Room addition problem

[Amyloo]

What is the name of your state? CA
Hello. We hired a contractor nine months ago to add a room to our home. During the discussion we decided to increase our addition, and the contractor gave us a written bid for approx. $150,000. Nine months later.....not a nail has been hammered. (The contractor says that it has taken nine months to get permits etc.) Meanwhile I get a call from them about two weeks ago saying "things have changed and we need to talk about your contract." They came to our home and said that the guy who originally gave us our written bid was "underbidding" a lot so they fired him, contstruction costs have gone up in the last nine months, and now our same addition that was around $150,000 will now cost an ADDITIONAL $78,000!!!!! Can they do this?

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state? CA
Hello. We hired a contractor nine months ago to add a room to our home. During the discussion we decided to increase our addition, and the contractor gave us a written bid for approx. $150,000. Nine months later.....not a nail has been hammered. (The contractor says that it has taken nine months to get permits etc.) Meanwhile I get a call from them about two weeks ago saying "things have changed and we need to talk about your contract." They came to our home and said that the guy who originally gave us our written bid was "underbidding" a lot so they fired him, contstruction costs have gone up in the last nine months, and now our same addition that was around $150,000 will now cost an ADDITIONAL $78,000!!!!! Can they do this?

**A: yes, they can and you can also hire an attormey to review the contract. Suffice it to say, you should be geting other bids and using another contractor.
Verify with the building permit office the status of the permit application, if actually applied for.

 

[Amyloo]

Thank you. We told them in writting that if they could not honor the bid then forget it. Now they are trying to bill us for about $10,000. for what they call work to date. Plans were drawn and some permits pulled. We originally gave them $1,000. Do we have to pay their bill? Thank you.

 

[HomeGuru]

Thank you. We told them in writting that if they could not honor the bid then forget it. Now they are trying to bill us for about $10,000. for what they call work to date. Plans were drawn and some permits pulled. We originally gave them $1,000. Do we have to pay their bill? Thank you.

**A: yes, or then can lien your property. Try and negotiate the amount down.