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Imagine deciding that you want to remodel your home. You decide on a contractor to hire and agree about the payment details.

After the job was done, if you were happy with the work, would you stay true to the contract, or would you try to get out of paying your contractor the agreed upon amount?

In this story, one couple is in this situation, and they are actually asking their contractor for a refund.

I think they really messed up here. Keep reading to see if you agree.

AITAH if I don’t pay my contractor?

Hired a contractor for a pretty large home remodel. We didn’t want to professional plans so we used drawings we submitted and also worked with our contractor on some drawings.

Originally we planned on only using the contractor to get the project to Sheetrock and we would handle the rest.

He gave us an estimate that included everything, a turn key product, despite the fact the job was not supposed to be contracted for completion. We asked for that’s so that we would know how much to bid on the house.

We changed some things from the initial plan, signed a cost plus contract (contract stated a percentage would be added on to labor and material) and got to work.

They seem really happy with the contractor’s work.

Every invoice always had a break down of receipts and invoices from the subs and accounted for the direct cost of services and materials.

Ultimately, the job went well.

There were surprises, we had a lot of on the go decisions but during the process he was doing a good job and we just kept using him (he passed on his discounts to us for material as well) and it helped get the project to a point we could live in the house sooner.

We prob ran a little long on the project, time wise, and a few issues here and there, but all said and done he passed all inspections, the job was done well and we only had one small warranty issues that he addressed at no charge.

Then it was time to finish paying for the work.

When it was all said and done the contractor said he was going to cap the job that the % applied too.

It was during Covid and marital prices went sky high, and we had quite a few things that were unexpected, and we decided on some upgrades that originally weren’t going to do ( like a HVAC unit that ended up being over 13k. We paid direct for a lot of things on credit cards for points and such.

So he capped the job but we felt it was not right to pay the markup when we ordered for or paid for things.

So we wrote him a check of the % based on the number we thought was fair.

Then they discovered another problem.

He said that wasn’t the agreement and we went back and forth a couple times.

Ultimately we said we weren’t going to pay him anything because we found out that his GC license limit was less than the project ended up being and in our state that means he was unlicensed.

We’re now asking him to refund us money that was above his limit.

He says that is direct material and labor cost and doesn’t understand why we want that back.

AITAH?

Wait, so let me get this straight. They thought he did a great job, but they think he’s charging too much even though they acknowledge that materials were more expensive due to covid. And then they’re using a technicality to try to get a refund.

I’d be upset if I were the contractor. It’s really hard to find a contractor who does a great job. They burned a bridge here.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

I hope he’s smart. He sounds smart.

Another person urges OP to pay the contractor.

This person knows a judge would be on the contractor’s side.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about neighbors who couldn’t ignore reckless neighborhood driving after an accident occurred.

Everyone agrees that OP needs to pay the contractor.

I feel bad for the contractor! He didn’t do anything wrong! In fact, it sounds like he did a great job. I wish I knew who he was so I could hire him to do some renovations on my home. I have such a hard time finding a reliable contractor who does quality work.