The Sub Who Does Bad Work Decision Tree

Why this matters

A sub's bad work is your problem. The customer hired your company, so the defect, the failed inspection, and the callback all land on you. How fast you catch it and how you handle the sub decides whether this costs you a fix or costs you the customer plus a payment fight. The goal is to find bad work early, get it corrected, and protect your name and your money.

Start here: when did you find it?

Timing changes everything about your options.

If you caught it during the work (you were checking in, like you should), you have leverage and time. The sub is still on site or still owes you a finished job. Stop and address it now, before it gets buried. This is the cheapest place to fix anything.

If you caught it at final inspection but before you paid in full, you still hold the payment as leverage. Do not release the balance until it is corrected.

If you caught it after you paid and after the customer signed off, you are in damage-control mode. Your priority is the customer first, then recovering from the sub. Read the after-the-fact section below.

Is it actually bad work, or out of scope?

Before you blame the sub, check the written agreement:

• Was this in their scope? If they did exactly what the written scope said and the scope was wrong, that is on your scoping, not their workmanship. Fix the customer's problem and tighten your next scope.
• Is it a workmanship defect or a judgment call? A code violation or a clear defect is bad work. A finish the customer simply prefers different may be a miss but not a failure.
• Did materials cause it? If you supplied a bad part, that is not the sub's fault.

A written scope is what lets you make this call cleanly. See related: Managing a Subcontractor on Your Job.

If it is genuinely defective work

Move in this order:

1. Document it. Photos, the specific defect, what standard or code it violates. This is your record for the payment conversation.
2. Give the sub the chance to fix it. A professional sub corrects their own defect at their cost. State plainly what is wrong and what "fixed" looks like. Most reputable subs will make it right.
3. Hold payment until corrected. Do not release the balance on the promise. Release it on the corrected, inspected result.
4. Re-inspect the fix yourself before the customer sees it.

If the sub will not or cannot fix it

Now you are protecting the customer and recovering separately.

Customer first, always. The customer's bad experience is the urgent fire. Get the work corrected for them, by you or another qualified party, on your normal standard. Do not make the customer wait while you fight with the sub. Your reputation is worth more than the recovery.

Then pursue the sub:

• Withhold or back-charge. If you have not paid, withhold the cost of the correction. If the agreement allows, back-charge them for what the fix cost you.
• Invoke their insurance if the defect caused actual damage and they carry coverage. This is exactly why you confirmed insurance before hiring.
• Keep the documentation. Your photos, scope, and records are your case if this goes to a formal dispute.

After-the-fact (already paid, customer already signed off)

The hardest version. You have lost payment leverage.

• Make the customer whole first. Eat the fix if you must. A callback handled well can save the account.
• Go back to the sub with your documentation. A standup sub may still credit you. A check you have not cashed or a future-job offset can become leverage.
• Decide on the relationship. A one-time defect a good sub corrects is recoverable. A pattern, or a sub who denies clear bad work, is done.

Prevent the next one

• Check in during the work, not just at the end. Almost all bad-work disasters are bad-work catches missed early.
• Tie payment to inspected completion, never pay in full up front.
• Keep a written scope and a quality standard in every sub agreement.
• Cut subs who produce a pattern, even talented ones. A sub you cannot trust unsupervised costs more than they bring.

References

• OSHA: contractor and multi-employer worksite responsibilities
• U.S. Small Business Administration: subcontracting and dispute-management guidance
• Trade-standard back-charge and workmanship-warranty practice
• See related: Managing a Subcontractor on Your Job