Atem Construction Inc

60 day contract and yet after 11 and a half months we still don't have a certificate of occupancy. Contract was signed on a set of approved plans and contractor changed elements of the plan without my approval - four track sliding doors became two track, in-swing doors become out-swing, insulation material was changed that now requires venting but the contractor won't accept responsibility for the vents. Contractor ran out of money near the end explaining that he used part of my money to finish a previous job and that he'll need to get another job going to pay to finish my job. We were too far along to fire him. Now that we are near the end he will only complete the last few parts if I will issue him a release from all future claims. During the job when I thought he was trustworthy I approved cost over-runs as he claimed that the plans had been unclear or that there were unforeseen problems. A couple times this does seem to be true, but in clarifying with the architect later I learned that the contractor had not been truthful, that the plans had included industry standard language that should have been clear to the contractor exactly what was called for. The most frustrating thing is that the contractor seemed to know exactly what he was doing in that he would agree with me completely until the very last moment and then explain a change in the work or the cost when it would be almost foolish to say no, and he would say "don't worry about it" until we were well past when my concern should be handled and then he would say he wasn't going to fix it. His contract calls for arbitration in a dispute, but after I asked for arbitration he refused and said I would have to take him to court.