Dispute with "General contractor" over payment

[clockhart]

my s/o hired a "general contractor" to do a small amount of work in our kitchen. The man came out and was described exactly what we wanted done ... we have a separate oven/cooktop from the 60's with all original cabinets, we asked for the gas line to the cooktop be capped and everything routed to where the gas line for the oven is so we could install an all-in-one unit, the old built in over to be removed the cabinet above them to be cut out and the soffit extended 3 inches at the ceiling so a shelf or cabinet box could be build out to mount a new micro above the new cook top. The contractor swore this was doable and easy he wrote out a bid with explicit detail, this was signed by both and he was given a $50 deposit. The guy showed up for the work with his brother "the electrician" we had to re-explain to them 3 times what we wanted done... again, no problem! We left the guys to work for about 30 minutes and when we went to check on the work they had ripped down the entire wall of cabinets!! He then went into a speech about how he thought they were moduler cabinets but they weren't they were hand made and connected (by one shelving board mind you) and that the ONLY way to take out the piece (that was connected by one board, which we asked to be cut) was to take out the all of them... which they did without asking us first! He then said gee, I don't know what you want to do now but this is a lot more work than I originally bid for! My cabinets could not be replaced... they were hand made almost 50 years ago ... after they went to look at option at home depot they made a comment about rebuilding them with new wood to fit the exisiting doors.... but that is craftsmanship work and that gets pricey! After being told they were fired for destroying a section of my kitchen the contractor changed his story about how he "just wasn't finished, they had taken them down to cut them" (They put all the wood in the trash!) and that we owe him for all of his work. He did do the gas line work but I want to have it checked by an inspector but to charge us for demo work?!? The original bid was for $350 for everything, he says we owe him $200. On top of everything else, when I went to look into reporting him to the BBB there is no record of him or his business and the State of Colorado has no record of a business license either! He is not listed in the yellow pages, dex online, nothing! My s/o found him on craigslist and he said he was "fully licensed and insured!" My issue is, I am willing to take him to small claims for the damage since he seems to think we owe him money but my s/o thinks he is owed for the work he did even though it wasn't work we asked him to do. What are the actual laws on things like this? Thank you!

 

[Michael Wechsler]

In general, the law is as follows -

Quantum meruit (equity) states that if you knew or saw he was doing work and didn't say anything, you'd be responsible to pay. If he did the work and then you came in and realized it wasn't at all what was agreed, you don't have to pay for it. This makes good common sense. With regard to going to court, perhaps an arbitrator may want to award for the work done but you just need to get your point across that (a) it was clearly not what you wanted, (b) you had not known that this work was performed, and (c) you should not have to pay for work not requested and this whole lack of attention is the crux of the problem that is still costing you.