Does your contract contain a penalty clause?

No. The concept of a “penalty clause” – the practice of the contractor discounting the final invoice a certain dollar amount for every day beyond the “guaranteed completion date” a project is not delivered – is most commonly associated with new homes under construction and is desirable to the new homebuyer who usually needs to sell and move out of a pre-existing home. Obviously, this requires careful scheduling and if delivery of the new house is grossly delayed, it can result in significant expenses for the buyer. Because the new home is pre-designed and has usually already been built several times, the contractor can easily predict the completion date predicated on past experiences. In remodeling, however, every job is a prototype. While a professional remodeler can make educated assumptions about the condition of a home based on its age, style, and other exterior clues, it is impossible to know exactly what is hiding behind the sheetrock until the job is completely gutted.