What can you do if you're having an issue with the heating and air system? You just had it installed recently. You spent all this money and something's wrong. So something could be wrong with the heating and air system itself. Something could be wrong with the contractor that installed it.

I Want to do a video talking about some of the things you can do to protect yourself, some of the legal recourse that you can maybe take, and maybe a few things to think about as you go down that path. Unfortunately, in some situations there's not a lot you can do at all and I've experienced that helping folks on our guide had a homeowner one time that told me that they had a contractor install a system and the contractor did not finish the installation. but for one reason or another, it's a long story. But the short version is the contractor did not want to finish.

They wanted to come back and pull the system out and not charge the customer any money. She was not okay with that. She was telling me that she wanted them to come back, they've already done all this work, the system's there, and she wanted them to just simply. We finish the installation and I pointed out a few things to her that maybe why she would not want them to continue the installation for long term, but ultimately it might be a good idea to severtise if if that's what the contractor wants, you're already getting some red flags in that particular scenario.

Maybe it's best that you do, let them get their system back and you are not out of your money. I Think that was a weird one with a homeowner today working at Griffin Air and they had a very common situation where they had a system installed recently. It was a couple years old now, but still pretty recent in comparison to how long the system should last and they've had multiple issues. and eventually after several complaints to the contractor and so on, the original installing contractor just disappeared, he's ghosted them and they can't get in touch with him anymore.

So we were talking about the situation, what's the best thing to do moving forward and how can they maybe recoup some losses or some of these issues that they're having, try to get some sort of compensation for that and what they can do. So I want to go through some of those things we talked about? Maybe some things you can think about. but before I do I do have a small disclaimer in that wherever you are in the situation, if you are somewhere in this whole scenario of dealing with this and you may be further along or you may be very fresh and early. but if you do have some sort of lawyer involved, obviously I would defer to them and their expertise when dealing with legal matter.

So if they disagree with anything that I say in this video then I would obviously tell you to defer to them and go with what they recommend. With that out of the way, let's first talk about when you've got the system installed originally, let's hope there was some sort of contract in place. Having a contract in place is a good thing for a couple reasons. The first thing is it has in writing what you both agreed upon, but in contrast it also may not have other other things included in that agreement.

You're going to have some things in writing and some things not in writing and what those things are can be important whether or not it was agreed upon in writing or on a contract. So I would hope that originally you did have a contract in place and I also would hope that you at some point have read that contract and understand what you're up against. as far as what that contract states to protect the contractor and also what it states to protect you as the consumer or homeowner that now owns that heating and air system. It's very important because depending on what that contract says, it may also play a role in some of these other things we're about to talk about.

And next, before we go any further, I would also say that just realize if you do at some point end up in a court of law, whether you're suing them, or some other reason that you're literally sitting in a courtroom in the future, Just realize that most court systems again I'm not a lawyer I Have heard about how they handle some of these things and a lot of court systems look at the damages so you're not going to be able to go to the court and say well I Just don't think this contractor is a very nice man. or I don't think that this system is up to Snuff I Just don't think this or that they're gonna ultimately, in most cases look at if someone is owed anything because of negligence or damages or whatever. and in a lot of cases they're going to be attaching some sort of monetary value to those damages and what you can be held viable for or what you can be compensated. So that's important to know because as you go through some of these things we're about to talk about, just realize, long term, if you do end up in a courtroom at some point, they're not going to care about a lot of those other things they're not going to care necessarily about.

Hey, I Called the contractor and he was rude to me on the phone. They didn't come out for two days and I'm mad at them and so on. I Hear you on all that. It's obviously poor customer service if the contractor did any of those things.

but as you go through all of this, get a lot of things in writing. I Tell folks all the time. In fact I Tell my own employees you should be operating. You should be doing your actions when you're dealing with this or that with the thought process of you could be in a courtroom someday.

Obviously nobody wants that. But if you're operating that way, you're going to get certain things in writing and you're also going to avoid saying this or that or promising this or that. You can still be professional either as the homeowner or the contractor, but still operate doing things to as my old boss used to say. Cya cover your blank so just keep that in mind.

Now if you have a system that is messing up so you've had a system installed, you're wondering if there's some sort of what we call a lemon law in state of Virginia They do have lemon law and other states do too. So if you were to buy a car and it were to have certain issues, then there's a law in place to protect you. And now here you are dealing with the heating and air system and you're kind of wondering the same thing. The first thing I I Would recommend before you dive into getting lawyers or doing anything crazy like that and that is I would go to your contractor and the entire scenario the contractor in most cases if they're a good contractor, now if they're a bad contractor, well you chose a bad contractor.

I'm sorry, but if they're a good contractor in a lot of cases, they're going to be the one that is the most motivated to help you. They're going to be the one that's most motivated to try to make you happy so that you're glad you chose them. In the end, there's been times where I was the contractor and I did things that trying to make the customer happy when it wasn't even my fault that they were having the issues that they were having. One example might be I had nor Tech or Nordon is what they used to be called.

I had a Maytag system that they had made and they decided that they were not going to honor their warranty for a particular reason and I felt responsible for telling this homeowner. this is a good system to buy. this is what you should go with And they did. And then they had issues and I felt responsible for that and because of that I actually ate a very large repair absorbing the cost because I wanted that homeowner to be happy.

Now are all contractors going to do that? No, but the contractor might have more motivation in the end to try to make that right than anyone else. Okay, so that would be my first tip. Go to your contractor, explain to them the situation, and see if there's anything they can do. See if they can approach the manufacturer and say hey, we're having all these issues, What can we do here? What can we do to make this right? Can you help them out with some sort of Labor warranty or some sort of coverage or some sort of rebate or whatever it is the manufacturer can do to make the situation right? The contractor might have more weight than you do because they buy products from them on the regular.

Now some manufacturers don't care, but the ones that do if that contractor says to the manufacturer, look: I buy all this material from you I borrow this equipment from you I'm going going to stop. If you don't make this right, then they might have more of a motivation to help in that situation. So go to your contractor first and see if they can pull some strings that you can. Now what do you do if the contractor has skipped out on you right? That happens.

That's what happened to these folks I Was talking to today. The contractor just eventually stopped answering his phone and would not return voicemails. There is a couple of things you can do and let's talk about those real quick before we go any further with getting this situation resolved with your heating and air system. The first is, if you have a contractor that has skipped out on, he's not taking care of you the way you think he should I Think there's two things that you can do aside from the crazy things that we're going to talk about at the end.

So if you have a contractor that you feel has treated you poorly and you as the homeowner, if nothing else, you want to make it to where that contractor can't do the same thing to someone else. In the future, you might be able to approach the manufacturer and say, hey, this is what happened. This is what's going on. and some manufacturers can strip the rights or the dealer program from a contractor and make it to where they can't sell their products anymore.

Some Brands may actually do that. Some of them you have to jump through hoops to sell their stuff anyway, and if a contractor is falling short in a particular area, they may be inclined to tell that contractor. If you're not going to treat folks right, If you're not going to do things right, then we're going to strip your status as a dealer and not let you sell our products. The second thing you can do is you can maybe approach your local.

Trade Organization Some states have some sort of Professional Licensing Board or program and you may be able to approach them and let them know. Hey, this contractor is not doing things correctly. They're not on the up and up and there may be something they can do about it. What that is I Don't know.

they may strip their license. You know something extreme like that, or in some cases is just simply approaching someone like that, approaching the manufacturer, approaching that state board, whoever, maybe that contractor, May then get with it. They may all of a sudden start returning phone calls if they think there's going to be repercussions for not taking care of you, so that would be the main two things. Unfortunately, there's no policemen out there.

there's no anybody that's going to be able to throw the book at them, put them in handcuffs, and haul them away to jail because they weren't treating you right. It becomes a civil matter at that point, and you have to treat it as such. Unfortunately, So that kind of takes care of the contractor side of things, approaching the contractor and dealing with them if they're not treating you correctly. But the next step, even if the contractor is involved and they're taking care of you, is approaching that manufacturer and letting them in on some of the issues that you've been having.

Sometimes and depending on the situation, you might have to decide what you do, but in some cases, going around the contractor and calling the manufacturer directly and letting them in on what's going on, they can sometimes get in there and help out. They can send out maybe a representative from the factory, the manufacturer. Do a site visit, try to make that homeowner happy. In the end, I could tell you a lot of Manufacturers have some sort of reps that they'll be able to send out for site visits.

Not all of them do. Unfortunately, it just kind of depends on how they're set up, how their suppliers are set up, and so on. But ultimately getting them involved, they may be able to pull some strings and try to make things right in the end. And the other thing they may be able to do is do things like oh, you have had multiple issues with a compressor.

Well, we're just going to give you a whole new outdoor unit now. I Can tell you that is rare. There's not an actual warranty program in place. Some manufacturers do have a warranty program that they do that automatically, but if there's nothing like that in place, I Can tell you that it's not as common for them to just jump right in and start giving out free stuff.

You might have to jump through some hoops to make something like that happen. like have multiple failures, multiple headaches before there are inclined to make that right. So you decide. That's a good course of action.

But of course, the last thing we've already alluded to it. and that is, if you are running out of options and you believe that there is some sort of compensation, some sort of reason that you should be able to settle this in court, or at least get lawyers involved, then you might have to go down that road. In some cases, you might have to even decide who's responsible. Who can you actually even go after? Is it the contractor? Is it the manufacturer? Is it someone else and that may you know, play a role in all of this as well.

Who do you sue? Who do you go after to get any sort of compensation? Unfortunately, again, there might be times when it's a crappy situation and you're just gonna have to move forward and make the best of it. So I hope that helps. Ultimately, the hope and dream is you don't ever end up in a courtroom and you're able to get things taken care of without having to go down that path. It's never fun, and we didn't even talk about some of the other scenarios out there like home warranty companies might be one that I can think of where lawyers have to get involved sometimes.

or other times when maybe the contractor took your money and ran, they didn't do anything, they sold you a system, took your money, and then you never heard from them again. So there's all kinds of situations out there that are never fun. Make sure you're checking reviews, ask for references if you have to, make sure you're going with a really good company big or small that has at least a good reputation before you move forward. Sometimes you get what you pay for, maybe not going with that absolute cheapest bid.

It's sometimes helping you avoid some of these issues that we've talked about. Are you in a situation like this? Have you dealt with a contractor doing one of these sheisty things? Or maybe a manufacturer not making good on a new system that you've bought from them? I'd love to hear about it. Please comment down below. Thanks for watching hit that subscribe button.

We'll see you next time.