If we did not sign any contract or terms/conditions, are we still held liable for windows we had a contractor purchase if he failed to communicate?
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If we did not sign any contract or terms/conditions, are we still held liable for windows we had a contractor purchase if he failed to communicate?
No contract provided, no terms and conditions given. We were told they would be in within 2 weeks and we did not get a notice of any type of delay so we moved on to a different contractor. He did not attempt any communication for more than 7 weeks, so we hired a new contractor. Are we liable to pay for these windows still?
Asked on May 11, 2012 under Business Law, Indiana
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
You most likely are liable. Oral agreements are enforceable, so if there was an oral agreement between you and the contractor that he would buy windows for you and you'd pay for them, that is enforceable. Furthermore, if in reasonable reliance on your promise to pay for the windows, the contractor acted to his detriment by ordering windows which had to pay for, that detrimental reliance on your promise may be enough to make the promise or representation that you wanted the windows binding, even if, for some reason, it was held that there was no actual contract or agreement.
However, if the windows are ones which he could return for at least some of the money and/or reuse or resell, you would likely be entitled to an offset against what you would owe; people are required to take reasonable steps to minimize or mitigate their losses, and are not entitled to double recovery--that is, to the extent someone can offset their loss, they must do that and effectively "credit" that against what they hope to recover from the person who caused their loss.
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