Contract for home improvement project

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Question

Country: United States of America
State: Virginia

I have entered into a contract for a home improvement project. Contract was signed May 12th, 2005 and has an approximate completion date of July 1st, 2005. As of today December 7th, 2005 the final phases of the project are still not done. The contractor shows up only a couple of days a week and then stays only a few hours on those days. My e-mails and phone call go unanswered and have for 3 month s or so. I let this go this far because the contractor is/was a friend.As far as I can tell I have three options: * Continue to wait for contractor to finish at his pace * Continue to wait for contractor to finish at his pace and then withhold the finial payment * Fire the contractor, withhold final payment and use it to pay someone else to finish. Any withholding of payment would most likely lead to legal action of the $8,000 final payment and I want to know what I can do to protect myself.

Answer

Based on what you say here, you could probably file suit against him now (or at least threaten to do so) in small claims court or in regular court; filing in small claims court is easier and requires no attorney...you could try to collect all of the costs and damages that you suffered due to his behavior...