Speakers Corner: Few options for homeowners upset with contractors
Posted November 17, 2021 6:47 pm.
Last Updated November 18, 2021 10:34 am.
Speakers Corner is back! CityNews wants to hear from you. We’ve been asking you to send us interesting stories, videos or questions you want answered. The Queen Street booth maybe a thing of the past, but we’re still listening and want to hear what’s on your mind.
This week a man in Mississauga is speaking out about the lack of options to hold contractors accountable for unfinished or shoddy work.
“Unfortunately there’s not a lot of help for us if we get taken advantage of,” said Shueyb Sheikh, a homeowner who is living through a very expensive nightmare.
More than a year ago, he hired and paid a contractor $65,000 to completely redo his side and backyard patio as well as repaint his home.
According to the contract, the job was to be finished in three weeks.
“Here we are more than a year later and the job has been abandoned,” he said.
The contractor he hired did do some work. He laid down concrete but it’s not level and completely buried and covered lights that were built into the patio.
It has different shades of colour and the entire project needs to be ripped up and redone.
The house is only painted in one small section.
“This guy took money and promised a ton of work that was never finished,” Sheikh said. “At first he blamed COVID, then said his tools were stolen — then said he couldn’t find workers. He just had different responses as to why the work wasn’t getting done.”
The contractor said he would finish the work but only after Sheikh paid an additional $10,000.
“He was asking for more money to fix the mistakes he made.”
Sheikh is now in the process of hiring another contractor to get the project completed, which means more money out of his pocket.
“The overall cost is $100,000 to fix this — $40,000 to rip this out and then $60,000 to do the job again.”
Sheikh is considering contacting Peel Regional Police but at this point, there’s little they can do.
“If a job has already been started and a deposit has been made, it’s not something that would be considered fraud by a police service,” said Constable Akhil Mooken.
CityNews has done several stories in the past with homeowners complaining about unfinished work from contractors. Police often get calls like this but they only get involved in some of those cases.
“If a homeowner does in fact put a deposit down, say, for a renovation project and the contractor simply does not show up and doesn’t even start the work, then at that point, it would be considered fraud and we can look into into that case,” Mooken said
We wanted to know why other cases, like the one involving Sheikh, wouldn’t be considered fraud.
“The police are not here to navigate and resolve contract disputes such as that,” Mooken said.
Contract disputes can be lengthy and involve finger pointing on both sides. Especially when a contractor is asking for more money to finish the work.
“A lot of times when the contractor is asking for more money, it’s because costs for materials and labour have gone up, something that does often happen in these types of projects,” Mooken said. “Our focus is when a criminal offence has been committed where somebody has taken money and simply fled, never starting any work.”
Instead, police recommend people like Sheikh file a lawsuit.
“There is a core process in place through the civil courts,” Mooken said.
But homeowners like Sheikh say that can be a lengthy and expensive process, giving contractors like the one he worked with time to do this to other people.
“I just think as Canadians we need to have a better process in place to hold these people accountable,” Sheikh said.
At this point, Sheikh is planning to file a complaint in small claims court. The most he can sue for though is $35,000.
“That’s not even close to what I’m out,” he said. “I’m left to take care of this on my own. It’s a nightmare of fixing all of this and will play on my family as well as my livelihood.”
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