Is your contractor actually licensed (check his license number at the secretary of states office online)

He sounds like he is trying to cover up something. Odd that the electrical was inspected and that didn’t trigger the other Inspections.

He is licensed with the state. The electrical is a state inspection, whereas the other inspections are city inspection. The electrician pulls his own permit. Yes, I agree - the plumber came in a white econo-van with no lettering or license # displayed and our contractors response when we asked why he didn't pull the insulation permit is because "he assumed we didn't want to spend the money" He actually had decent reviews on Angie's List and Google, we are beyond frustrated with this project - his subs have broken a window, installed flooring incorrectly and chipped our brand new counter top - and he has been anything but accountable!

I did a kitchen a year ago and the city did not require permits if the plumbing was not being relocated and the basic footprint remained the same. So...idk. We didn't change electric on that either.

What is wrong with the dishwasher?

The dishwasher was relocated, the kitchen pipes were cut down to the floor and sink plumbing rebuilt - he forgot about the line to the refrigerator that needed to be moved and as an after thought after walls, floors and cabinets were installed, ran a new line cutting through the back of all our cabinets and now our stove cannot be installed all the way. The exterior wall was completely gutted all sheet rock, insulation and old wiring removed, no new windows or doors. He lied to the city on the scope of work, didn't even show them the contract or new layout. My concern is that his plumber was okay with leaving the refrigerator water line with a 12 ft PEX line with a connection under a stack of drawers right above our subfloor and okay with not putting a shutoff valve on the line. I had to tell him to come back and put in solid copper and then had to have him come back to put a shut off valve on the line. The way he left it was completely not to code, not to mention I can't install my oven all the way. It makes me very concerned with what else could be wrong. I do know there is supposed to be some sort of air valve installed on the counter top with new dishwasher installation and his plumber did not do that. And yep, I do know the inspector isn't looking at the cosmetics - those are just additional issues we have with our contractor.

Helpful to have the additional information. That is work that should be done under a permit - at least in our area.

So, you can report the GC to the State Board and they can revoke his license (if he has one). State Boards don't have the authority to make the GC go back and pull a permit after the fact and redo the whole project. If a permit is pulled now, then what is there will have to be gutted back out to the studs and start over. The City Planning and Development Department does not have the authority to make the GC pull the permit and redo all the work at no additional cost. They can ban the GC from working in the City in the future. So who pays for all of the redo?

The only way to get it redone is to get a lawyer and go to court. Even then, the GC may not have enough assets to go after. Costly and could take years. Did you get a certificate of insurance from the GC showing that he has GL insurance? You wouldn't want this person to do the work again if it wasn't satisfactory the first time. Just not sure there is a good way to get unstuck at this point.

I'd play a game of wait and see at this point. Don't pay him and see what happens. If you desperately want to know that "everything" was done correctly, you're going to be the one to pay for the gut and the reinstall. Or you can wait and see if anything leaks and make repairs IF they are necessary. Your homeowner's insurance would likely cover it at the point. I know that sounds crazy but either you're going to 100% pay for any rip-outs and redos now or you have a 50/50 chance of having to do it later. I'd vote for later.

I'm not sure of your location but our last house had unpermitted work done prior to us buying it and when we sold the house, there was no fallback on us for any of it. I'd talk to a realtor and see what they say. It quite possibly is a non-issue, especially since the electrical was inspected.

Yes, those things would have required inspection.

Thank you Brickwood - I did call the state and they said to file a complaint, which we are in the process of doing, and they will penalize him in some way but they can't enforce the work to be done correctly. And the building inspector said exactly what you said. So if I file a complaint do you think that will help if he does put a lien on our home or if he would take us to small claims court? He says we owe him about $5250.00 but I am still arguing a chipped counter top, window replacement (he wants to just patch it) - I've asked him several times to turn it into his insurance so we can settle on a fair price but he hasn't and I've been holding off submitting it to his insurance, trying to be nice because I don't want his rates to go up for something so small. Flooring that wasn't installed to spec-short staggers in about 250 sq ft of flooring less than 2" but spec is 16". I emailed pictures to the warranty department of the flooring manufacturer and they said it could affect the warranty should the seams ever pop. Not to mention the negative affect on the equity of our home if we ever sell our home and disclosing the work was done without a permit. I'm not too worried about insulation because I saw the insulation, the vapor barrier and red tape around all the switches etc. but I am going to hire a plumber to take a look at everything they can see. Also could this affect our home insurance or a future claim?

shead Thanks. I just want to make sure we aren't in any trouble, there is no repercussions from insurance and that I have a case should he file a lien or small claims court. At this point I just don't even want to hear from him again - no way do I want him back in my house doing any tear out or anything!

Well, you can’t leave it as is for multiple reasons and one which will come back to bite you years from now if you decide to sell. The inspector for the buyer comes in and red flags are raised. One of two options: buyers walk away or money from the sale goes back to the buyers' attorney, held in escrow, until YOU fix it.

However, the Town did say, in writing, that no other permits were required. With that information, the GC was good to go. The fact he did shoddy work is a separate issue.

Maybe it is Small Claims Court you should be visiting. You do not need an attorney for that.

I believe the issue here is that the Contractor may not have fully disclosed to the City the full extent of the work. The Cities response may well have been different had he/she done so.

I certainly would not say that what you are dealing with is small and I would not worry about how things affect his insurance rates.

Personally, I would talk to my attorney about drafting a letter stating the facts of everything that has happened, the lack of permitting, performing the project illegally, the concerns over the lack of quality in the work performed, the items outstanding and left to be done, and the fact that complaints are now filed with the State and with the City. The letter should state what you want to happen (whatever that is) and also state that he is to contact the attorney only and not have any direct contact with you. I am not trying to give you legal advice, your attorney will do that, but I think having to pay any more at this point would be a travesty. My point would be to try to save the money that he says you owe and use it to fix the outstanding items that can be fixed - by someone who is capable and honest. Your attorney may advise you differently and will have much more information on the possibility of liens on your home - which could come from suppliers and subcontractors rather than the GC.

Don't know what the laws are in your state, but where I am a claimant cannot contact the insurance company directly to initiate an action. Only the policy holder (GC) can.

I am in Minnesota and I can start a claim with his insurance, I just figured he'd want more money if I started an insurance claim - the amount I noted is with his "discounts"-not that I've accepted his "discounts". At this point though - Other than not paying him, filing a claim with his insurance, getting a plumber to check over what they can, I don't know what can really be fixed with the water line behind the oven or the flooring-I don't think I can live through tearing out the flooring. None of his subs or suppliers can put a lien on our home because none of them sent me a preliminary lien notice within the required 45 days - only the contractor sent me one. I think you're right to contact an attorney - I was really hoping to settle this amicably without lawyers but maybe it's safer to do it now before he does??

Who drew up the plans for the remodel? Any identifying stamps on the plan?

Now that you've blown the permit whistle at the Building Department, are they going to require permits be pulled, or are they willing to overlook the transgression? Don't let your (justified) anger at this guy keep you from thinking clearly and strategically about possible outcomes. Good luck!

^^^einportlandor makes an excellent point. I foolishly got our local septic department involved when we bought our last house trying to be "diligent" and all I did was open a can of worms for myself and costing us $15K for something that would have been fine had I kept my mouth shut ;)

If you're concerned about the plumbing, hire a certified plumber for an hour or two and explain what went on behind the walls. He can advise you whether or not your best course of action is to tear out and redo or just leave it. Future home inspectors only inspect what they can visually see or what they can deduce with 100% certainly from what they can see. They can't evaluate plumbing that is behind a wall that isn't causing any issues with leaks, etc.

His cabinet builder drew up the plans, it has the contractor company name written on it. No the city and inspector I talked to said they won't make us do anything, just wanted us to know we may not want demand him to pull permits because they will have to rip walls open.

You really need to determine if any of the work the contractor did actually required a permit and if so what was the extent of the work in violation of code. Many of the comments you made about the suspect work seem to be more quality related than actual code violations.

Kitchen Abode - I did verify with the city, building inspector and state commerce that permits should have been pulled for the insulation and plumbing. I was just stating that I am concerned because I had to point out to the GC and plumber that what I saw of his work wasn't to code and he had to come back and fix it. But I don't know about all codes or what he did that I can't see. I agree I don't want to rip open my house, especially if there are no violations. I was asking for what I do now...leave it alone, making him pull permits, file a complaint with the state, get a home inspection, call a plumber, taking him to court etc. shead, einportlandor and brickwood have been very helpful.

Anjela McVay, I can appreciate the situation, that's why I mentioned about determining the extent of the violation. In other words, though a permit should have been pulled say for the insulation but if the work was actually done in accordance to code despite the fact that there was no permit it would be shame to go through the official permit process just for a piece of paper. It's a tough call.

Right. he building inspector said he won't even step in the house unless a permit is pulled so I have no idea if there is a violation, other than the dishwasher isn't to code. So how big of a deal is that piece of paper and piece of mind and at what/whose cost? And if I accept what he's done, do I owe him any more money? This whole thing is so messed up.

Why not get another plumber out to assess the problem areas that you identified before going through all of the other trouble? I'm sure that the new plumber will be able to provide you a fix for the water line to your fridge and fix the dishwasher. If everything else is satisfactory, then deduct the cost of the plumber's bill from what you owe the GC. As for the chipped counter, is it granite that can be filed and fixed? If so, follow the same process of deducting the cost to fix it from the final GC bill.

I think it's best to take the path that will be the easiest and less emotional draining.

Counter is quartz.

Anjela McVay - You mention in your original post that you hired another contractor as a consultant. As a consultant can't he/she advise you as to whether or not work was done by code. From your description of the work it would not take much to determine what items would have required a permit and if the work done was done in accordance to the code. They should also be able to advise you where it is a quality of workmanship issue versus a code related one. For example, the code does not care whether copper or PEX is used to run a water supply to the dishwasher and I'm not aware of a code requirement that a shut-off valve must be installed nor a requirement that the water line can't be run inside the cabinets.

Call the fabricator for the quartz and have them come out and fix it.

The pex line was to the fridge and could not have a connection and needed a shut off. I had him correct those items, I was just saying that if he couldn't do those things right, what else could be wrong . the consultant did say the dishwasher isn't to code but couldn't see all the plumbing do to cabinets and sheetrock. same with the insulationinsulation-just like the building inspector said. The quartz fabricator tried to fix the countertop but made it worse.