The $4,000 Holdback
A $38,400 re-roof and gutter contract was signed on a one-page proposal reading: "Tear off existing, install 30-year architectural shingles, 6 ft ice-and-water at eaves, new drip edge, 5-inch gutters, 22 squares." No other terms. Mid-job the crew finds two cracked skylight lenses. Your foreman texts the homeowner "yes, we can do that, about $1,150" and installs them. At the final walk-through the homeowner withholds $4,000 - $1,150 for skylights he says he never approved in writing, and $2,850 for a ceiling stain in the laundry room he blames on your crew. Your last day of work was March 14. Today is June 2. Your material supplier, owed $9,700, has started calling and hinting about liens. The homeowner has stopped answering calls but emailed "I'll pay when I'm satisfied."
1. What is your legal and practical position on the $1,150 skylight charge?
Read the worked answer
You probably have an enforceable agreement and weak evidence of its price - which is the whole lesson.
- Authority and formation. The foreman was your agent on site and the homeowner accepted the benefit of the work. A text exchange can form a contract; there is no writing requirement for a change of this size in a routine residential repair.
- Price certainty is the weak point. "About $1,150" is an estimate, not a fixed price. If the homeowner disputes the number, your fallback is time and materials with receipts - which you should assemble now: lens cost, labor hours, disposal.
- Scope helps you. The original proposal lists tear-off, shingles, ice-and-water, drip edge, and gutters. Skylights are not in it, so he cannot argue the work was already paid for.
Practically: send a written statement with the text thread, the invoices, and a firm total, and offer to walk the roof with him. Do not concede the line just to keep the peace - but recognize that the missing piece is a signed change order, and that is a process failure on your side, not his.
2. How do you handle the $2,850 stain claim?
Read the worked answer
Treat it as a separate claim with its own investigation, and do not let it contaminate the undisputed balance.
- Respond in writing, promptly. Silence reads as admission. State that you are investigating and that you do not agree the stain is related to your work.
- Establish causation. Where is the laundry room relative to the roof? Is the stain below a valley, a penetration, or the skylight you installed? Is there an exhaust fan, a bath fan, or a plumbing stack nearby? Did the stain appear before March 14? Take your own dated photos and moisture readings.
- Check your own work honestly. A nail pop, a missed ice-and-water lap at a valley, or a poorly flashed skylight can absolutely cause that stain. If it is yours, fix it at your cost and say so - a $300 repair beats a $2,850 fight and a bad referral.
- Isolate the dispute. Demand the undisputed portion and state that you are not waiving the balance. Keep a written record of every contact.
The root failure is upstream: no pre-job photo walk-through, no scope exclusions, no change-order clause, no notice-and-cure provision. All four belong in your next contract.
3. Given the dates and the supplier's calls, what are your deadlines and what do you do this week?
Read the worked answer
Do the calendar arithmetic before you do anything else.
- Last day of work: March 14. Michigan's Construction Lien Act gives a claimant roughly 90 days after the last day of work to record a claim of lien - that puts your outside date around June 12. It is June 2. You have days, not weeks.
- Service. After recording, a copy of the claim of lien must be served on the owner within the period the statute allows (commonly 15 days). Follow the statute's service method exactly; these deadlines are treated as jurisdictional and are not excused for good faith.
- The supplier. A material supplier who dealt with you, not the owner, has its own lien rights and its own notice requirements. If it records, the owner's property is encumbered and the owner will call you - not the supplier.
What to do this week:
- Send a written demand with a firm deadline, itemizing the $1,150 and the $2,850 separately.
- Retain a construction attorney now, while there is still time to record, and let the attorney confirm the current statutory dates and service rules rather than relying on a number remembered from a class.
- Do not record a lien as a bluff. Recording is a serious step; record only if you intend to foreclose and can support the amount.
- Do not walk away from an AR problem and hope. The one thing that reliably converts a $4,000 dispute into a $9,700 problem is a missed lien date.