Who do I turn to for an inspection?

[welshrabbit]

Hi, Newbie here coming out of lurkdom.
I had a guy build a 10X14 gable roofed addition onto the back of my house. It is a nightmare to say the least. I fired him back in May for various reasons. There are short joists, one of which got knocked out of it's hanger when he "supported" it with an additional 2X8 to "make me happy". Several rafters in the roof were cut too short so they don't touch the original roof. He didn't use valley rafters. He didn't flash the roof and it leaks like a sieve. It was supposed to be built for cedar board & batten siding but he built it vinyl ready and was trying to make the cedar work...which only damaged a couple of the windows.
The first inspector came out before all the windows were set and she told me all of the things that wouldn't pass. She made notes on her report for the next inspector. Two days later the inspection supervisor came out. He didn't look at anything. Honestly. As he was leaving I called him back to ask some questions and he got really defensive and said "How am I supposed to know what to look for? She didn't leave me any notes!" She did because I have a copy of the inspection ticket with the history printed out. He couldn't see the hanging joists because the contractor failed to remove the existing brick stoop under the addition. So he told the contractor to cut a hole in my floor so he could see the framing underneath. The contractor cut the hole AFTER the inspector left but the inspector passed the framing inspection that same day without looking at the concealed framing. He never looked at the roof framing either.
We have to cough up another $1,000 to have the roof redone.
Who do we turn to for an honest inspection and report for when we take the contractor to court? I'm afraid that he may not have done the piers correctly either. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Rabbit in Virginia

[Rich]

The best advice I can give is take lots of pictures and document everything that has occurred and put it into a timeline. Then decide what you're going to court for. Is it for a remodel to get it up to par.. is it for damages only.. etc?
Then go to an engineer or (a)nother contractor(s) and find out what it'll take to make it right. Then bid the job out to several contractors - you'll want to know what the cost of fixing the damages before going into any litigation.
Now is where the hard decision comes.. do you actually want to go to court? Do you think, if you present the contractor with your evidence, they will do the right thing and either pay restitution or work for free? Find a good lawyer.

[welshrabbit]

Thanks for the reply! We have had trouble getting any contractors willing to guarantee any of their work based on what the first guy did. Two turned down the job outright after looking it over.
Litigation would be our only hope of getting anything back. The "lead carpenter" who we thought was the owner of the business lost his license last year due to similar circumstances with two other homeowners. His wife/girlfriend/co-conspirator is the license holder now. We checked that they did have a license but failed to ask what Class. Apparently they both have made a habit of working without the proper license or no license at all. I'm about to send off a report to the DPOR.
We've got someone lined up to replace the roofing and install vinyl siding (since it is vinyl ready... :evil: ) but I wanted to make sure that the roof wasn't going to collapse or fly off during the next storm, or the floor cave in because there is no vertical support for the joists, before sinking alot more $$$ into it.
We've had trouble getting a structural engineer out here to look it over because the county has already passed it. Man, you would think it's easy money.
I appreciate your time. I knew I was between a rock and a hard place.