The contractor stopped work. What to do, in order
My frame has stood half-finished since early September. These are the steps I took, the ones I wish I had taken sooner, and the order I would do them in now.
Where this comes from
My project record
This is not legal advice. It is a sequence worked out by a customer from the contract, the county’s guidance and public sources. Your facts will differ, and a North Carolina construction attorney should see your contract before you send anything to the company.
Stop paying
Do not send another dollar until you have advice. If the company is asking for a payment that the contract ties to completion, as L&G asked me for the installation payment on a half-built frame, that request is itself something to document.
Secure the site and the material
Steel on the ground, loose panels, a rented lift, open plumbing. Photograph all of it, cover what can be damaged, and check your insurance about liability for an open structure. If equipment on the lot is rented in your name, decide quickly whether to keep paying for it.
Write down the state of the job today
What is complete, what is partial, what is missing, with photos and a date. This is the baseline for everything that follows, including the next contractor’s estimate.
Reread the contract for notice, cure and termination language
Many contracts require written notice and a chance to cure before you can treat the deal as broken. Mine has no dispute-resolution clause at all, which cuts both ways. An attorney will tell you what your version requires.
Send a written notice
Calm, dated, specific. What the contract requires, what has not been done, what you expect by what date, and that you reserve all rights. Send it by a method with proof of delivery and by email. Keep the tone you would want read aloud in a courtroom.
Request the complete county permit file
Every inspection result, every note, who requested each inspection, the affidavit you signed. It is a public record. It will tell you what passed, what failed and what is still open, in the inspector’s words.
Call the licensing board
The North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors takes complaints about licensed contractors, and about unlicensed contracting when the contract is $40,000 or more. Ask whether the company holds a license, in writing, and ask how to file.
File with the Attorney General and BBB
Neither will get your building finished. Both create a public record and both forward your complaint to the company for a response, which is often the first serious reply you will get.
Get a licensed contractor to assess the work
Before anyone touches it. An independent assessment of the slab, the footings and the partial frame, in writing, with photos. If thickness or strength is in question, cores. This is what turns “I think it is wrong” into a report.
Talk to a construction attorney about completion
Whether you can hire another contractor to finish, what happens to the security interest the first company claims in the structure, and what you can recover. On a dispute this size the first hour is worth every dollar.
Write it down publicly, carefully
An honest, sourced account helps the next buyer. Stick to what you can prove, label opinion as opinion, give the company room to respond, and leave out insults. That is what this site tries to do.
Why a customer wrote this
In February 2026 I signed a $98,750 contract with L&G Building & Concrete of Asheboro, North Carolina. By September I had a cracked slab, damaged plumbing and half a steel frame. This site documents it, with the contract, photos, texts and public records. The resources exist so the next buyer does not need to learn the same things the same way.
General information from one customer’s experience and research. Not legal, engineering or financial advice.