I hired a man to do some work at my house on the kitchen. He gave the impression, when I hired him, that he would be the one doing the work- told me how much experience he has and what quality work he does. He then sent workers on his behalf to do the job who were not as experienced as he, without giving me prior notice that this would be the case.

He (verbally) gave me a time-frame of three days for the work to be completed- it has now been one week and the work is nowhere near done. I'd estimate that they will be here for at least another week. However, no time frame was specified in the contract.

Our entire house is in disarray, we have no kitchen and are spending tons of money on take-out because of it- I am becoming frustrated and wondering if I have any options at this point to get out of this and have someone else come in to finish the job instead? Is this possible even though there is no timeframe in the contract? Or am I stuck waiting around until they decide to finish the job? There have already been two days where they have not even been here at all, and there has been very poor communication on their behalf.

Please help!

Well, unfortunately what you're describing is very common. Still not acceptable, but common. So, in your decision making process you need to consider the fact that if you fire these guys you could just wind up moving from bad to worse.

I think you have a right to demand whatever your contract with him specifies. If it doesn't say that he specifically will be doing the work, nor the time frame, then there's probably not much you can actually do about it.

Have you attempted to visit with him about these issues? It may do some good, or you may just be banging your head against the wall. If you can get him to agree to any specific time frame or anything you could request it in writing, or put it in writing and ask him to sign it as an addendum to the contract you already have.

Have you paid him anything?

If he is licensed you can threaten to report him to the Contractor Licensing Division and/or the Home Improvement Commission.
I assume you haven't fully paid him because that is the best leverage you have to get it finished. You should also send him a certified letter stating your dissatisfaction and reminding that he made a verbal agreement on time for completion. This might help if you end up in court.

I only paid for the materials so far- I don't pay the rest until it's complete, so I'm sure he won't leave it un-done, it's just the timeframe that's killing me. Going without a kitchen, and having limited access to the rooms off the kitchen is extremely frustrating and difficult, and I just don't want it to continue for much longer!

Believe me... I've lived in houses that were being remodeled more times than I care to remember... I feel your pain.

I would recommend having a heart to heart talk with the guy. You may or may not get any results.

I'd definitely stay on it, but realistically you're probably pretty far off from really getting anywhere if you tried to take any action. If you reported him to any associations or anything he's a member of at this point they'd probably tell you to call back when it's been a couple of MONTHS and he's not done.

Since no dates or anything were written into the contract I think you have a pretty weak legal case at this point.

Like I said, I feel your pain. Right now I'd take the "catch more bees with honey than vinegar" approach and just try to sweet talk him into finishing it up.

Maybe you can schedule a Halloween party or something and tell him he HAS to be done because you're having 30 people over...

That is actually an EXCELLENT idea- I'll tell him that we're having people over... I won't really invite them, because I don't want to take the chance of him not being done--- but maybe if I tell him that, it'll get them moving.

Thanks for the idea!