A: Generally, **a roofing contractor cannot unilaterally increase the agreed-upon contract price simply because the originally selected roofing tile has been discontinued.** Under Florida contract law, the parties are generally bound by the terms of their signed agreement, including the agreed price, materials, and any provisions governing substitutions or change orders.
The key issue is whether your contract contains a provision allowing the contractor to adjust pricing due to material unavailability, substitutions, or increased costs. If the agreement establishes a fixed price without such an exception, the contractor generally cannot require you to pay an additional $2,000 without your agreement.
I recommend requesting written documentation confirming that the original tile has been discontinued, identifying the proposed replacement, and explaining the additional $2,000 charge. You should also review the contract's change-order provisions before agreeing to any modification.
**You may have grounds to insist on performance at the original contract price or negotiate an alternative tile at no additional cost.** However, your rights ultimately depend on the specific contract language and whether the contractor has a contractual basis for the requested adjustment. An attorney can review the agreement to determine whether the increase is enforceable and what remedies may be available if the contractor refuses to proceed.
A: This situation should be reviewed before you agree to pay the $350,000. The first documents I would examine are your commercial lease, any landlord representations regarding code compliance or permitted use of the premises as a restaurant, the certificate of occupancy and permit history, and the notices or reports identifying the gas-line violations. Tennessee currently applies the International Fuel Gas Code to regulated construction, but the governmental authority responsible for permitting and inspection can depend on where the property is located.
Whether the cost ultimately falls on you or the property owner will depend heavily on the lease. Commercial leases frequently allocate responsibility for code compliance, repairs, pre-existing conditions, tenant improvements, and governmental requirements differently. If the gas work predated your tenancy and the premises were represented as suitable for restaurant use, there may be substantial issues concerning the landlord's obligations, representations, and potentially your remedies under the lease. I would not assume that simply because the municipality is requiring corrective work before opening, you are contractually responsible for the entire cost.
The pizza oven is a separate ownership issue. The fact that the prior restaurant operator filed bankruptcy does not automatically mean the oven belongs to its creditors. You would need to determine whether the oven was owned by the former tenant, leased, subject to a perfected security interest, abandoned or transferred through the bankruptcy, or legally became a fixture of the real property. Tennessee law recognizes separate creditor and priority rules for goods and fixtures, including circumstances in which a secured creditor may have rights to remove fixtures.
Before removing, using, or disposing of the oven, I would review the prior tenant's bankruptcy docket and asset schedules, run a UCC lien search, and determine whether the landlord received title to or abandoned-property rights in the equipment. I would also obtain the complete permitting history for the building and have counsel review the lease before accepting responsibility for a remediation bill of this magnitude.
A: Yes. Schedule B is part of Form 1120-S, and the IRS instructions state that an S corporation should complete all Schedule B items that apply to the corporation. Schedule B contains informational questions regarding matters such as ownership, accounting method, business activity, shareholder information, foreign transactions, and certain elections or reporting obligations.
That does not necessarily mean every question will require a substantive entry. Some questions may simply be answered “Yes,” “No,” or left inapplicable depending on the corporation’s circumstances. If you are preparing the return yourself and are uncertain whether a particular Schedule B question applies, it is worth having a CPA or tax professional review the return before filing.
