Have I been scammed?

I signed a contract with a contractor for a complete re-roof job. This was 2 months ago and he told me it would be 2-3 weeks after I signed to get the roof done. He keeps makeing up excuses, oh the weather this, that, now it’s running out of daylight. It has rained maybe 3 times in 2 months. I did ask him to put a “completion by” date in the contract which has already passed. The contract states that I cannot cancel and that I “agree to pay the FULL amount of the job if I do not accept delivery and installation of the goods”. There is also a Delays disclaimer that contractor shall not be liable for delays cuased by strikes, weather conditions, or other causes beyond his control. I have a real gut feeling that this guy is not telling me the truth especially since you cannot even find his companies name anywhere in the phone book. How can he then have so much work that he cannot get to me.

Anyway my main question is: Can I notify him that he did not meet the completion date and that the contract is not valid and I am going to use someone else? Can he put a Lien on my house even though he has not even done any work or even started?

Hope you didn’t give him any money up front.

As for the cancelling of the contract, I would think you could cancel if he didn’t meet the completion date, but I’d check with an attorney first.

def. ask an attorney

In the state of California contractors license law abandonment is cause for disciplinary action by the license board, and is defined as 30 days. You should call your state license board and/or check their website for the law in your state. Filing a complaint might help your legal case if it came to that. Also, the lien claim asks the contractor to describe the work done, so it would be hard to file without having done anything. You probably need to send the contractor a certified letter to state your position before hiring someone else, a lawyer should be able to help you with that.

Fortunately I didnt give him any money up front. I cannot afford an attorney and was hoping to get enough advice off this forum to at least press forward. good idea. The licensing agent in this state should be able to help. Any lawyers or lawyer wanta bes out there want to do any pro bono work on this forum?

There are two issues. How much money of yours does the roofer have. Has the roofer passed the state defined term of abadonment.

Has the guy pulled a permit yet? In Florida the law is very clear. You have 30 days to pull a permit and 90 days to commence work.