Uh....this post is not a court case and this isn't a legal advice seeking subreddit. What a court would or wouldn't do doesn't apply to OP until it's in an actual court case. And if you think any advice that comes from this subreddit could possibly be construed as "legal advice" you are clearly not familiar with how "legal advice" is given. You are making it sound like I'm trying to be an attorney because I said he should pay his bill. That would be like trying to sue a Doctor for bad counsel because he recommended driving the speed limit. Hopefully they taught you the difference at whatever law school you went to.
But seriously, there is no way I can win with you, as you don't seem to understand that all of my comments are made without all of the information on OP's situtaion, and you don't have it either; but I would like to point out that I did not give anyone legal advice in the comment above (my second comment). I made statements in response to your statements, directed at you. This is a home improvement subreddit, and the advice given is to help with exactly that. Anyone, including you, that thinks otherwise is incorrect. If you feel that the advice I give is considered "legal" that's great! Who cares? No one. Did it help OP's situation? Who knows.
The only legal advice I gave to OP in my first comment was that he should contact the contractor, try not to violate his contract and he should seek counsel. If that can even be considered legal advice.
If you are construing that my second post was directed at the OP, you're incorrect. That was directed entirely at you and only you. And depending on the contract, an Owner is ultimately the one who decides whether work is defective. That's how construction contracts work dude. In fact, I just reread the EJCDC, and it has an entire section stating what I said to that affect. Sure a court may rule differently, but that would only occur if this were brought to a court, which it hasn't, as far as I know. And if it is, why in the world would he be posting information about his court case? Stop acting like it is and that it's governed by such a situation, because it's not. Right now it's two different parties, and one has an issue with quality. I will remind you again, this is a home improvement subreddit. Any advice given is under the knowledge that it's intended to help with the improvement of the home, or in this case the roof. I don't think anyone giving advice in this subreddit is attempting to give legal advice, and if they are, it's purely unintentional and I am willing to bet that they wouldn't be held accountable if such a situation arose.
And it's interesting that you are quick to commend me for stating we should not be giving legal advice, yet you feel required to make this a law class. I think the first post that I responded to stated it best and was only trying to reiterate the importance of contacting the contractor first and then contacting an attorney, different than another post that stated he should sue them right away or not even pay them. Perhaps the owner of the contractor would come out and be ashamed of the work and fix it, making the past two comments of our conversation moot.
I think you are trying to exert your visceral and misguided law knowledge into a situation (and a subreddit) where it's not needed, wanted or required. My original recommendation was that he should contact the contractor in an attempt to remedy the situation, try not to violate his contract, and contact an attorney. This is common practice, and I feel like anyone would do this, hopefully. I think if it came down to it, a judge would be mostly concerned that the contractor was not made entirely aware of the issues the OP had with the work as soon as possible.
Thanks for pointing out how bad my 'legal advice' was. Hopefully others will read it and realize that I'm not an attorney, in some legal website, trying to give legal advice.