When the homeowners want to go for constructing a new home or repairing the old one, they are required to hire a contractor. The homeowners and the constructor decides the terms of agreement which includes the material they will use, period of time by which the project will be completed, the total amount of the project and others.
However, sometimes the contractor’s fails to deliver the agreement signed or commit a fraud for which you must take legal action against them.
Common causes for which you can take legal actions against your contractor
Some of the reasons for filing a lawsuit against your contractor;
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- The outcome of the work done is unsatisfactory
- The work done has not met with the safety standards
- The contractor has not completed the work but has already accepted the deposit.
- The contractor has overcharged for the material used or for the whole project.
What legal actions you can take against your contractor?
Fall foul of contract claim:
As a homeowner, you can sue the contractor for inability to fulfil the clauses of the contract. An agreement is made between both the parties which includes all the information related to the project like what kind of material will be used, when will the project be delivered, among many others.
If a situation arises, like a miss deadline, in-complete project, or unable to utilise the materials that were signed in the contract by the parties then, you can easily sue the contractor for breach of contracts.
Filling for fraud claim:
A fraud occurs when the contractor makes a bogus claim to dodge and deceive the homeowners by signing a forged document. It is as if a contractor showed you one plan before signing the agreement, whereas at the time of completion the construction done was completely different.
Another instance would be when the contractor promised you to use high-quality material, which was otherwise neglected, and instead, low cost and low quality material was used after finalising contracts and receiving payments.
Defective construction Work
Defect can easily lessen the worth of your house, these defects include;
Design defects, which includes roof, not built properly or up to standard provided by the architect, which can easily lead to water leakage or scarce support.
Material defects, includes using of wallboard in damp areas
Construction defects include poor work done by the labour, like the plumbing of water pipes, electrical lines installing and many others.
Surface defects include building house on uneven or un-levelled setting.
Can you sue without a contract?
It is very important that while doing a business both the parties should have a written contract between them instead of a verbal one. However, even if you do not hold a written contract you can still sue the contractor on the pretext of an oral agreement in certain situations.
For example, you hired a contractor to build a wall in your backyard, which on 70 per cent completion was left incomplete. You can follow this through the court by enforcing the oral agreement made by the contractor to refund or complete the work.
Take another scenario where a contractor chooses to do different colour against the one decided by oral contract, here the work is complete but is done in-correctly. Such situations usually end up with no solution because to file a legal complaint one needs to provide proof.
This is where a verbal contract is not taken into consideration.
How can a construction lawyer help you?
Before using the contractor, you have to prove that there has been a breach in the contract; this is where consulting a reliable construction lawyer can be beneficial for you.
If you have faced any issue in service, construction lawyers in Dubai will help you in filing a lawsuit against the contractor keeping in mind the state laws and getting you compensation for your loss.
You can even consult a commercial lawyer in Dubai for finalising the contracts before work starts to ensure that you are signing the right documents.
Wrapping up.
When an agreement is made, and the contractors fail to work on the condition that was decided between the two, then you can easily file for a lawsuit. These lawsuits can be filed at the civil court. So to ensure that the whole process went smoothly you should consult a good and experienced lawyer.