordination. What are you afraid of? It is YOUR job to get the job done on budget and on schedule. Either he is fired or you need to fire yourself for not doing your job.

If he went back and undid work that you already paid for, then call the cops on the guy for vandalism.

How much time do you put in your budgets for being a co-dependent enabler, anyway? lol

No excuses! The job is either done right, or not at all.

Remember, all your subs talk to each other. If they hear that you are a puffball that can walked on, your life as a GC will be a living hell!

Now go and do the right thing!

[Unforgiven]

5 days has come and gone...how did this turn out?

[jimAKAblue]

I had an electrician pull this same stunt on me trying to get me to pay in full. I wouldn't pay in full because he had a few issues that I wanted handled. So, instead of servicing the issues, he cut the main wires to the building and crosswired a ground.

I don't take kindly to extortion. I gave him one hour to get back over to the job to fix things, or I was calling in another electrician. He gave me the same story about "warranty" if another electrician touched his work. Like I said, I don't take kindly to extortion.

The next morning I had a new electrician pull a permit and fix things up. I paid him the $350 o whatever. The other guy ranted and raved and demanded final payment. I told him that I'd sign his check in front of the judge after he sued me. I never paid him a dime of his final.

Its been a few years and I think he forgot to file his lawsuit. I came out a little ahead on this deal. I'm pretty sure that I would have made out much better if we had went to court.

My advice would be different though. I would immediately file a police report. I'd call it malicious destruction of property, tresspassing and theft. The problem would be proving it but if my instincts are correct, I'm confident that the electrician would admit the deed while explaining to the investigator that "the contractor is trying to screw me". Either way, the facts would be documented: either he never finished and it never worked, or he finished and he altered it.

Call the cops and file a complaint.