Columbia Basin, Ephrata, WA | junk fun - 7/26/2025 11:45
Depends. It's easy for an architect to draw up a house, they draw stuff that can't be built every day. If the "homebuilder" did the work to make it understandable to the excavator, foundation guys, framer, plumbers etc. and you build something that looks like his plan, he'll win his $5k in court easy, unless the judge has a grudge against contractors. On the other hand, if he just drew some pictures of floorplans and you don't build that floorplan, you'd have a good argument for not paying him anything. In between there's a lot of gray area.
$5000 easy? Yeah right. Not without itemizing and some kind of evidence that the homeowner authorized him to rack up that kind of expense. The “work” he did can be done in a few hours with a $200 home builder software program. A nice round number like $5,000 looks more like a FU number from a bitter reject than a legitimate bill for time and expense.
Judges are all former lawyers, and every lawyer I’ve ever worked with has you sign an agreement to pay them before they start giving out significant advice. Without such paperwork, I can see a judge telling the contractor he’s SOL if it comes to that.
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Home builder billed me for doing not much
