A general contractor is a professional who will take on construction projects, such as the building of a new home. Many times, a general contractor will oversee the whole project, while hiring subcontractors to do specific jobs, like plumbing and electrical work. But there are also general contractors who handle the entire job on their own, perhaps depending on the scope and scale of that project.
There are many reasons why people fail to pay contractors on time, and debt collection issues are common. But one of the biggest reasons for nonpayment is just when there is a disagreement between the contractor and the client over the services that were supposed to be rendered. The client may feel that they shouldn’t have to pay until that obligation is fulfilled, while the contractor may feel that they do not have any further obligation and deserve payment immediately.
Cleaning up the site
One example of how this happens is when clients assume that contractors will provide services that they do not provide. For instance, a company may work on building a home on a lot, but the contractor expects the homeowner to hire another company to do cleanup around the property after the job is done. They never offer cleanup services, and these were not promised when they were hired.
But the client may have assumed that cleanup was just “part of the job.” They never actually read the contract closely enough to see that they were not paying for cleanup services. They may then refuse to pay the contractor until this cleanup work is done, even though they don’t really have any basis to do so. It’s all just based on a misunderstanding from the very beginning of the process.
These types of non-payment issues can become very complex. Those involved need to understand their legal options.
