You always hear on the news about the person that was done wrong by a contractor. You never hear about the contractor that was ripped off by a homeowner
Story of the year always chasing money So many laws protecting people from bad contractors but nothing really protecting good contractors from bad customers
The opposite is also true: I am a experienced consumer. I have personally (with my own two hands, not used “hired” work) remodelled two homes and built one from scratch. I am appalled at the quality of work being sold as “professional “. After all the rework I personally needed to do after a bathroom remodel, even my wife agreed I shouldn’t throw $20k out the window, and simply do the work myself. Not everyone has this luxury ... to decide to pay for labor or do it yourself, but my point is simple. Don’t assume every professional you hire is equivalent. For home projects in northern climates, hire pros in the off season, you will get a better selection of competent contractors. In peak season, all that is available are the incompetent goofs.
One of your strongest tools as a contractor is learning how to read people. The worst clients I have ever had, were clients I had a bad feeling about from day one. I like to sit and chat about small talk as long as I can before signing a big contract, try to get a sense of who they are, what they want and if we are going to mesh well during the project. I know time is money, but taking an hour to get to know a client might save you a lot of time and money. Also I like to keep a tight schedule of payments if possible to limit risk.
I do that exactly and if I pick up on things I will say in the middle of the convo. It was nice to meet you I have decided this project is not a good fit for me and good luck in your project. Some things they say that make me say that are: 1. If you give me a good price I have more work. 2. If they bash another contractor that I know is a good one in and around town. 3. Hey you are highly recommended but you know we got other prices and if you come down on your price you got the job. My reply to that is NO, and thank you for the opportunity to bid your job. I had one guy follow me as I was walking away saying hey come on everything is negotiable right? I replied this is not Let's Make a Deal there is a reason I was recommended and I have been pricing jobs for 40 years and I know what the price should be. Have a nice day.
I built a home for a family they refused to have any " small talk" or chit chat with me. I built their house anyway what a mistake that was. ended up getting sued for problems they caused to their home after closing. Fortunately had good insurance that stepped in but still a painful process.
@@joeb7198 u gotta read the red flags bro. People are scum these days and don't want to pay for anything or feel they should be getting more then they paid for. Your dealing with a generation of people who watched there parents get screwed over by contractors, so they are scorned. They are already jealous that they can't do the work on there home themselves. They didn't want to have any small talk because it was going to make it harder to screw you over.. I'm telling you man people these days are out to screw the contractor, they want the highest quality work while showcasing they are cheap as hell.
@@four4four636 that’s because a lot of contractors are out to beat the people…but they just dismiss that as “business” when you feel ripped off..if you try to sweeten your deal with them or point out overcharging…well you’re a troublesome guy..so be careful with new contractors..
People with less money want to pay me the full amount before I even begin!! Rich folk want to complain about the price and then try and pro long the process
I have been ripped off like that once, nothing I could do. But I did know the owner wanted to convert a shed into apartments, so I waited until he was half done and then informed the most strict building supervisor of the city, adding they said they would bribe him if he would make any comments. Result: The owner had to break down everything and was accused of bribery (he actually did try to bribe him). They never managed to complete their project, which was needed to make a living. After two years, they gave up and sold their property. I lost my money, but I do like that taste of revenge.
I had trouble collecting my final payment for installing the electrical service on a new home. The owner kept postponing payment (waiting to make her final bank draw). I got wind that she was set to close on her construction loan and get a conventional home loan the following week. I immediately went to the courthouse and for $15 put a lien against her property. The title company wouldn't close the loan with a lien against it. I got a phone call later that afternoon and she paid in full.
Getting a lien can be so satisfying. My parents had a landlord who didn't return their security deposit (after saying everything was fine on the final walkthrough). No letter explaining why he refused to return a single dime of the deposit. So my dad went to court, the landlord didn't bother to show up and was given a default judgement and a lien was put on the home. I think about 2 years later the guy tried to sell his house and found out about the lien. He found out how to contact my father (which wasn't easy as we had an unlisted number), called him up and cussed him out and demanded he remove the lien. Dad said "Sure, once you return my security deposit I'll remove the lien". Dude cussed some more and had a bit of a tizzy. He eventually paid the security deposit back. He's lucky my dad didn't go for treble damages on it.
@@catsmeow5566 Your dad's a nice guy. I think I'd have at least insisted on interest, because that jerk landlord was making money off the deposit all those years and got to keep it.
I remember, when I ran my cabinetmaking shop, it was family that took advantage of me the most. Once, I delivered an expensive custom-made piece of furniture to a relative only to be told, after assembly and installation was complete, that they were not going to pay the agreed price. On the flip side, I had wonderful clients who were complete strangers that appreciated my attention to detail and the hard work I've put in.
Family can be the best clients or the absolute worst. Usually, I negate this (on small projects) by saying you buy the material, and I'll help build it in my spare time.
@@chris-C8 I like that idea, but with one stipulation. It would be to say to them, you buy the materials I want to work with. I had a few jobs that required me to work with client supplied materials. One of them involved building number of cabinets out of supplied 5/8"-4'x8' melamine. I think there were 50 sheets. Everything in those cabinets, including doors, was to be built from the supplied sheet goods. Problem was, it was sh_t goods. The core board was crap, and so was the melamine paper. It was chipping and tearing out like crazy. It was not fun to work with. The client was kind of okay with the end product, maybe because they saved money on the material, but this was one project I did not take photos of.
LOL, I have a mate who has a habit of telling difficult customers to bugger off only in harsher terms. Surprisingly, many of them settle down into long term clients.
When everyone in town tells you that you don't want anything to do with someone, maybe it's time to check a little further. We tend to think because we are honest that others are. Not necessarily so!
I know this is an old video but had to share what happened to my brother in-law. He built this stone outside chimney on this guy's house. The owner was very happy with it when completed. Said he would put a check in the mail. Well that didn't happen . After several attempts to collect , brother in-law drove over to the house with his old dodge power wagon which had a huge wench on the front. As he was spooling out the cable the owner came out of the house to see what was going on. He told the guy if he didn't pay he was taking the chimney. The home owner promptly paid up.
My Uncles and Grandfather are all contractors. One year in the Canadian winter they were doing a job in a fancier area near our town near Christmas time. Payment was due the week before Christmas and the home owners left for vacation without paying leaving my Grandfather and Uncles without money for Christmas. They were away on vacation for a month and refused to pay when they got back. My Grandfather never told me this story, my Mom did years after he passed. I bet every person in our family knows which house it was that did this because it was the only time my Mom ever saw my Grandfather cry, and it broke all of our hearts that someone could do that to such a genuinely loving and kind man.
25 years ago a good friend of mine left a job on a Friday ( with tons of his tools in the house) Only to be fired on Monday morning. To this day, I never leave a single tool on a job site
guss whu ur correct. After being a slumlord for 11 years and watching People’s Court for even longer I know the law pretty well. I never lost a case. Now collecting the money is another story. But here in Jerzey, as a business you can’t represent yourself. It SUCKS!!! So by the time you bring a lawyer in it doesn’t make financial sense in most cases. You have to put in your contracts “lawyers fees”.
Man I watch some of these guys leave their tools over nights and weekends. Call me paranoid but I'll spend and extra 10 minutes gathering all my stuff and taking it with me. No tools no money.
Your the only builders who have done a video about crazy customers, thank you !!! I’ve watched a 1000 builders videos and no one ever mentions this kind of behaviour. Hats off to you guys and good luck in the future 👍
Did a job that took three months of custom work only to be scammed by the homeowner and not get paid. Had my materials covered but my labor was lost. Cost the homeowner $60,000 in legal fees to get validation that my workmanship is top notch and that I was due the money, however his lawyer found a loophole and I still didn't get paid. Learned my lesson and now more proactive on the right contact. You guys are awesome!
I bill for cost of materials upfront then invoice weekly for value of the work completed in that week minus 10% which is payable on completion. I’ve done jobs with values up to 100k and never had a customer complain about my billing method. (In the Uk btw)
You wouldn't believe that I did the exact same thing!! Had compassion for the lady because she said contractor had taken advantage of her in the past and broke down this large payment into smaller ones weekly the. She "ask her friends" and according to them my payment method is unorthodox and outrageous??? Like wait what!!??
francisco estrada I don’t understand why any customer would have a problem with that, if you gotta wait a month to get paid and you still gotta cover materials and wages it makes it really hard to get started in the business. Weekly bills for the value of the work seems perfectly reasonable to me
Get paid by week is better even if the customer fail to pay you will no loose a bunch of money... materials and probably a week ahead also pay upfront. Be smart .... also its understandable there a ton contractor that scam homeowners and the true it's no boby tell the true... get your contractor sign a surety bond or contract bond or similar... those liens against the property mean lawyer involve they will rip you off... if you are honest contractor, worker and the home owner is responsible ita ok but the true is some homeowners expect more for penny as such several contractor do average work for $$$$... those full insurance is garbage is a false advertisement for homeowner... contractor garanty is also a lie many contractor go away ( they are like car seller) .
I have my payment schedule in the contract and it's front loaded for each stage of the project. I have not had anything close a problem in 13 years of doing this. I've had couples get divorced during projects, people get sick, lose their job, etc. I am not paying for a homeowner's personal problems. If they can't trust that I will follow my contract then it's goodbye and good luck. All of my estimates are itemized and show my mark-up so there is no doubt where their money is going.
Had to do the builders lien twice finally got paid on both jobs. Got screwed by an out of state contractor too hard too sue. Text messages saved my ass on 10k, got judgement and all money I was owed. My father in the 1970s painted the ext of a house. I think total bill was like $1800. The house was covered with hedges in the front so to position a ladder a few limbs were broken. Homeowner held $1200 out to cover her shrubbery. Dad got home said get in the truck, we went there, dug up every shrub and took them home. People were gone at the time but the phone started ringing when they got home. Pops said "I paid for them!"
I built a set of stairs when I first started out. Job went well, lady was very happy, but crickets......when she got her bill. Price was established prior to starting. Six months of blocked phone calls, lost (re printed) invoices, and multiple no answering the door. I put a lean on the house 3 months into the ordeal. She then sold her house, pending the removal of the lean. Knock at my personal door, with the full payment. She asked that i please remove the lean as she urgently needs to sell her. So I made her wait 2.5 weeks before I removed it 😂🖕🏻
Required by law in many states. It's no different that an HOA or IRS legally taking your house because you owe $500. I bet they could still file a legal claim, if you have pics, receipts and the contract.
Yeah that's for sure. My Dad accidentally shorted the city $.01 on property taxes once and they sent the notice that if not paid they would be auctioning it lol. They spent more on postage than what was owed...
I have learned over the years. To split up the amout due. If they balk on the first payments. Cut your ties and run like hell. I changed the way i do business after that
It is correct. It is better to be paid at every milestone than to take the whole chunk at the end. That way, until the installment is not paid, work does not move forward.
Ha. Talk to socipaths like Trump. He knows all about ripping off contractors and employees. Left a string of unpaid subs and workers on his many bankruptcies (where he made sure to pay himself millions before happily stiffkng his workers and employees).
@@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb - You MAY want to recheck your "facts" about HIM stiffing people. If you READ, virtually EVERY situation i can find can be easily explained as a subcontractor screwing the employees THEN the NON-TRUMP employees sue the Trump organization OR Trump organization buys a business/property ALREADY in financial trouble then goes through and files bankruptcy for that organization to restructure. These are real world situations that may be over your head but if Trump hires a GC to perform work and they don't pay their employees, IT'S NOT TRUMP'S FAULT!!! But "he" gets sued nevertheless. I get it, you get your (fake) news from CNN and are too lazy to look around so here, read it really carefully- every example I see says "general contractor" or subcontractor. (This is from Trump haters @ USA Today who spelled lawsuit wrong in the link- brilliant /s ) Pedal your TDS somewhere else bro. www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/
@@PayNoTax-GetNoVote You don't actually know the TRUTH either because you're just an internet jockey reading news or watching Fox and we all know that the media doesn't have all the facts and details. Let's wait until Letitia James is done with tRump before passing judgement.
We've all have or have heard of working for lawyers and doctors. I was about 20 years old at the time, did a side job building book shelves for a lawyer where my boss had just finished building his house. He didn't pay me and explained he didn't have to because basically there was no contract. I'm 55 years old, been in business for over 25 years and to this day I have and never will do work for ANY lawyer.
Yeah, that was a scab! Being young, we don't know our options. The fact he knew you were building it, accepted it and knew there were costs involved makes his statement contempt. I would have asked him if he wanted to be embarrassed in front of his peers taking advantage of a 20 year old young man who did honest work for him.
That's crazy. I did some handy man type work for a lawyer in my neighborhood and they stiffed me for about half a year. The crazy part was I offered to do the work for material cost only bc it was only a few small, random things, and they lived a couple houses down, but they insisted on paying bc they were looking for someone to do consistent work for them. Sent them the bill, and as I already said, crickets for months on end. The same person would brag about the crazy amount of money they spent to have their kids in dance programs and was always going on vacations. I couldn't believe it.
Impossible to tell everyone’s motives. We have learned to take a 10% deposit just to book a job, even if it’s a year in advance. If they scoff at that we move on. Seems to help filter. Then 30% x3 throughout the project. If extras are substantial enough we have them paid up immediately, otherwise they are added to the end. We always discuss alterations via email or written form so they are on record. And if you ever have to put a lien up you need to do it within so many days of final billing. So move fast and don’t feel bad. You need to make a living to.
Funny now not so funny when it happened. I can relate to this experience. A guy I know runs a local marina where I did fiberglass and paint work on boats. He approaches me and says "hey I have this customer, he needs a cockpit sole rebuilt and he pays his bills." Sounded great, I just got away from a boat manufacturer and needed some work and took the job. I talked to the owner. We talked over price and he gave me the go ahead. I took a $2500 deposit and ordered the materials. Two months of battling some of the worse heatwaves and then thunderstorms we have had in NJ that summer and it was done. I took another $2500 3/4 of the way through. Now where it started. I finished the job handed him a bill and he asked if he could make payments on the remaining balance of $7600. While the work was being done he added work to the pulpit and various other items. The deck itself was agreed to at $10,000 being that it was a complete removal and rebuild from scratch. Added aluminum plates to prevent water from getting back into the wood I just laminated and faired out. Well he choked on the final bill but I agreed to let the payments come. They never did. He stopped taking my calls, left the marina. I had my lawyer send him correspondence and his lawyer said he has no intention of paying and good luck trying to get it. I still get hot over that...just like you guys do. I wanted to cut the deck out or dump stain over it but my lawyer, wife and father in law said let it go. He eventually ran his boat across an underwater rock wall and destroyed it and insurance told him to suck an egg and they aren't paying. That was nice to find out.
Did a huge remodel job at the country club, got my money in 3 draws, last one was in contract for when job is completed, well they said no pay until at the end of year to make sure I honored my warranty. I did get my money when I said the word LIEN evidently they were familiar with process. By law I was not obligated to give them a one year warranty, but I did because I was more interested in building a reputable company and establishing myself as a reputable builder.
rumpleforeskin73 on new construction law binds you for one year , not on remodel but I always gave at least one year on all my work. Only job I really had a problem on. And you are correct it is lien, relying on spellcheck doesn't work.
We had a guy that wanted a privacy fence with footing and from the start he kept saying cheap how can we do this cheap would it be cheaper to do this and that . He decided on a less quality wood and we went with it , we set the post poured our footing went back the next day pulled the forms it's about 105 out and here he comes and started going on and on about these very small hair line cracks. He started telling me he was only going to pay me 1/2 of the price. Well I got pissed and took my tractor and the guys and in about 30 minuets we had concrete post everything loaded on the trailer and pulling off with him saying it's ok I just wanted to save money. So now when I here cheap I lose interest real fast.
When they say “cheap “ a few too many times before I give a price I know I don’t even want the job. It takes a long time to get the feel for the bad ones and every once in a while I have to re learn my lesson. Just don’t let them too far ahead with the money
I worked for a guy that had multiple contacts with his local city. We installed all this concrete at a new city park. After 120 days no pay. He had us go back and remove ALL the concrete not holding the playground equipment up. When the city fathers came to open their new park NO parking lot, sidewalk, or concrete drinking fountains. We took it all. Not only did he get his money but he got paid to put it ALL back. Lol that guy was something else.
You are not alone my friends. Word to the wise, AVOID doing work for lawyers. My father and I are electrical contractors here in WNY, he did a large indoor amusement park project and didn’t get paid fully in the end and had to eat over 100k. The project owner was a lawyer and declared bankruptcy. My father won in court and still didn’t get paid. It cost him 20k to go to court and get nothing. It cost the lawyer nothing because he pays himself in court. Thankfully my father recovered and we are still in business today, which is hard in NYS.
Always include an "Unreasonable Customer" clause in your contract, which spells out how you intend to remediate any issues that arise, without letting the customer simply fire you and not pay you. After she fired you, I would have gotten a court claim against her at her local Magisterial District Judge or Justice of Peace, and placed a lean on her home at the local courthouse in the Prothonotary Office. if she ever wants to get a future bank loan, buy a new car, or sell her house, she would need to square up with you first to straighten out her bad credit. This process doesn't cost nearly as much as hiring an Attorney and taking her to court.
I've only been ripped off once. It was for $1700, the final payment on a job and at the time it hurt. But I was told by another carpenter that a cabinet maker made custom cabinets at his shop. He installed them at a beautiful lake front home. The homeowner gave him the final payment of $15,000. He went to the bank and deposited it and was told that there were insufficient funds to cover the check. So he went back to the homeowner who answered the door and when told that there wasn't enough in the account to cover the check the homeowner, with his wife smiling behind him, told him he needs to learn to be a smarter businessman and closed the door in his face. He went back to his shop fuming. But overnight he hatched a plan. The next day he went back to the bank and went up to the teller, who he knew, and asked about the account and if there were a different one that the same customer had. She said I can't tell you that. So he said, "If I deposit $500 in this account will this check pass?" She looked it up and said, "Yes". So he wrote a check for $500, deposited in the guy's account and then cashed his $15,000 payment. A few days later the customer came to his shop yelling at him and asking him what he was trying to pull. He just smiled and said "You need to be a smarter businessman".
I dont know if banks will still do this, but i can verify I saw my dad do the same thing with someone who owed him money on a job about 20 years ago. A few days later the customer had a bunch of other checks / autodrafts bounce for insufficient funds because the check my dad cashed drained their account first!
I hear your stories and know they are real. Luckily I have only been Burned one time in 35 years and that was for about $180.00. . After completing a kitchen remodel ($27,00.00) we were paid and then the customer wanted us to replace his sump pump. Normally I would call our plumber but decided to save the guy a few bucks. After we finished the two hour job he decided $460 was to high. The price included a 3/4 horse pump and a 15 mile round trip to Home Depot plus a couple PVC fittings. I couldn’t believe he was serious since we had worked on his kitchen for close to a month and he was completely happy with everything. Wrong, he was very serious. It upset me so much that I told him to pay what he thought it was worth and then never call us again for anything including any call backs for the kitchen work. That job bothers me to this day cause most everyone of my customers has become sort of friends with me and some of our crew and have given us hundreds of referrals.
I like to get the homeowner to pay for materials upfront, instead of taking a deposit, I find this will commit the homeowner to the design and usually won't ask for any changes half way through the job. I also like to have progress payments in my contracts, especially for bigger and longer projects. If you're really concerned about not getting paid or whatever, you can set up the progress payments at certain points in the project where the start of the next stage is required for anything else to continue. Used to have payments set upon completion of work. Then a homeowner had already paid upfront for the next trade to come through and couldn't cover my payment, even though I had completed work. My work had to be finished before the next trade could start so I thought if the next trade can't start work, then I'm more likely to get paid so the project can continue. That's just me though.. Couple of bad experiences really makes it hard for me to trust.
I worked a temp job as a helper one time. The contractor was hired to frame a basement which we did. It took us all of eight hours, it passed inspection and the boss was waiting to get paid. The customer flat out refused saying the work was not what he wanted, despite it being built to the specifications he made. So a couple days later the contractor hired me again. We went back to the house with a sawzall, a sledgehammer and a crowbar and tore up all the work we did, leaving nothing that could be used or repurposed and just left a massive mess in this jerks basement. Moral of the story: If you don't want to pay for it, you don't get to keep it.
I did a large Landscaping project for a lady. She refused to pay me $1,200 for plants that she picked out after they were already planted in her yard. After the job was complete she told me she didn't like it and refused to pay. I went back very early in the morning and quietly removed all the plants that she never paid for! So technically I repossess her yard like that movie Fun with Dick and Jane. Haha
Yup. My first job went similarly. Got roped into fixing this guy's mobile home on his property (which we were going to rent from them). Long story short, that job left me broke, homeless, deathly ill, with a wife and toddler in tow, all while still new to the area. But that debacle wound up landing me a remodeling job which is still going strong, thanks be to God. A word to the wise: even if everyone tell's you he's a great guy, you can trust him... have a contract anyway. And be picky about who you contract with.
Peak Season. Start a pool and homeowner announces he will be out of town on vacation for a few days. He is gone for a week. I was already 5 days into 10 day build. Pool was up and finished and homeowner comes back and files bankruptcy. I only had 5% signing deposit. Learned real quick to lay out draw milestones in contract and for the last 30 years have made it a practice to be very diligent in sticking to them. I was 12k down. and that was in '90's money. Would equate to about 25k today. My rule ...No homeowner then work stops and I am off to another job till we are current and also all my draws are set to cover forward costs.
Several years ago...a guy I had bid a job...big job...I too was warned by a couple of people about his payment disease.. I unfortunately didn't give the heed... he worked my bill to$50,000... lshut the job down... I eventually got some of it... several years later he still owes me about $30,000.
For tricky or risky clients, setup a trust account and have all monies deposited before the project starts. Release cash on a schedule with the approval of both parties. If the client balks, at least you have their money tied up during arbitration.
This I agree. Most basic clients at $15,000 probably would be uneasy about this. Especially less educated clients. The plus point with this option....it weeds out those possible clients that would be scheming to be dishonest.
I am a Fire and Security Systems contractor based in the south of England.....Experience in sounding out a prospective client is key.....I have a couple of contacts where they have to pay me 100% up front before I go to site. This is because the other trades (Electricians and Chippys) warned me that they were bad payers....It horrible that we have to worry about getting paid....Love the videos chaps
I hired a contractor to level my house that was being sold pending the leveling. I gave him 1/2 upfront and the balance upon completion. A few days later he said he was finished and I paid him off. The buyers inspector checked the house and said it was not level. I tried calling the contractor several times and left voice mails but no luck. Never heard back from him. I believe the total was like $5500.00. Lesson learned. The buyer backed out and I lost out. The contractors name is T R Garza, Victoria, Tx. ☹️
You should have had the inspector check the house before processing final payment. Contractually once final payment is processed and the lien waivers are signed you are screwed for anything that you considered incomplete
My family had the opposite happen, guy was contracted to do work on outdoor stone fireplace. After tearing everything out, he took what money was given for materials and ran. Still out a pretty penny. So moral of the story, everyone be proactive about protecting yourself and your company.
Probably way more stories of shady contractors than homeowners overall. The homeowner can be located or at least their property can be, liens can be placed etc. Shifty contractors can pick up and leave anytime.
Boy do I have stories on this one. One time I built a house.from ground up....at the end I was suppose to collect 25k...at closing I ended up with 1200.00 . that was in 2001 even recently...last year I was stiffed 3 different times. It's a wonder im still sane...debateable I know
Oh heck no. Being a homeowner, I'd much rather have a anally detailed contract. I would rather have that than a simple number. At least as I go through the contract I know that the contractor has thought about the project and what needs to be done.Gives me time to reflect and ask more ??'s
If you're a remodeler or just a handyman doing a bunch of small jobs for a customer, it is in your best interest to prepare a detailed proposal/estimate. First, it's just good marketing. If you look at a proposal and it says "Labor and materials: $2700" you're going to be a lot more comfortable if that $2700 is supported by clear, concise bullet-points elaborating on what is contained therein. Second, the more detail the less opportunity for misunderstanding that leads to conflict, resentment and slow/no pay scenarios. Third, after a house and car, a sizable remodeling project is probably the most expensive purchase most people undertake, so they can be very concerned about every expenditure. And since you aren't Bank of America, it's a pretty large extension of credit you're making to someone you may not know very well. When mistakes happen, they're potentially very expensive to correct, not along the lines of picking Diet Coke off the shelf rather than regular Coke.
Most honest answer I’ve seen on here! That’s why I like commercial over residential. As a foreman I say sure we can change that but I’ll have to get a change of order form and we will have to estimate the higher end cost. On the other hand as a custom home builder I have to eat it on some of these jobs. Then try to estimate cost and see if it’s in budget. House I’m on now we were pouring footer the next day and the night before homeowner called and asked if he could get another garage stall added. Making 3 total. I quickly explained it changes for footer to changing trusses. Order more brick.. so on and so fourth. Began digging footer at dry break and call for more yards. 8 foot doors changed to 12 foot doors. Common in residential!
Got burned on doing tractor work for $500. I have done lots of work for this guy, he just needed some sand spread, no big deal, I show up and spread out 10 loads of sand. I send him an invoice and hear nothing back. Send him another one a month later, nothing. Call him, he will not answer, go to his house, will not come to the door. I get pissed and file theft of services charges on him, the cops get in contact with him, he swears he thought that was already taken care off. The cops give him one week, a week passes nothing. They arrest him, he goes to court, the judge threw it out because nothing was agreed to on paper!
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I wonder if texts would hold up as evidence in court. If you had them, of course.
There are Builders in Floridan that have been screwing their contractors and subs for decades 30 years or more and they are still in business....so how do they get away with it? Simple plan repeated over and over again...Step one hire a small hungry contractor and get him to purchase and sign for all of the materials...Florida makes you pay your labor and all of the labor is employed by you never the builder... String the contractor along and give him work and then give him the chance to make some real money by building maybe 2-3 houses at once... Now when he is overextended just don't pay him...don't pay him anything....He is on the string for all of the materials and all of the labor....he goes out of business and can't afford to sue you...you collect all of the money when you sell the house...and net way more money that any competitor who actually pays his bills... So you ask how do you stay in business after this ?..Who in the hell will work for you after that?....Simple ..all that you do is approach one or more of the guys who worked for that same contractor who you just broke....and say something like this to him do you have or can you get a truck & trailer and tools?...We both know that _______(Name of guy that you just screwed) is an asshole...I tell you what I can and will get you a contractor license and you work for me and make the big money that _____ was making and you will be a contractor now... And they just keep doing that...They just watched it happening to their last boss and say hell ya...I want a piece of that!
@@jdizzle6324 The same guys have gotten by with it decade after decade...It's not a secret and there is always another guy waiting to step and get screwed next...The other standard ploy is you do your contracted task...and now they just brazenly refuse to pay you at all...and they make you do more work ...work that was not in your contract before they will pay you what you are already owed... I'm not even a contractor and I know tons of guys that thy have screwed ....but they just never run out of suckers that say ...Well they may have screwed you...but Charlie...loves me!...The heart of the con is is letting the rubes believe that they are in on it...and that we are going to fleece everyone else!
Get it all in writing...on paper... witnessed...or notorized. Same with "changes"... Only job we ever got fired from was because of the architect. Guy kept sending down so many changes we could never get anything built to completion. Owner got pissed (rightly so...) and fired everyone. We were fairly well covered though...had a non-completion clause in the contract (binding on the owner)
Had the same experience. It was an interior built in cabinets, ad display cases project. I took 70% of the estimated raw materials cost at the start of the job and nothing else. It was the second day of staining and painting phase that the client fired me as the stain colour did not match his liking. He paid me none and hired a painter to complete the job. He saved a ton. I took a personal loan to pay the workers and suppliers.
A buddy of mine just had the same thing happen. He did a decorative concrete job and after he was done they did a walk through and she signed off on it and paid the last half then about a month later he got a court summons. She was suing for more than double what the job cost. He pretty much had the suit over with but he forgot all about the court date so he lost by default. But that wasn't even the worst of it. Ever since shes been using multiple online accounts as well as having several of her friends and family leave him bad reviews saying he ripped her off and never came and did the job. Saying she paid the entirw amount up front and he never showed but I know for a fact he never takes the full amount up front. He charges half up front to cover material and labor then the last half after completion. Aparently she has done this numerous times to several different contractors slowly getting her house remodeled and actually making money from it instead of spending. I'm sure not all of the cases were in her favor but if she could win even a couple of them its still a win
I was an electrical contractor for many years and I have to tell you, some people think you should work for them for free. I would usually get a third up front, a third after a certain amount of agreed upon work was done and a third upon completion. The last one is where I usually got stiffed and that's where the profit is. If I had to do it over again , I would charge 33% more for my jobs. Then if I got stiffed on final payment, I would still get 88% of my money, and if I didn't get the job because my bid was too high, no big deal. The best job I ever had was the one I didn't get. Some people are just scum and screw it up for everyone else. Don't trust people. Get everything in writing including the customer paying court fees. Unfortunately, we don't live in the honest world we used too. Some people get their jollies by ripping others off.
it goes both ways, i had a contractor basically robb me of 45k for a quick minute, ...until a certain contractors house was broken into and destroyed and shot up...funny how life works they came back to finish my house no questions asked...i thank god everyday those kind people that did that ...never did catch them.
Feel your pain guys, been builder for 20 yrs and a guy that had been friends with our entire life took me for $25,000+, felt the same way wanted to burn it to the ground but that's water under the bridge in this industry live and LEARN, some things only come by experience, also love the channel, KEEP IT UP!
On bigger jobs I always got one third down and third at the middle. Balance due on completion. That way materials were paid for and I only lost time if I got stiffed. I did get stiffed once but I only lost a few days. She couldn't pay that 2nd third and got then arrested for fraud and went to jail on non related business dealings. My wife showed me the article in the Paper. My Uncle got stiffed a couple times. One job a RR tie wall. So, he went out early morning and started taking up the ties and loading them on a truck. The home owner said you can't do that. He said, you didn't pay for them, they are my property. The home owner paid him. Another didn't pay and said there's nothing you can do about it. My Uncle was mad. He went to court over 2 years and won. He pulled up to the house with a truck and Sheriff to remove property equal to the debt. When the crook got the notice at the door he wanted to pay NOW. My Uncle told him it would cost him the bill, legal fees and his time. He complained, so my Uncle and the Sheriff started moving into the house to execute the lien.The crook in a panic with his family watching paid in full in short order.
My dad had a customer that got into him for 250K then announced he didn't have any money. Took all of Mom's and sisters patience and figuring out how to deal with him, but they got it all. It helped his accountant didn't like his boss too.
I always heeded the warnings we have lots of homeowners here that have been through all the contractors. I’ve been burned couple times I didn’t let that happen again it was early in my general contracting days in my early 20s
That is almost as bad as a contractor maxing out his credit line with a building supply store, then asking for more credit and getting it, and then find out the very next day that said contractor has filed for bankruptcy. Been there, saw it, and saw it more than once. Some people just are plain evil and need to have some private adjustments made to their face. Saw that too...... from a distance!!!!!!
Credit card companies are being scammed by what is known as bust-out fraud. People get as many credit cards as possible (as in dozens), pay regularly for a while to keep good credit scores and then ask for higher credit limits. Then max out all their cards and skip town. Most card companies eat their losses as trying to track down and sue people for $20-$50K isn't worth it. But the scammer does it to dozens of different companies and can get away with many hundreds of thousands from all the cards combined. It's done all the time.
Just finished my worst job ever. If the owner and I weren’t friends I would have been gone a long time ago. I knew better but my kindhearted ass couldn’t help it! Good luck, always living, always learning!
I actually had a customer who I had to put a lien on their property and take him to court over a $300 add on to a $30000 contract. I was halfway done with the project and had only been paid $15000. Because of some additional work the customer had me do I notified her after doing the work that there was going to be $300 extra added on to the contract. She proceeded to scream at me at which time I told her her 3 options. The next day a Saturday she fired me and set all of my tools on the front porch and change the locks refusing to pay me in full. This was before I knew what a pre lien notice was. Everybody I talked to told me that if I threaten to put a lien on her house I will be paid, That didn't work. After putting a lien on her property which I knew would not hold because I had not properly notified her I eventually had to take her to small claims court. It being my 1st time in court for this I decided to keep my mouth shut and only answer the questions the judge gave me so I didn't screw things up. I was kind of surprised he never asked me for receipts. In the end he ruled in her favor because I failed to show proof of burden. Lessoned learned never perform any work without a written change order and always have pre lien notices on all contracts. Finally follow your gut it will keep you out of trouble.
Lol. Happens to the best of us. I now listen to others if they've been stung by certain people. I always use contracts if they seem like they want to get something for free.
Totally different circumstances but have also been done over in business. You’ve sometimes got to pick your battles and walk away. You can waste a lot of time, money and energy trying to teach someone a lesson.
I hear you guys! I'm currently chasing a builder around for $13,000, thats my labour and materials I put into a job last fall. And this is a multi-family builder doing very high end homes. You never know who's going to think they can get away with not paying. It's a sad business sometimes...
Had similar thing happen to me except I finished the job. $15,000 contract took $5,000 upfront for a commercial renovation to make a hair salon. Did all the work client was more than happy with the end product but refused to pay the remaining balance because I apparently screwed around and took longer than I should’ve when it was really a big part that was on back order. End of the day I said forget it no worth the hassle or stooping to her level. Karma will take care of it in whatever way it does
My story is the other way around. Contractor did work for my mom, he got money for materials from her and paid for the job. I get home and all I can say is I have never in my life seen some one use paneling for sheathing. Some $40k she paid this guy and he may have done $5k worth of work and materials. It cost her more money to have it torn out and redone. We went to sue this guy and the lady at the court house told us get in line. Hold do these guys keep a contractor license?
This is what bonds are for. All a screwed homeowner has to do is file a complaint with the contractors board and with their bond issuer and you'll get paid back his bond money. AND can get his license yanked.
@@syfyrytr1652 But a $15k bond is not going to pay for $35k of theft. Also, if someone didn't pay, and you lien them, they can bond around the lien, just to change title. $$ is settled later on in court.
I think some people get ripped of so bad (happened to me, 400$ in labour for a 20 min job. Well, he had to drive 10 min to my house for it, so I guess that justifies the price!) that they are ashamed of even tell anybody about it. I have made several bad experiences with contractors and try to stay away from them. Best thing is to take some time to find a good one and stick with them + never get in the situation where you need somebody quickly. I was lucky to have found a great trucking/excavating contractor right close to me. He gave me great value the first time and I ended up spending some serious amount of money on him over the years. In fact, I have the next project in mind that I hope they can help me with.
Had a job where I was owed $7500, and was not getting paid, the health inspector came and required additional work, I agreed to do work for nothing if I got the full $7500 up front. Only time I was almost not paid,
Yep been there. Now I have redone my payment schedule so they don't owe very much by the end. I was told I was going to get the cops called on me if I didnt leave. Was only out 2k and that was all profit so wasn't too bad.
A contractor I know was not ripped off, but seriously miscalculated a job. He ended up renovating a house where he lost half a year's salary. So basically the customer got a dirt cheap house. Worst part is that he realized it in the middle of the job! Since then he only charges per hour :P He said something interesting to me one day; Don't build something that is regarded as bad practice when your customer asks for it. If it doesn't hold up he can still hold you accountable for it.
Angie list and home advisor are similar scammers the lead are false they ask you lomey for leads that aren't true... the large contractor get the contract but nobody said it there a bunch smal contractor losing money bc they belive of false propaganda trust in google advertising instead.
Nope! I don't know where you live, but there is a bunch of laws to protect bad people on my country. By the law you can't even tell a friend about someone who owe you money without the risk of been prosecuted by calumny crime
No need, he said from the very beginning that many people warned them. If there are that many people speaking negatively....you can rest assured that client WILL be trouble.
Man! I'm so lucky I found the contractor I did on the first project, a bathroom remodel. He was the highest bidder, but he showed up on time got back with me on a price the next day. Always showed up when he said he would, always! It's always been just a handshake between us, I paid what wanted and he did an outstanding job. He's done three big jobs for me. Bathroom remodel, all new windows (what a difference that made! aluminum vs double pane). Last July, it was the kitchen. I couldn't be happier with him. I told him we wanted a new kitchen, and he pretty much told us what we wanted. I feel bad for all the contractors that get screwed by the customer. The fellow that's a roofer in Pennsylvania (Forward Home Enhancements,) what a nightmare. That piling on of lies via social media, somehow how that should be actionable.
One of my first customer stiffed me for 11,000. Had the Sheetrock up and spackled ready for paint. The homeowner was receiving the money from his insurance and asked me to put the rest of the money and when I was done he would be pay me. So to this day I have not seen this money. About two years ago did another job for a different customer. New high hats and Sheetrock ceiling got a fraction of the down payment and till this day I haven’t seen the rest of that money. You always hear about contractors stiffing customers but you never hear on the news when customers take advantage of contractors!!
The small one at 5:30 is used to level European wall sockets. At the back there should be a small indent that slides over the metal frame of the socket. And YES it is magnetic ;)
Should have gotten ruthless on the paperwork end of it. I've done it a few times. First Send her a certified mail invoice for the balance, then if no response Mail a bill to all of her relatives with her name on it. Phone calls if needed. This can be obtained via background checks. She may not care enough to pay the balance, but will have a rough time going to a get together with family when they all know she ripped someone off.
I've been burned by "crazy homeowners" on more than one occasion. Never to the level of $15,000 tho. You guys are doing a great job with these videos and apparently with your construction company, too. Please keep posting these videos. P.S. I did work for a contractor back around 2004 who got burned for the entire cost of a $150,000 new home. He did the "construction lien" thing and after about two or three years, he wound up almost breaking even on his costs for the construction, legal fees, etc. I won't name names either. Y'all keep up the good work. Hello from Hot Springs area Arkansas. 👍🇺🇸
I hate to hear this happened. I am not a contractor (own my own business) but I am a project manager for a GC. I treat every project I manage / run as my own. Over years of doing this and learning by mistakes one thing I have learned is document everything!!! It’s sad it has to be this way but it has to be. I’ve had owners love you one day, you’re the best ever thanks for taking care of that issue or getting that done etc.. and then turn like you suck and the worst ever over little stupid stuff. The old saying “it’s not what you did for me yesterday, but what have you done for me today” In the end just document everything. If I meet with someone and we discuss changing this and m changing that my very next thing on my list is an email to that person “per our conversation today .....” and I spell everything out. It just has to be that way.
Been in business for 20 yrs. I was a subcontractor for some drywall work for at a church daycare. We hung the drywall, and we where in the middle of finishing the drywall work when we got fired. For along the same sort of crazy lines as you did. So I had my guys load up all my tools, while I grabbed my hammer and went to and beat up all the drywall. Well, you can’t do that. I actually got a felony charge out of it, but the church accepted $500 restitution and I was off the hook. But I still lost thousands of dollars that I had to come out of pocket to pay my guys for their work. People suck.
You have a lot more class than I do. Everyone within an hour of Bryson City would know her name and her story! Haha I'm a Raleigh guy, love your channel guys!
I sympathise deeply. Had many jobs with clients that pull all this crazy bull**** on you when it's time to pay. No consideration for you, your work, your family, your business, your subs, nothing. It's all me, me and me. And people wonder why so many contractors are cutthroat and don't return calls - probably because they think you're trying to pull something on them, as they have prior experience!
Here is one of my story’s lol. I went and bid a small remodel job (remove tile, install new tile install some doors etc) $7600.00 job to be exact, the owner ask me if i knew someone that did cabinets and i said yes my friend does cabinetry, so i give him his phone number and my ex friend went and give him an estimate for cabinets, but also he brought a friend of him that outbid the remodel job that i was going to do, and my ex friend end up putting 15k on cabinets and his friend doing the job that i supposed to do for $7200.00!!😩🤷🏽♂️
I had a contractor that wanted me to pay him in full upfront for a job. The answer to that was "absolutely not!", followed by a Clint Eastwood quote, "get off my lawn!" 🤨
I paid a contractor in full before he started his work and had a hell of a time trying to get him to do something. I am not going to do that again :-) Get off my lawn! :-)
in the early eighties i was a dryliner in the UK.. Plasterboard fixer or tacker . on one job i finished the plastering company refused payment. i had supplied the galvanised tacks that fixed the boards. i went into the site on a Saturday morning and removed my nails!
This is the reason I don't like shows like Holmes on Homes. They always show the evil contractor but never the contractors side of the story. I hung cabinets for Home Depot and just about always, the customer would want extra work. Most often we would get the customers house and the cabinets would still be full of dishes and silverware. The counter top would also still be covered .
The proper way to do it on large scale jobs is to sign a contract where the owner pays the contractor as work is being done. After 1week, the contractor evaluated what was completed and at what percent completed, and requests the owner to pay that amount. Once paid, the work continues. It’s a 2 way street for both the owner and contractor
Riiiiight. It's "liberals" doing all this crap. Just had to get that politics in there, eh? Everything's about "liberals" to you. Fact is, I've had the same damn problem with flag-flying NRA lifetime members. Got zero to do with what TV news you watch. Asshole is its own tribe.
I had a job cheat me out of $12k this past January I’m a small business it took almost a year to recoup from it but I learned a valuable lesson it changed how I read the customer before I do the work.
I took a job adding an addition onto a house and some other various thing inside the existing house. The contract came to a little over $31,000.00. The guy was a friend. I knew he had to take out a construction loan and roll it over into a conventional mortgage. I told him that I would save him some interest and not pay me until the job was done. The job was finished in March of 2019 and I still haven't received a dime. I put a lien on his house and I do have a trial date on February 24, 2020 so we will see. It is hard to work for free. ARRRRGGGGHHHH in Kentucky
@@poolman3908 Well, at the last minute he filed bankruptcy. We are going to the meeting of the creditors on March 10, 2020 to object on the basis of fraud. We will see how that goes.
You always hear on the news about the person that was done wrong by a contractor. You never hear about the contractor that was ripped off by a homeowner
There are sooo many of homeowners do the same thing
Story of the year always chasing money
So many laws protecting people from bad contractors but nothing really protecting good contractors from bad customers
Can't you put a lien on the house? I thought that's what liens were for.
The opposite is also true:
I am a experienced consumer. I have personally (with my own two hands, not used “hired” work) remodelled two homes and built one from scratch.
I am appalled at the quality of work being sold as “professional “. After all the rework I personally needed to do after a bathroom remodel, even my wife agreed I shouldn’t throw $20k out the window, and simply do the work myself.
Not everyone has this luxury ... to decide to pay for labor or do it yourself, but my point is simple. Don’t assume every professional you hire is equivalent. For home projects in northern climates, hire pros in the off season, you will get a better selection of competent contractors. In peak season, all that is available are the incompetent goofs.
@@dilvishpa5776 Certificate of insurance and references are your two best assurances of getting good work.
One of your strongest tools as a contractor is learning how to read people. The worst clients I have ever had, were clients I had a bad feeling about from day one. I like to sit and chat about small talk as long as I can before signing a big contract, try to get a sense of who they are, what they want and if we are going to mesh well during the project. I know time is money, but taking an hour to get to know a client might save you a lot of time and money. Also I like to keep a tight schedule of payments if possible to limit risk.
I do that exactly and if I pick up on things I will say in the middle of the convo. It was nice to meet you I have decided this project is not a good fit for me and good luck in your project. Some things they say that make me say that are: 1. If you give me a good price I have more work. 2. If they bash another contractor that I know is a good one in and around town. 3. Hey you are highly recommended but you know we got other prices and if you come down on your price you got the job. My reply to that is NO, and thank you for the opportunity to bid your job. I had one guy follow me as I was walking away saying hey come on everything is negotiable right? I replied this is not Let's Make a Deal there is a reason I was recommended and I have been pricing jobs for 40 years and I know what the price should be. Have a nice day.
I built a home for a family they refused to have any " small talk" or chit chat with me. I built their house anyway what a mistake that was. ended up getting sued for problems they caused to their home after closing. Fortunately had good insurance that stepped in but still a painful process.
@@joeb7198 u gotta read the red flags bro. People are scum these days and don't want to pay for anything or feel they should be getting more then they paid for. Your dealing with a generation of people who watched there parents get screwed over by contractors, so they are scorned. They are already jealous that they can't do the work on there home themselves. They didn't want to have any small talk because it was going to make it harder to screw you over.. I'm telling you man people these days are out to screw the contractor, they want the highest quality work while showcasing they are cheap as hell.
@@four4four636 that’s because a lot of contractors are out to beat the people…but they just dismiss that as “business” when you feel ripped off..if you try to sweeten your deal with them or point out overcharging…well you’re a troublesome guy..so be careful with new contractors..
@@griswald7156 there not to many ways you can beat out a homeowner other then getting paid for a shitty job
It's usually the people that have money that cause the most problems
nate phillips couldn’t agree more. The wealthy are the most frugal!
Most definitely
People with less money want to pay me the full amount before I even begin!! Rich folk want to complain about the price and then try and pro long the process
nate phillips ain’t that the muthufuckin truth bro.
Mitch Chabot the wealthy didnt become rich by not being cheap. think about it for a minute.
I have been ripped off like that once, nothing I could do.
But I did know the owner wanted to convert a shed into apartments, so I waited until he was half done and then informed the most strict building supervisor of the city, adding they said they would bribe him if he would make any comments. Result: The owner had to break down everything and was accused of bribery (he actually did try to bribe him). They never managed to complete their project, which was needed to make a living. After two years, they gave up and sold their property.
I lost my money, but I do like that taste of revenge.
I had trouble collecting my final payment for installing the electrical service on a new home. The owner kept postponing payment (waiting to make her final bank draw). I got wind that she was set to close on her construction loan and get a conventional home loan the following week. I immediately went to the courthouse and for $15 put a lien against her property. The title company wouldn't close the loan with a lien against it. I got a phone call later that afternoon and she paid in full.
Mechanical lien, best insurance a contractor has.
Oh, I'll bet that was satisfying getting that call. Sweet justice.
Getting a lien can be so satisfying. My parents had a landlord who didn't return their security deposit (after saying everything was fine on the final walkthrough). No letter explaining why he refused to return a single dime of the deposit. So my dad went to court, the landlord didn't bother to show up and was given a default judgement and a lien was put on the home. I think about 2 years later the guy tried to sell his house and found out about the lien. He found out how to contact my father (which wasn't easy as we had an unlisted number), called him up and cussed him out and demanded he remove the lien. Dad said "Sure, once you return my security deposit I'll remove the lien". Dude cussed some more and had a bit of a tizzy. He eventually paid the security deposit back. He's lucky my dad didn't go for treble damages on it.
@@catsmeow5566 Your dad's a nice guy. I think I'd have at least insisted on interest, because that jerk landlord was making money off the deposit all those years and got to keep it.
@@ManabiLT Yeah. That's what my Mom said. For my dad it was on principle rather than about the $.
I remember, when I ran my cabinetmaking shop, it was family that took advantage of me the most. Once, I delivered an expensive custom-made piece of furniture to a relative only to be told, after assembly and installation was complete, that they were not going to pay the agreed price. On the flip side, I had wonderful clients who were complete strangers that appreciated my attention to detail and the hard work I've put in.
Family can be the best clients or the absolute worst. Usually, I negate this (on small projects) by saying you buy the material, and I'll help build it in my spare time.
@@chris-C8 I like that idea, but with one stipulation. It would be to say to them, you buy the materials I want to work with. I had a few jobs that required me to work with client supplied materials. One of them involved building number of cabinets out of supplied 5/8"-4'x8' melamine. I think there were 50 sheets. Everything in those cabinets, including doors, was to be built from the supplied sheet goods. Problem was, it was sh_t goods. The core board was crap, and so was the melamine paper. It was chipping and tearing out like crazy. It was not fun to work with. The client was kind of okay with the end product, maybe because they saved money on the material, but this was one project I did not take photos of.
@@simplersearchproductions Great point! Working with subpar materials is no fun. I cringed reading that, haha. It hurts the heart!
In 15 years as a licensed contractor I have never been fired, but have seen similar situations coming and fired a customer!
LOL, I have a mate who has a habit of telling difficult customers to bugger off only in harsher terms. Surprisingly, many of them settle down into long term clients.
When everyone in town tells you that you don't want anything to do with someone, maybe it's time to check a little further. We tend to think because we are honest that others are. Not necessarily so!
I know this is an old video but had to share what happened to my brother in-law. He built this stone outside chimney on this guy's house. The owner was very happy with it when completed. Said he would put a check in the mail. Well that didn't happen . After several attempts to collect , brother in-law drove over to the house with his old dodge power wagon which had a huge wench on the front. As he was spooling out the cable the owner came out of the house to see what was going on. He told the guy if he didn't pay he was taking the chimney. The home owner promptly paid up.
My Uncles and Grandfather are all contractors. One year in the Canadian winter they were doing a job in a fancier area near our town near Christmas time. Payment was due the week before Christmas and the home owners left for vacation without paying leaving my Grandfather and Uncles without money for Christmas. They were away on vacation for a month and refused to pay when they got back. My Grandfather never told me this story, my Mom did years after he passed. I bet every person in our family knows which house it was that did this because it was the only time my Mom ever saw my Grandfather cry, and it broke all of our hearts that someone could do that to such a genuinely loving and kind man.
We've all had that client! old mason friend told me, I may not have gone to college but my education cost a heck of a lot more!
25 years ago a good friend of mine left a job on a Friday ( with tons of his tools in the house)
Only to be fired on Monday morning.
To this day, I never leave a single tool on a job site
THAT SUCKS. The cops would have been called by me to get my tools. You can screw me out of money BUT, NEVER my tools.
guss whu ur correct. After being a slumlord for 11 years and watching People’s Court for even longer I know the law pretty well. I never lost a case. Now collecting the money is another story. But here in Jerzey, as a business you can’t represent yourself. It SUCKS!!! So by the time you bring a lawyer in it doesn’t make financial sense in most cases. You have to put in your contracts “lawyers fees”.
I try to not leave too many tools
Man I watch some of these guys leave their tools over nights and weekends. Call me paranoid but I'll spend and extra 10 minutes gathering all my stuff and taking it with me. No tools no money.
So true 👍
Your the only builders who have done a video about crazy customers, thank you !!! I’ve watched a 1000 builders videos and no one ever mentions this kind of behaviour. Hats off to you guys and good luck in the future 👍
Did a job that took three months of custom work only to be scammed by the homeowner and not get paid. Had my materials covered but my labor was lost. Cost the homeowner $60,000 in legal fees to get validation that my workmanship is top notch and that I was due the money, however his lawyer found a loophole and I still didn't get paid. Learned my lesson and now more proactive on the right contact. You guys are awesome!
I bill for cost of materials upfront then invoice weekly for value of the work completed in that week minus 10% which is payable on completion. I’ve done jobs with values up to 100k and never had a customer complain about my billing method. (In the Uk btw)
You wouldn't believe that I did the exact same thing!! Had compassion for the lady because she said contractor had taken advantage of her in the past and broke down this large payment into smaller ones weekly the. She "ask her friends" and according to them my payment method is unorthodox and outrageous??? Like wait what!!??
francisco estrada I don’t understand why any customer would have a problem with that, if you gotta wait a month to get paid and you still gotta cover materials and wages it makes it really hard to get started in the business. Weekly bills for the value of the work seems perfectly reasonable to me
Get paid by week is better even if the customer fail to pay you will no loose a bunch of money... materials and probably a week ahead also pay upfront. Be smart .... also its understandable there a ton contractor that scam homeowners and the true it's no boby tell the true... get your contractor sign a surety bond or contract bond or similar... those liens against the property mean lawyer involve they will rip you off... if you are honest contractor, worker and the home owner is responsible ita ok but the true is some homeowners expect more for penny as such several contractor do average work for $$$$... those full insurance is garbage is a false advertisement for homeowner... contractor garanty is also a lie many contractor go away ( they are like car seller) .
I have my payment schedule in the contract and it's front loaded for each stage of the project. I have not had anything close a problem in 13 years of doing this. I've had couples get divorced during projects, people get sick, lose their job, etc. I am not paying for a homeowner's personal problems. If they can't trust that I will follow my contract then it's goodbye and good luck. All of my estimates are itemized and show my mark-up so there is no doubt where their money is going.
Had to do the builders lien twice finally got paid on both jobs. Got screwed by an out of state contractor too hard too sue. Text messages saved my ass on 10k, got judgement and all money I was owed. My father in the 1970s painted the ext of a house. I think total bill was like $1800. The house was covered with hedges in the front so to position a ladder a few limbs were broken. Homeowner held $1200 out to cover her shrubbery. Dad got home said get in the truck, we went there, dug up every shrub and took them home. People were gone at the time but the phone started ringing when they got home. Pops said "I paid for them!"
That's one way to do it 😂
I built a set of stairs when I first started out. Job went well, lady was very happy, but crickets......when she got her bill. Price was established prior to starting. Six months of blocked phone calls, lost (re printed) invoices, and multiple no answering the door. I put a lean on the house 3 months into the ordeal. She then sold her house, pending the removal of the lean. Knock at my personal door, with the full payment. She asked that i please remove the lean as she urgently needs to sell her. So I made her wait 2.5 weeks before I removed it 😂🖕🏻
How much did you spent in lawye?
You should have doubled the price.
I sure do love happy endings
@@georgebennett4402 - shoulda made her GIVE you "happy ending"
Full payment plus interest. 😅
Pre-lien notice everyone properly, regardless of the trust level. Pre-lien notice your mother, father, priest, grammy, doesn't matter.
Required by law in many states. It's no different that an HOA or IRS legally taking your house because you owe $500. I bet they could still file a legal claim, if you have pics, receipts and the contract.
@@rahenkamp1 I agree. I know some lawyers that would even take it for free. Pre-lien is essential.
@@rahenkamp1 Civil suits are no guarantee that you will even get the money after you are awarded the verdict.
Yeah that's for sure. My Dad accidentally shorted the city $.01 on property taxes once and they sent the notice that if not paid they would be auctioning it lol. They spent more on postage than what was owed...
😂
I have learned over the years. To split up the amout due. If they balk on the first payments. Cut your ties and run like hell. I changed the way i do business after that
This is good advice to live by. If they can't put a deposit then they can't afford to pay in the end
It is correct. It is better to be paid at every milestone than to take the whole chunk at the end. That way, until the installment is not paid, work does not move forward.
. How can people live with themselves knowing they’ve stolen from hardworking people?
People like that just don’t give a shit at all.
Ha. Talk to socipaths like Trump. He knows all about ripping off contractors and employees. Left a string of unpaid subs and workers on his many bankruptcies (where he made sure to pay himself millions before happily stiffkng his workers and employees).
People are cheap. They want their 💴 to get them more then it does. Let them do the labor and figure it out!
@@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb - You MAY want to recheck your "facts" about HIM stiffing people. If you READ, virtually EVERY situation i can find can be easily explained as a subcontractor screwing the employees THEN the NON-TRUMP employees sue the Trump organization OR Trump organization buys a business/property ALREADY in financial trouble then goes through and files bankruptcy for that organization to restructure. These are real world situations that may be over your head but if Trump hires a GC to perform work and they don't pay their employees, IT'S NOT TRUMP'S FAULT!!! But "he" gets sued nevertheless. I get it, you get your (fake) news from CNN and are too lazy to look around so here, read it really carefully- every example I see says "general contractor" or subcontractor. (This is from Trump haters @ USA Today who spelled lawsuit wrong in the link- brilliant /s ) Pedal your TDS somewhere else bro.
www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/
@@PayNoTax-GetNoVote You don't actually know the TRUTH either because you're just an internet jockey reading news or watching Fox and we all know that the media doesn't have all the facts and details. Let's wait until Letitia James is done with tRump before passing judgement.
We've all have or have heard of working for lawyers and doctors. I was about 20 years old at the time, did a side job building book shelves for a lawyer where my boss had just finished building his house. He didn't pay me and explained he didn't have to because basically there was no contract. I'm 55 years old, been in business for over 25 years and to this day I have and never will do work for ANY lawyer.
Yeah, that was a scab! Being young, we don't know our options. The fact he knew you were building it, accepted it and knew there were costs involved makes his statement contempt. I would have asked him if he wanted to be embarrassed in front of his peers taking advantage of a 20 year old young man who did honest work for him.
That's crazy. I did some handy man type work for a lawyer in my neighborhood and they stiffed me for about half a year. The crazy part was I offered to do the work for material cost only bc it was only a few small, random things, and they lived a couple houses down, but they insisted on paying bc they were looking for someone to do consistent work for them. Sent them the bill, and as I already said, crickets for months on end. The same person would brag about the crazy amount of money they spent to have their kids in dance programs and was always going on vacations. I couldn't believe it.
Impossible to tell everyone’s motives. We have learned to take a 10% deposit just to book a job, even if it’s a year in advance. If they scoff at that we move on. Seems to help filter. Then 30% x3 throughout the project. If extras are substantial enough we have them paid up immediately, otherwise they are added to the end. We always discuss alterations via email or written form so they are on record. And if you ever have to put a lien up you need to do it within so many days of final billing. So move fast and don’t feel bad. You need to make a living to.
Funny now not so funny when it happened. I can relate to this experience. A guy I know runs a local marina where I did fiberglass and paint work on boats. He approaches me and says "hey I have this customer, he needs a cockpit sole rebuilt and he pays his bills." Sounded great, I just got away from a boat manufacturer and needed some work and took the job. I talked to the owner. We talked over price and he gave me the go ahead. I took a $2500 deposit and ordered the materials. Two months of battling some of the worse heatwaves and then thunderstorms we have had in NJ that summer and it was done. I took another $2500 3/4 of the way through.
Now where it started. I finished the job handed him a bill and he asked if he could make payments on the remaining balance of $7600. While the work was being done he added work to the pulpit and various other items. The deck itself was agreed to at $10,000 being that it was a complete removal and rebuild from scratch. Added aluminum plates to prevent water from getting back into the wood I just laminated and faired out. Well he choked on the final bill but I agreed to let the payments come.
They never did. He stopped taking my calls, left the marina. I had my lawyer send him correspondence and his lawyer said he has no intention of paying and good luck trying to get it.
I still get hot over that...just like you guys do. I wanted to cut the deck out or dump stain over it but my lawyer, wife and father in law said let it go. He eventually ran his boat across an underwater rock wall and destroyed it and insurance told him to suck an egg and they aren't paying.
That was nice to find out.
Robert pascucci sometimes Karma is a bitch!
Did a huge remodel job at the country club, got my money in 3 draws, last one was in contract for when job is completed, well they said no pay until at the end of year to make sure I honored my warranty. I did get my money when I said the word LIEN evidently they were familiar with process. By law I was not obligated to give them a one year warranty, but I did because I was more interested in building a reputable company and establishing myself as a reputable builder.
rumpleforeskin73 on new construction law binds you for one year , not on remodel but I always gave at least one year on all my work. Only job I really had a problem on. And you are correct it is lien, relying on spellcheck doesn't work.
We had a guy that wanted a privacy fence with footing and from the start he kept saying cheap how can we do this cheap would it be cheaper to do this and that . He decided on a less quality wood and we went with it , we set the post poured our footing went back the next day pulled the forms it's about 105 out and here he comes and started going on and on about these very small hair line cracks. He started telling me he was only going to pay me 1/2 of the price. Well I got pissed and took my tractor and the guys and in about 30 minuets we had concrete post everything loaded on the trailer and pulling off with him saying it's ok I just wanted to save money. So now when I here cheap I lose interest real fast.
Shoulda told him skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled
offroadchevy4x4 ! Well said.
When they say “cheap “ a few too many times before I give a price I know I don’t even want the job. It takes a long time to get the feel for the bad ones and every once in a while I have to re learn my lesson. Just don’t let them too far ahead with the money
@SurfTopics when the first words I hear are "it's only a small job" and then they tell you how long it will take is when I walk away.
I learned the hard way, dealing with cheap people always comes back to haunt you.
I worked for a guy that had multiple contacts with his local city. We installed all this concrete at a new city park. After 120 days no pay. He had us go back and remove ALL the concrete not holding the playground equipment up. When the city fathers came to open their new park NO parking lot, sidewalk, or concrete drinking fountains. We took it all. Not only did he get his money but he got paid to put it ALL back. Lol that guy was something else.
You are not alone my friends. Word to the wise, AVOID doing work for lawyers. My father and I are electrical contractors here in WNY, he did a large indoor amusement park project and didn’t get paid fully in the end and had to eat over 100k. The project owner was a lawyer and declared bankruptcy. My father won in court and still didn’t get paid. It cost him 20k to go to court and get nothing. It cost the lawyer nothing because he pays himself in court. Thankfully my father recovered and we are still in business today, which is hard in NYS.
You’re much nicer than I would have been.
You’re much nicer than I HAVE been.
Any stories ?
Always include an "Unreasonable Customer" clause in your contract, which spells out how you intend to remediate any issues that arise, without letting the customer simply fire you and not pay you. After she fired you, I would have gotten a court claim against her at her local Magisterial District Judge or Justice of Peace, and placed a lean on her home at the local courthouse in the Prothonotary Office. if she ever wants to get a future bank loan, buy a new car, or sell her house, she would need to square up with you first to straighten out her bad credit. This process doesn't cost nearly as much as hiring an Attorney and taking her to court.
Exactly, they should have put a lien against the house.
I've only been ripped off once. It was for $1700, the final payment on a job and at the time it hurt. But I was told by another carpenter that a cabinet maker made custom cabinets at his shop. He installed them at a beautiful lake front home. The homeowner gave him the final payment of $15,000. He went to the bank and deposited it and was told that there were insufficient funds to cover the check. So he went back to the homeowner who answered the door and when told that there wasn't enough in the account to cover the check the homeowner, with his wife smiling behind him, told him he needs to learn to be a smarter businessman and closed the door in his face. He went back to his shop fuming. But overnight he hatched a plan. The next day he went back to the bank and went up to the teller, who he knew, and asked about the account and if there were a different one that the same customer had. She said I can't tell you that. So he said, "If I deposit $500 in this account will this check pass?" She looked it up and said, "Yes". So he wrote a check for $500, deposited in the guy's account and then cashed his $15,000 payment. A few days later the customer came to his shop yelling at him and asking him what he was trying to pull. He just smiled and said "You need to be a smarter businessman".
WHAT!!! Unbelievable!!! That's a PRO hahaha
Doesn’t make sense. Writing a hot check in that amount sends you to prison
I'll take fake news for 500!
I dont know if banks will still do this, but i can verify I saw my dad do the same thing with someone who owed him money on a job about 20 years ago. A few days later the customer had a bunch of other checks / autodrafts bounce for insufficient funds because the check my dad cashed drained their account first!
That is beautiful great move!
I have been a contractor for 40+ years. I learned along time ago get a contract signed and collect money as you go
Story ?
I hear your stories and know they are real. Luckily I have only been Burned one time in 35 years and that was for about $180.00. . After completing a kitchen remodel ($27,00.00) we were paid and then the customer wanted us to replace his sump pump. Normally I would call our plumber but decided to save the guy a few bucks. After we finished the two hour job he decided $460 was to high. The price included a 3/4 horse pump and a 15 mile round trip to Home Depot plus a couple PVC fittings. I couldn’t believe he was serious since we had worked on his kitchen for close to a month and he was completely happy with everything. Wrong, he was very serious. It upset me so much that I told him to pay what he thought it was worth and then never call us again for anything including any call backs for the kitchen work. That job bothers me to this day cause most everyone of my customers has become sort of friends with me and some of our crew and have given us hundreds of referrals.
I like to get the homeowner to pay for materials upfront, instead of taking a deposit, I find this will commit the homeowner to the design and usually won't ask for any changes half way through the job. I also like to have progress payments in my contracts, especially for bigger and longer projects. If you're really concerned about not getting paid or whatever, you can set up the progress payments at certain points in the project where the start of the next stage is required for anything else to continue.
Used to have payments set upon completion of work. Then a homeowner had already paid upfront for the next trade to come through and couldn't cover my payment, even though I had completed work. My work had to be finished before the next trade could start so I thought if the next trade can't start work, then I'm more likely to get paid so the project can continue.
That's just me though.. Couple of bad experiences really makes it hard for me to trust.
I worked a temp job as a helper one time. The contractor was hired to frame a basement which we did. It took us all of eight hours, it passed inspection and the boss was waiting to get paid. The customer flat out refused saying the work was not what he wanted, despite it being built to the specifications he made.
So a couple days later the contractor hired me again. We went back to the house with a sawzall, a sledgehammer and a crowbar and tore up all the work we did, leaving nothing that could be used or repurposed and just left a massive mess in this jerks basement.
Moral of the story: If you don't want to pay for it, you don't get to keep it.
I did a large Landscaping project for a lady. She refused to pay me $1,200 for plants that she picked out after they were already planted in her yard. After the job was complete she told me she didn't like it and refused to pay. I went back very early in the morning and quietly removed all the plants that she never paid for! So technically I repossess her yard like that movie Fun with Dick and Jane. Haha
Yup. My first job went similarly. Got roped into fixing this guy's mobile home on his property (which we were going to rent from them). Long story short, that job left me broke, homeless, deathly ill, with a wife and toddler in tow, all while still new to the area. But that debacle wound up landing me a remodeling job which is still going strong, thanks be to God.
A word to the wise: even if everyone tell's you he's a great guy, you can trust him... have a contract anyway. And be picky about who you contract with.
Peak Season. Start a pool and homeowner announces he will be out of town on vacation for a few days. He is gone for a week. I was already 5 days into 10 day build. Pool was up and finished and homeowner comes back and files bankruptcy. I only had 5% signing deposit. Learned real quick to lay out draw milestones in contract and for the last 30 years have made it a practice to be very diligent in sticking to them. I was 12k down. and that was in '90's money. Would equate to about 25k today. My rule ...No homeowner then work stops and I am off to another job till we are current and also all my draws are set to cover forward costs.
Several years ago...a guy I had bid a job...big job...I too was warned by a couple of people about his payment disease.. I unfortunately didn't give the heed... he worked my bill to$50,000... lshut the job down... I eventually got some of it... several years later he still owes me about $30,000.
For tricky or risky clients, setup a trust account and have all monies deposited before the project starts. Release cash on a schedule with the approval of both parties. If the client balks, at least you have their money tied up during arbitration.
This I agree. Most basic clients at $15,000 probably would be uneasy about this. Especially less educated clients. The plus point with this option....it weeds out those possible clients that would be scheming to be dishonest.
I am a Fire and Security Systems contractor based in the south of England.....Experience in sounding out a prospective client is key.....I have a couple of contacts where they have to pay me 100% up front before I go to site. This is because the other trades (Electricians and Chippys) warned me that they were bad payers....It horrible that we have to worry about getting paid....Love the videos chaps
We've all been there!
Yep.
Btw, you guys are my heroes. Love your videos. I work for a large GC,have for years but would 10x rather own my biz and do what you do! Keep it up
I hired a contractor to level my house that was being sold pending the leveling. I gave him 1/2 upfront and the balance upon completion. A few days later he said he was finished and I paid him off. The buyers inspector checked the house and said it was not level. I tried calling the contractor several times and left voice mails but no luck. Never heard back from him. I believe the total was like $5500.00. Lesson learned. The buyer backed out and I lost out. The contractors name is T R Garza, Victoria, Tx. ☹️
Maybe he used a cheap level.
Pete Pistachio 😂😂😂
You should have had the inspector check the house before processing final payment. Contractually once final payment is processed and the lien waivers are signed you are screwed for anything that you considered incomplete
My family had the opposite happen, guy was contracted to do work on outdoor stone fireplace. After tearing everything out, he took what money was given for materials and ran. Still out a pretty penny. So moral of the story, everyone be proactive about protecting yourself and your company.
Probably way more stories of shady contractors than homeowners overall. The homeowner can be located or at least their property can be, liens can be placed etc. Shifty contractors can pick up and leave anytime.
Boy do I have stories on this one. One time I built a house.from ground up....at the end I was suppose to collect 25k...at closing I ended up with 1200.00 . that was in 2001 even recently...last year I was stiffed 3 different times. It's a wonder im still sane...debateable I know
Had a contractor give me final payment on a house I framed and check bounced lost 1000 dollars this was 35 years ago that was a lot of money, it hurt!
Every week I get a draw from the homeowner for labor and materials so if something happened I don’t owe anyone I don’t think I’ll ever change that ...
Same here...also in tx...clowertotalconstruction...white oak tx
Be kind to one another. Stay safe. Love to all
Oh heck no. Being a homeowner, I'd much rather have a anally detailed contract. I would rather have that than a simple number.
At least as I go through the contract I know that the contractor has thought about the project and what needs to be done.Gives me time to reflect and ask more ??'s
If you're a remodeler or just a handyman doing a bunch of small jobs for a customer, it is in your best interest to prepare a detailed proposal/estimate. First, it's just good marketing. If you look at a proposal and it says "Labor and materials: $2700" you're going to be a lot more comfortable if that $2700 is supported by clear, concise bullet-points elaborating on what is contained therein.
Second, the more detail the less opportunity for misunderstanding that leads to conflict, resentment and slow/no pay scenarios.
Third, after a house and car, a sizable remodeling project is probably the most expensive purchase most people undertake, so they can be very concerned about every expenditure. And since you aren't Bank of America, it's a pretty large extension of credit you're making to someone you may not know very well. When mistakes happen, they're potentially very expensive to correct, not along the lines of picking Diet Coke off the shelf rather than regular Coke.
I would have done the job as well but kindly told her upfront payment due to her reputation.
Always have a contract. Stick to the contract. Don’t get played, stay humble and honest.
Most honest answer I’ve seen on here! That’s why I like commercial over residential. As a foreman I say sure we can change that but I’ll have to get a change of order form and we will have to estimate the higher end cost.
On the other hand as a custom home builder I have to eat it on some of these jobs. Then try to estimate cost and see if it’s in budget.
House I’m on now we were pouring footer the next day and the night before homeowner called and asked if he could get another garage stall added. Making 3 total. I quickly explained it changes for footer to changing trusses. Order more brick.. so on and so fourth. Began digging footer at dry break and call for more yards.
8 foot doors changed to 12 foot doors. Common in residential!
You guys are good guys. Good on you to take the high road even when your livelihood is on the lines. And it's an all too common tale
Got burned on doing tractor work for $500. I have done lots of work for this guy, he just needed some sand spread, no big deal, I show up and spread out 10 loads of sand. I send him an invoice and hear nothing back. Send him another one a month later, nothing. Call him, he will not answer, go to his house, will not come to the door. I get pissed and file theft of services charges on him, the cops get in contact with him, he swears he thought that was already taken care off. The cops give him one week, a week passes nothing. They arrest him, he goes to court, the judge threw it out because nothing was agreed to on paper!
I wonder if texts would hold up as evidence in court. If you had them, of course.
I could watch you guys all day!!! Thank you for putting up this videos.
There are Builders in Floridan that have been screwing their contractors and subs for decades 30 years or more and they are still in business....so how do they get away with it?
Simple plan repeated over and over again...Step one hire a small hungry contractor and get him to purchase and sign for all of the materials...Florida makes you pay your labor and all of the labor is employed by you never the builder...
String the contractor along and give him work and then give him the chance to make some real money by building maybe 2-3 houses at once...
Now when he is overextended just don't pay him...don't pay him anything....He is on the string for all of the materials and all of the labor....he goes out of business and can't afford to sue you...you collect all of the money when you sell the house...and net way more money that any competitor who actually pays his bills...
So you ask how do you stay in business after this ?..Who in the hell will work for you after that?....Simple ..all that you do is approach one or more of the guys who worked for that same contractor who you just broke....and say something like this to him do you have or can you get a truck & trailer and tools?...We both know that _______(Name of guy that you just screwed) is an asshole...I tell you what I can and will get you a contractor license and you work for me and make the big money that _____ was making and you will be a contractor now...
And they just keep doing that...They just watched it happening to their last boss and say hell ya...I want a piece of that!
THis seems more like how to get yourself killed.
@@jdizzle6324 The same guys have gotten by with it decade after decade...It's not a secret and there is always another guy waiting to step and get screwed next...The other standard ploy is you do your contracted task...and now they just brazenly refuse to pay you at all...and they make you do more work ...work that was not in your contract before they will pay you what you are already owed...
I'm not even a contractor and I know tons of guys that thy have screwed ....but they just never run out of suckers that say ...Well they may have screwed you...but Charlie...loves me!...The heart of the con is is letting the rubes believe that they are in on it...and that we are going to fleece everyone else!
Thanks for sharing guys! This helps others be cautious and protect themselves.
Get it all in writing...on paper... witnessed...or notorized.
Same with "changes"...
Only job we ever got fired from was because of the architect. Guy kept sending down so many changes we could never get anything built to completion. Owner got pissed (rightly so...) and fired everyone. We were fairly well covered though...had a non-completion clause in the contract (binding on the owner)
Had the same experience. It was an interior built in cabinets, ad display cases project. I took 70% of the estimated raw materials cost at the start of the job and nothing else. It was the second day of staining and painting phase that the client fired me as the stain colour did not match his liking. He paid me none and hired a painter to complete the job. He saved a ton. I took a personal loan to pay the workers and suppliers.
A buddy of mine just had the same thing happen. He did a decorative concrete job and after he was done they did a walk through and she signed off on it and paid the last half then about a month later he got a court summons. She was suing for more than double what the job cost. He pretty much had the suit over with but he forgot all about the court date so he lost by default. But that wasn't even the worst of it. Ever since shes been using multiple online accounts as well as having several of her friends and family leave him bad reviews saying he ripped her off and never came and did the job. Saying she paid the entirw amount up front and he never showed but I know for a fact he never takes the full amount up front. He charges half up front to cover material and labor then the last half after completion. Aparently she has done this numerous times to several different contractors slowly getting her house remodeled and actually making money from it instead of spending. I'm sure not all of the cases were in her favor but if she could win even a couple of them its still a win
I was an electrical contractor for many years and I have to tell you, some people think you should work for them for free. I would usually get a third up front, a third after a certain amount of agreed upon work was done and a third upon completion. The last one is where I usually got stiffed and that's where the profit is. If I had to do it over again , I would charge 33% more for my jobs. Then if I got stiffed on final payment, I would still get 88% of my money, and if I didn't get the job because my bid was too high, no big deal. The best job I ever had was the one I didn't get. Some people are just scum and screw it up for everyone else. Don't trust people. Get everything in writing including the customer paying court fees. Unfortunately, we don't live in the honest world we used too. Some people get their jollies by ripping others off.
it goes both ways, i had a contractor basically robb me of 45k for a quick minute, ...until a certain contractors house was broken into and destroyed and shot up...funny how life works they came back to finish my house no questions asked...i thank god everyday those kind people that did that ...never did catch them.
Feel your pain guys, been builder for 20 yrs and a guy that had been friends with our entire life took me for $25,000+, felt the same way wanted to burn it to the ground but that's water under the bridge in this industry live and LEARN, some things only come by experience, also love the channel, KEEP IT UP!
enjoy all the content on your channel and especially these stories tooo
Yes you have to listen to others. Then your gut feeling! I make the customers open a account at the lumber yards! Then they do a credit check!
mitch yelvington Clever!!!
On bigger jobs I always got one third down and third at the middle. Balance due on completion. That way materials were paid for and I only lost time if I got stiffed. I did get stiffed once but I only lost a few days. She couldn't pay that 2nd third and got then arrested for fraud and went to jail on non related business dealings. My wife showed me the article in the Paper. My Uncle got stiffed a couple times. One job a RR tie wall. So, he went out early morning and started taking up the ties and loading them on a truck. The home owner said you can't do that. He said, you didn't pay for them, they are my property. The home owner paid him. Another didn't pay and said there's nothing you can do about it. My Uncle was mad. He went to court over 2 years and won. He pulled up to the house with a truck and Sheriff to remove property equal to the debt. When the crook got the notice at the door he wanted to pay NOW. My Uncle told him it would cost him the bill, legal fees and his time. He complained, so my Uncle and the Sheriff started moving into the house to execute the lien.The crook in a panic with his family watching paid in full in short order.
My dad had a customer that got into him for 250K then announced he didn't have any money. Took all of Mom's and sisters patience and figuring out how to deal with him, but they got it all. It helped his accountant didn't like his boss too.
I always heeded the warnings we have lots of homeowners here that have been through all the contractors. I’ve been burned couple times I didn’t let that happen again it was early in my general contracting days in my early 20s
That is almost as bad as a contractor maxing out his credit line with a building supply store, then asking for more credit and getting it, and then find out the very next day that said contractor has filed for bankruptcy. Been there, saw it, and saw it more than once. Some people just are plain evil and need to have some private adjustments made to their face. Saw that too...... from a distance!!!!!!
Credit card companies are being scammed by what is known as bust-out fraud. People get as many credit cards as possible (as in dozens), pay regularly for a while to keep good credit scores and then ask for higher credit limits. Then max out all their cards and skip town. Most card companies eat their losses as trying to track down and sue people for $20-$50K isn't worth it. But the scammer does it to dozens of different companies and can get away with many hundreds of thousands from all the cards combined. It's done all the time.
Just finished my worst job ever. If the owner and I weren’t friends I would have been gone a long time ago. I knew better but my kindhearted ass couldn’t help it! Good luck, always living, always learning!
Jamie Laughridge remember sometimes the best answer is no.
I actually had a customer who I had to put a lien on their property and take him to court over a $300 add on to a $30000 contract. I was halfway done with the project and had only been paid $15000. Because of some additional work the customer had me do I notified her after doing the work that there was going to be $300 extra added on to the contract. She proceeded to scream at me at which time I told her her 3 options. The next day a Saturday she fired me and set all of my tools on the front porch and change the locks refusing to pay me in full. This was before I knew what a pre lien notice was. Everybody I talked to told me that if I threaten to put a lien on her house I will be paid, That didn't work. After putting a lien on her property which I knew would not hold because I had not properly notified her I eventually had to take her to small claims court. It being my 1st time in court for this I decided to keep my mouth shut and only answer the questions the judge gave me so I didn't screw things up. I was kind of surprised he never asked me for receipts. In the end he ruled in her favor because I failed to show proof of burden. Lessoned learned never perform any work without a written change order and always have pre lien notices on all contracts. Finally follow your gut it will keep you out of trouble.
Amazing guys, real perfectionists with high moral ideals.
Lol. Happens to the best of us. I now listen to others if they've been stung by certain people. I always use contracts if they seem like they want to get something for free.
Totally different circumstances but have also been done over in business. You’ve sometimes got to pick your battles and walk away. You can waste a lot of time, money and energy trying to teach someone a lesson.
I hear you guys! I'm currently chasing a builder around for $13,000, thats my labour and materials I put into a job last fall. And this is a multi-family builder doing very high end homes. You never know who's going to think they can get away with not paying. It's a sad business sometimes...
Had similar thing happen to me except I finished the job. $15,000 contract took $5,000 upfront for a commercial renovation to make a hair salon. Did all the work client was more than happy with the end product but refused to pay the remaining balance because I apparently screwed around and took longer than I should’ve when it was really a big part that was on back order. End of the day I said forget it no worth the hassle or stooping to her level. Karma will take care of it in whatever way it does
My story is the other way around. Contractor did work for my mom, he got money for materials from her and paid for the job. I get home and all I can say is I have never in my life seen some one use paneling for sheathing. Some $40k she paid this guy and he may have done $5k worth of work and materials. It cost her more money to have it torn out and redone. We went to sue this guy and the lady at the court house told us get in line. Hold do these guys keep a contractor license?
This is what bonds are for. All a screwed homeowner has to do is file a complaint with the contractors board and with their bond issuer and you'll get paid back his bond money. AND can get his license yanked.
@rumpleforeskin73 Stop whining.
@@syfyrytr1652 But a $15k bond is not going to pay for $35k of theft. Also, if someone didn't pay, and you lien them, they can bond around the lien, just to change title. $$ is settled later on in court.
I think some people get ripped of so bad (happened to me, 400$ in labour for a 20 min job. Well, he had to drive 10 min to my house for it, so I guess that justifies the price!) that they are ashamed of even tell anybody about it. I have made several bad experiences with contractors and try to stay away from them. Best thing is to take some time to find a good one and stick with them + never get in the situation where you need somebody quickly. I was lucky to have found a great trucking/excavating contractor right close to me. He gave me great value the first time and I ended up spending some serious amount of money on him over the years. In fact, I have the next project in mind that I hope they can help me with.
Had a job where I was owed $7500, and was not getting paid, the health inspector came and required additional work, I agreed to do work for nothing if I got the full $7500 up front. Only time I was almost not paid,
Yep been there. Now I have redone my payment schedule so they don't owe very much by the end.
I was told I was going to get the cops called on me if I didnt leave. Was only out 2k and that was all profit so wasn't too bad.
A contractor I know was not ripped off, but seriously miscalculated a job. He ended up renovating a house where he lost half a year's salary. So basically the customer got a dirt cheap house. Worst part is that he realized it in the middle of the job! Since then he only charges per hour :P
He said something interesting to me one day; Don't build something that is regarded as bad practice when your customer asks for it. If it doesn't hold up he can still hold you accountable for it.
There needs to be something like Angie's list for contractors to rate customers so other contractors don't get ripped off or sued for no reason.
Angie list and home advisor are similar scammers the lead are false they ask you lomey for leads that aren't true... the large contractor get the contract but nobody said it there a bunch smal contractor losing money bc they belive of false propaganda trust in google advertising instead.
I've been saying this for years. But I have a feeling there's a whole "privacy issue" while rating individual people
Nope! I don't know where you live, but there is a bunch of laws to protect bad people on my country. By the law you can't even tell a friend about someone who owe you money without the risk of been prosecuted by calumny crime
No need, he said from the very beginning that many people warned them. If there are that many people speaking negatively....you can rest assured that client WILL be trouble.
Man! I'm so lucky I found the contractor I did on the first project, a bathroom remodel. He was the highest bidder, but he showed up on time got back with me on a price the next day. Always showed up when he said he would, always! It's always been just a handshake between us, I paid what wanted and he did an outstanding job. He's done three big jobs for me. Bathroom remodel, all new windows (what a difference that made! aluminum vs double pane). Last July, it was the kitchen. I couldn't be happier with him. I told him we wanted a new kitchen, and he pretty much told us what we wanted. I feel bad for all the contractors that get screwed by the customer. The fellow that's a roofer in Pennsylvania (Forward Home Enhancements,) what a nightmare. That piling on of lies via social media, somehow how that should be actionable.
One of my first customer stiffed me for 11,000. Had the Sheetrock up and spackled ready for paint. The homeowner was receiving the money from his insurance and asked me to put the rest of the money and when I was done he would be pay me. So to this day I have not seen this money.
About two years ago did another job for a different customer. New high hats and Sheetrock ceiling got a fraction of the down payment and till this day I haven’t seen the rest of that money.
You always hear about contractors stiffing customers but you never hear on the news when customers take advantage of contractors!!
Start doing contracts, and taking out leins.....just tell them it protects both parties
The small one at 5:30 is used to level European wall sockets. At the back there should be a small indent that slides over the metal frame of the socket. And YES it is magnetic ;)
Room additions and less than whole house remodels is my gig...I do 30%,30%,30%, with 10% paid at final. so far it's worked for me.
Should have gotten ruthless on the paperwork end of it. I've done it a few times. First Send her a certified mail invoice for the balance, then if no response Mail a bill to all of her relatives with her name on it. Phone calls if needed. This can be obtained via background checks. She may not care enough to pay the balance, but will have a rough time going to a get together with family when they all know she ripped someone off.
I've been burned by "crazy homeowners" on more than one occasion. Never to the level of $15,000 tho. You guys are doing a great job with these videos and apparently with your construction company, too. Please keep posting these videos. P.S. I did work for a contractor back around 2004 who got burned for the entire cost of a $150,000 new home. He did the "construction lien" thing and after about two or three years, he wound up almost breaking even on his costs for the construction, legal fees, etc. I won't name names either. Y'all keep up the good work. Hello from Hot Springs area Arkansas. 👍🇺🇸
I hate to hear this happened. I am not a contractor (own my own business) but I am a project manager for a GC. I treat every project I manage / run as my own. Over years of doing this and learning by mistakes one thing I have learned is document everything!!! It’s sad it has to be this way but it has to be. I’ve had owners love you one day, you’re the best ever thanks for taking care of that issue or getting that done etc.. and then turn like you suck and the worst ever over little stupid stuff. The old saying “it’s not what you did for me yesterday, but what have you done for me today” In the end just document everything. If I meet with someone and we discuss changing this and m changing that my very next thing on my list is an email to that person “per our conversation today .....” and I spell everything out. It just has to be that way.
@Raderfan- Yes, very sound reasoning to "get everything in writing" so there's no question!
Some people are just evil. I’m so sorry this happened to you two
Been in business for 20 yrs. I was a subcontractor for some drywall work for at a church daycare. We hung the drywall, and we where in the middle of finishing the drywall work when we got fired. For along the same sort of crazy lines as you did. So I had my guys load up all my tools, while I grabbed my hammer and went to and beat up all the drywall. Well, you can’t do that. I actually got a felony charge out of it, but the church accepted $500 restitution and I was off the hook. But I still lost thousands of dollars that I had to come out of pocket to pay my guys for their
work. People suck.
Yep churches are some of the worst underhanded clients to have. And drywallers always get to see the worst side of the clients
You have a lot more class than I do. Everyone within an hour of Bryson City would know her name and her story! Haha I'm a Raleigh guy, love your channel guys!
In a word, pre-lien everything! Okay, that's two words. And it doesn't work in every state.
I sympathise deeply. Had many jobs with clients that pull all this crazy bull**** on you when it's time to pay. No consideration for you, your work, your family, your business, your subs, nothing. It's all me, me and me.
And people wonder why so many contractors are cutthroat and don't return calls - probably because they think you're trying to pull something on them, as they have prior experience!
Here is one of my story’s lol. I went and bid a small remodel job (remove tile, install new tile install some doors etc) $7600.00 job to be exact, the owner ask me if i knew someone that did cabinets and i said yes my friend does cabinetry, so i give him his phone number and my ex friend went and give him an estimate for cabinets, but also he brought a friend of him that outbid the remodel job that i was going to do, and my ex friend end up putting 15k on cabinets and his friend doing the job that i supposed to do for $7200.00!!😩🤷🏽♂️
That’s a dick move. Over $400. Damn.
A big red flag for me is if them bad mouth their previous contractor in a nasty way... no thanks!
I had a contractor that wanted me to pay him in full upfront for a job. The answer to that was "absolutely not!", followed by a Clint Eastwood quote, "get off my lawn!" 🤨
I paid a contractor in full before he started his work and had a hell of a time trying to get him to do something. I am not going to do that again :-) Get off my lawn! :-)
in the early eighties i was a dryliner in the UK.. Plasterboard fixer or tacker . on one job i finished the plastering company refused payment. i had supplied the galvanised tacks that fixed the boards. i went into the site on a Saturday morning and removed my nails!
This is the reason I don't like shows like Holmes on Homes. They always show the evil contractor but never the contractors side of the story. I hung cabinets for Home Depot and just about always, the customer would want extra work. Most often we would get the customers house and the cabinets would still be full of dishes and silverware. The counter top would also still be covered .
Holmes on Homes is horseshit.All these tv shows ,man,not the real world. I guess some people are fooled.
The proper way to do it on large scale jobs is to sign a contract where the owner pays the contractor as work is being done. After 1week, the contractor evaluated what was completed and at what percent completed, and requests the owner to pay that amount. Once paid, the work continues. It’s a 2 way street for both the owner and contractor
I've found out that it's not the job.... It's the person you're working for that is the problem. You develop a 6th sense eventually.
schwadaddy81 No, more like a liberal I should get everything for free the world owes me B***h.
Riiiiight. It's "liberals" doing all this crap. Just had to get that politics in there, eh? Everything's about "liberals" to you. Fact is, I've had the same damn problem with flag-flying NRA lifetime members. Got zero to do with what TV news you watch. Asshole is its own tribe.
I had a job cheat me out of $12k this past January I’m a small business it took almost a year to recoup from it but I learned a valuable lesson it changed how I read the customer before I do the work.
I took a job adding an addition onto a house and some other various thing inside the existing house. The contract came to a little over $31,000.00. The guy was a friend. I knew he had to take out a construction loan and roll it over into a conventional mortgage. I told him that I would save him some interest and not pay me until the job was done. The job was finished in March of 2019 and I still haven't received a dime. I put a lien on his house and I do have a trial date on February 24, 2020 so we will see. It is hard to work for free. ARRRRGGGGHHHH in Kentucky
Nothing like working for friends and family.
Rule #1 don’t shit where you eat.
Well that was yesterday’s date. What happened?
@@poolman3908 Well, at the last minute he filed bankruptcy. We are going to the meeting of the creditors on March 10, 2020 to object on the basis of fraud. We will see how that goes.