The threat of license revocation will often lead to people seeing the light. I don’t know that’s what happened, but that’s what would happen where I live.
That's what I had hoped for originally, but that's not how the CA Board works, apparently. Not officially, anyway. I suspect my case worker finagled something along those lines, though. He was so adamant, for months, that it was not his responsibility, and then she turned him around.
Congrats, Dirk. What a weight off your shoulders, dude!! I'm so happy for you.
Maddie
Good for you man! Good for you! I’m very happy for you.
Even if u didn’t get credit for the 1000 th post elsewhere. Lol
Thanks Maddie, Jim!
And the knife keeps twisting. LOL
Congrats, Dirk!
He giveth, and he taketh away...
Thanks, Kelly!
Great news indeed. I am going straight to court with my issue as my certified demand letter was ignored. My court case is in August.
I am not sure how it works out there but I would think you'd just sue him and if he lost, he could then pursue a claim against his bond insurance. But awesome that it didn't come to that.
What happens now with your warranty? Is the builder on the hook still to support your pool? That is my concern that I will have an issue and due to the litigation they will not do anything.
I was using the letters and the Board, and would have tried the Bond, to stay
out of court. While I was dead-sure I was in the right, and that I should recover 100% expenses, the judge could have seen things differently. It's was a roll of the dice I was trying to avoid. My contractor lied on several occasions, so who knows what he would have come up with in court. And then there was the issue of prorating. The contractor could have sited 15 year average life span for plaster, mine was 5 when it was destroyed, so maybe the judge would have only given me 2/3 of my expenses. Plus, there was something I signed that the judge might have had to throw the whole thing out. A lot could have gone wrong, not to mention the days of prep I would have done. So my strategy was to do everything I could do before using the court system. In CA, if I had won the judgement, and the contractor refused to pay, then the Board steps in and suspends his license until he pays. That would have been my ultimate leverage.
Regarding the warranty, the contractor I was after was not the PB. He was my maintenance guy. This wasn't a new build. The original PB was hired by the previous owner of the house, so to whatever extent the warranty was in place before all this, it still is now. The maintenance guy installed a bunch of new pool pad stuff, but I've already had two of those items repaired through Pentair, by other local certified Pentair guys, so that stuff's warranty is still OK, too. And the new surface was yet another contractor (plaster company), so that warranty is good, too.
The maintenance guy tried to get me to sign something for the settlement ending his liability for any and all, forever, but I told him to pound sand and he gave up on that. I explained to him that CA contractors are on the hook for their work for X years (depending on what the work is), and that him making good on what he destroyed does not alleviate his liability for the other goods and services I purchased from him. This is somewhat a non-issue, because most of what he did is Pentair, and I wouldn't want the guy in my yard no matter what anyway. So I'll never likely ever have to deal with him again.
There’s nothing better in this world, when wrong has become right!! I walk this rock we live on every day treating people the way I want to be treated, I’m a firm believer in Karma.
Too many people give up on things they shouldn’t, and that in itself is why these crooked contractors get away with what they do. If more people stood up for their rights, then we would see a lot less of this type of thing.
Good for you for taking this all the way as far as it can be takin. You can walk away from this story feeling really good, that at the very minimum, he did not get away with it, with you!!
And just remember, HE doesn’t have to believe in Karma, but trust me, Karma believes in HIM!!
Now go have a cold one, and figure out how to shorten your long winded rants!!!
Well said. Though I prefer to think of my writing as poetry, long-winded though it is!
