What law states that if a contractor has performed work on a property that they are entitled to payment?

jarrod j: What law states that if a contractor has performed work on a property that they are entitled to payment?
There is a law that states that even though a contractor does not have a contract in hand that if he has done work to improve a property that he is entitled to payment. What is the name of that law?

Answers and Views:

Answer by joe.finkle
It depends on a number of circumstances. You can’t just walk up and do some work on somebody’s house and then demand to be paid. Also, the name of a specific law is not something I could give you, as it depends on the state. There are some general principals of contract law that relate to this scenario, but they are common law (judge-made law), not statutes passed by congress. It’s more accurate to saw they are principals of law, rather than laws themselves.

They include:
Unjust enrichment: If you are out some money do to some unfairness, such as an honest mistake, you may be entitled to get that money from the person who benefited. You wouldn’t get normal contract damages there (which is the price of the contract), but you could recover the value of the work.
Reliance: If you did work reasonably relying on a person’s promises, they will be held to those promises, such as to pay for the work.
Breach of contract: Most types of contracts do not have to be written to be enforceable (only if they fall within the statute of frauds, which varies slightly state to state, but generally covers sale of goods above around $ 500 or contracts that can’t be performed in a year, or real estate deals). Generally services contracts, like labor performed, do not fall within this statute, but it can vary state to state. If it doesn’t fall within the statute of frauds, there is no writing required and the person can be sued for breaching an oral contract. If a written contract is required, but not present, you may still be able to recover on an unjust enrichment theory.

The general principals of contract theory can be summed up as follows: We enforce serious promises.
As played out here, consider whether you would want a promise enforced in a particular scenario if you were deciding before the case ever happened. Would you want to encourage people to perform work on eachother’s property that wasn’t wanted? Would you want people who believe they are supposed to be performing work to have some security they will be paid? Consider principals like that and you’ll usually arrive at the right answer, even if you don’t know the name of the principal itself.

Note that I am not a lawyer yet (although I was just accepted to the Mass bar and will find out about New York hopefully within a week), so do not take this as legal advice. This is an academic response to an academic question. If you need legal advice, contact a lawyer.