On Mar 5, 7:19*am, Sam Takoy wrote:
Hi,

Our kitchen cabinets were built by a local cabinet maker. We live in a
Philadelphia suburb, the cabinet make lives in Bucks County. The
cabinets are of unacceptably poor quality. Examples include out-of-
square boxes, sloppy reveals, poorly mortised hinges (sloppy and
hinges are not flush with the wood), handles not at the same height,
gaps in joints, warped doors, damage in the finish, wobbly and crooked
drawers, tear outs in the veneer and many more.

We have obviously made a number of mistakes, the biggest being in
judgment of character and background checks. These mistakes led to
other mistakes, like paying the full amount when we were informed that
the cabinet maker ran out of money and wouldn't be able to continue
working on our project unless we paid. We were in a tough spot having
worked on the kitchen for three years and feeling the need to bring
this project to an end.

However, all of that is in the past. At this point, what recourse, if
any, do we have? Can one bring a law suit based on "low quality" -
that is, is the an objective measure of quality that the court could
base its decision on?

I would welcome any ideas on how to proceed. Or should we just
recognize that we made a $25k mistake and move on?

Many thanks in advance.

Sam

You need to seek legal advice.

Very carefully word your complaints as you present your complaint to
attorney.

It is my understanding that they are NOT allowed to put words into
your mouth, or suggest really aggressive recompense, else they appear
to be 'ambulance chasers', so they let you formulate your request for
satisfaction. Because you don't know all the ins and outs, you might
get the response to forget it. At this formative time, state simple
facts, THEN ask what are my rights, put the burden back onto the
attorney to tell you. You asked, so now he/she can tell you!

You are the plaintiff, the burden of proof is upon you. photos, repair
estimates from licensed professionals (several of them), construction
estimates for the original work request, copies of any signed
contracts.

You will be asked why you thought the work was acceptable enough to
pay the total before completion. Whether that payment represented your
implicit full satisfaction.

If this guy knows his scams, he will have laid a trail of entrapments
for you, that legally points to your tacit approvals.

You can claim naivety to an extent, but a lot of judges, will toss you
out of their court, UNLESS you are totally prepared:
1. you can claim you are naive, because this is first time hiring such
construction, and listened to recommendations - find out if the
recommendations were false, if true, then you might be able to claim
that this is a one time breach of quality on this otherwise
professional installer.
2. the original quote matches other quotes [not representing a super,
unrealistic bargain] and thus you expected some standard level of
quality - get photos, professional judgments [you have ALREADY shown
that your judgment cannot be counted upon, remove yourself from ANY
personal comments/attitudes, else a judge will attribute your request
in seeking satisfaction as vindictive revenge, and throw it out of his
court]
3. BE SPECIFIC - you MUST give the legal people handles to work with,
like what happened, what went wrong, and most importantly WHAT YOU
WANT NOW. Many people when going into court forget that key element,
don't leave actions up to them, if you ask for nothing you will get
nothing.
4. Often forgotten is the claim that this is your personal home [not
installed in a business] and therefore personal, something you must
look at everyday, and remember the 'bad' experiences - for some judges
[they are voted to be kept in office] that does have value.

Note: if you do NOT use the original installer to fix, you have to
establish why he is not capable of fixing [burden of proof upon
plaintiff]. You might be able to show other poor jobs. Or, that he is
just failing for you, like 3 unsuccessful attempts to correct, and he
is out. Something like that.

Two courses of action
1. rip out start over, refund total amount.and requires civil court
WITH an attorney
2. repair to acceptable level, make claim for repairs - there is a
necessary sequence for this action
a) you MUST make a request with time limit to the original supplier to
bring his work up to quality, after he refuses, or cannot, THEN you
proceed.
b) seek several written estimates, select reasonable one [you can
'average' estimates for repair to present to judge]

Assuming b) at less cost, go to Small Claims court [no attorney
required] file for compensation - and ASK for ANY reasonable expense,
even your time at $/hr to take all these actions. If you don't ask,
you won't get. A judge, may delete from total, but may not. Also,
pursue people personally, do not let them hide behind a 'corporate
entity' that can evaporate at the drop of a hat. I've seen people list
suppliers. You can't believe how much pressure a supplier can bring,
they don't want to take time to go to court, and they start looking at
this individual's account a bit closer, too.

And record, record, record. Written records have value. They can be
your notes, taken at the time of any conversation, but keep records,
when necessary, send registered mail to make request to complete work
with return receipt [for you to show judge you tried to get work
completed]

REMEMBER THIS:
You need to establish in these people's minds that you are a man of
your word, when you say you want something and pay for it, you expect
to get it. And, will not stop until everything is righteous.