While we always tried to identify bad customers before the contract was signed it was not always possible. As we grew and I was less involved in the contract process we had a few that went to contract that should have been weeded out in the contract process.
We had one customer who was a retired engineer. He would come to the construction site every morning with a lawn chair and sit and watch the construction. Often he would go up to the trades people and ask questions about what they were doing and question why they were using a particular tool or material. In the evening he would go to the library and do research. Often he would bring a do-it-yourself book to the home and ask why the tradesperson was not using a certain technique. It not only slowed down the construction but was upsetting all our trades' people.
We used pre-fabricated wood I-beams on our floors because they were more uniform, shrunk less and provided quieter floors. Our customer had envisioned traditional lumber. He questioned the carpenter who explained that that the product was superior to the traditional lumber. The next morning the engineer customer came to the job site with a bucket full of water with an I-beam cut off he had taken from the jobsite the night before floating in it. It had, of course, swollen on the cut edges. He believed because the truss absorbed water it was inferior. Our Carpenter contractor was ready to walk off the job.
To deal with situations such as this we had the following clause in our contract;
32 .ADDITIONAL REMEDIES: : If Purchaser in any way harasses Seller or any of its employees or subcontractors, or interferes with construction of the residence or conducts unauthorized visits to the site, or makes repeated complaints to third parties, or indicates a fundamental unhappiness with the residence or the project, or otherwise indicates any material lack of creditability in Seller or Seller’s ability and willingness to perform its obligations under this Agreement, then Seller may, in its sole discretion, terminate this Agreement by notice to Purchaser and refund to Purchaser any earnest money payments made by Purchaser. Seller shall not be obligated to return or pay to Purchaser any deposits or payments for upgrades, extras or non-standard items which have been installed or made or cut to order. Upon such termination of this Agreement and return of earnest money payments, Purchaser shall have no further remedies against Seller.
I took a check in the full amount of his deposit and went to his current home and knocked on his door. When he answered I explained that we were canceling the contract under the clause above and handed him a letter to that effect. He took the letter but refused to accept the check. Within an hour I received a call from his attorney. After a short conversation his attorney – who was also Mayor of the village where we were building the home - sent me a letter saying that if we completed the house the home buyer would cease all harassment and in fact would not visit the house until completion. We did complete the home. As the final walk through approached we were concerned about an explosion of pent up frustration but the process went smoothly and we never received a single warranty call from this home owner.
A harassment clause such as the one suggested in this article will not only help you once you get into this situation but it may also help you in the weeding out process. The more a customer objects to the clause the more likely they are to be a problem.
Original Content copyright 2011 Thomas Robinson
No comments:
Post a Comment