So to make a long story short the programmer is over 3 months behind his latest deadline from completing the project in full never told us about not using all of the funds for a graphic designer and has made no attempt to be helpful in completing the project and fixing misc. errors. What should I do with the remaining balance as the contract states that time is of the essence and talks about default.
he has dates on the contract saying that it was to be completed on september 1st and he didnt really start on the project till aug 28th. Would that help? Also it says if there are errors that are brought up and not remedied within 30 days declares some kind of default, Ill have to pull out the contract if anybody really cares.
What do you want to happen? You want to cancel the contract for the remaining work and keep what you haven't paid them - and have someone else complete the work?
thats exactly what i am thinking since the job was so untimely, that or give him another 1k and call it a day, what are your thoughts ethically, morally, and from a webmaster perspective.
Not knowing the scope of the work or what has been done (and all the other details), I couldn't say what is fair - but I would send them a notice of what you intend to do since they have missed the contract - and give them a reasonable amount of time to complete the work (5 or 10 days). You want the work completed without getting into some nasty legal dispute - and this would show that you attempted to work with them and at least gave them a chance.
I bet if you read the entire thread you would know the answer to that question. @OP, what mjewel said is some good advice.