Builder responsibility post occupancy
 

As a general rule, is it a standard practice for a builder/contractor to come back and take care of minor repairs such as nail pops, dry wall cracks from settling, etc. within 1 year?

Not after one year but within the first year. Most warranty’s are for a one year period. Check your contract….

Good luck!

Dan

I would say after one year, no! Unless you notified him earlier and he just wasn't available.

Call him and ask him. He might surprise you.

Yes, 1 year warranty is pretty much standard, and in some states a requirement.

As everyone on else has stated 1 year warranties are fairly common... With that said, you have to understand your contract, because generally what is covered is defects in material and workmanship.... damage from settling a contractor might try and not fix, as it is out of their control, unless it is proven that the settling happened because of poor site work... My parents did have a claim against a builder like that, but everyone knew that settling was going to be an issue, until some final drainage work was done..... My father held a fairly substantial amount of funds in escrow, to ensure that the drainage work was done, and that any resulting immediate damage was taken care off...

With out funds in escrow because of something obvious a contractor really has no incentive to come back and fix issues. And some contractors just aren't interested in their overall reputation, as sad as that seems.

In the lakes region especially the contractors have more work then they can handle, and they know it... Chose your contractors wisely....

this unfortunelty will become more and more common when people bring in out of state help. once the job is done why would they return? very sad.
thats why ill always stand by this old saying. "real New Englanders trust and support there locals and neighbors" i've had some of my long term customers tell me we didnt call anybody else why would i? good luck hopefully you can resolve this issue.

Can I ask you to be more specific?
Because some things are easy patches while the settling process takes place, while others are just shoddy material choices.

I don't think bringing in out of state help has anything to do with it. Many of the contractors I have seen folks have trouble with are local. One of the reasons I have seen people bring contractors in from out of state, is that the local guys are either to expensive, or unreliable... My neighbor brought several contractors up, and paid for accommodations for them to get some aspects of they home done, because the local contractors, would show up as promised, or got 90% of the work done, and where slow to complete the last 10%...

From my own experience, my father want to move electrical service location and upgrade to 200 Amps when we rehab'd our cottage.... Because none of the electricians want such as small project they gave us insane bids....stating that the labor alone was going to be 40 hours... As we didn't need a license electrician, and with both of use being electrical engineers we handled it ourselves... We got the new service wired up in less than 2 days, had the electric company and inspector come out on the Second day, and where hooked up with only the need to remove the old service panel, by noon.... The inspector was pissed because non of his buddies got the job (he recomended I believe at least on of them), and our work was beyond code.... The electric company just laughed, because as hard as the inspector tried, he couldn't find an issue that stopped the completion of the project.....

The work isn't hard, unfortunately most people would rather have it done, because it can be inconvenient... We did spend a night in the dark... The contractors know this, and they know if person A doesn't hire them, person B will....

I digress you have to know how your dealing with, my family has been lucky, manly because we are capable of doing the work, at time we recognize somethings are just easier to have done... We vet our contractors, and usually incentivize them, by offering them multiple jobs based on the successful completion of the preceding job.... The last contractor we used, actually ended up I believe doing 4 projects for us in total... if something needed "warranty work" he fixed it will doing the next project... When all was said and done, he worked off and on for I think for 2 years.... He fixed storm damage initially, then re-leveled the camp and improved the pilings the house sat on, did some plumbing work, and last came out and assisted me when I needed an extra set of hands (this turned into me being the extra set of hands for him)... when it ended we both agreed the major work was done for the foreseeable future...

Moral of this ramble, good contractors are out there, unfortunately by the time you need them a second time, they have generally retired.....Thank goodness my boys are now grown, and when the roof needs to be done next we will do it ourselves.... Hopefully that will be the last big project for the camp, during my tenure of ultimate responsibility.

You are allowed to do your own electric work in NH.
You just can't hire someone that is not licensed.

You have to live in the house for two years afterward before it can be sold.

When Sky states a local builder... he means the GC, not the crew.

It takes a GC new to an area a while to develop an understanding of how the local yard they are using works, what the relevant product lead times are, etc.
All of that is learned on someone's dime.

With a seasoned GC, you can have a mix of laborers and subcontractors that can a job done onto with some level of quality. Some of the laborers will have more experience than others, but the GC can station their workload in a way that they develop new skill sets while not slowing the job or undermining quality.

It would be odd for a GC not to complete a job, if the customer is following the standard payment schedule. The GC would go from completing 75% of the work to 90%... paying the crew and subcontractors along the way, and never get that final payment to cover those costs.