Beware of 1 stop maintenance

We are also discussing a system like that too.

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Small Claims Court is for things like $200 and up. You can also file a lien on their business.

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This is her best option!

ABSOLUTELY put a lien on that building. That holds up any sale of that building until the bill is paid. You may not have the $$ power for big shot lawyers, but the building owners will and theyā€™ll squeeze this guy until he farts your money.

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Big jobs like that, we do a progress invoice system. 30% before work begins. 30% mid way thru, 40% upon completion AND passing inspection.

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Here some info that might get you started in the right direction. Also to, I know the State of Kansas has a pretty agressive revanue department, it would be interesting to find out if this company is paying all of itā€™s taxes to Kansas. The more waves you make the more they are likely to pay. Thatā€™s probably why thay contacted a one man show to begin with.

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You might not be able to put a lien on the building or itā€™s owner. In a lot of states, if the owner has paid the general contractor in full then the owner canā€™t, by law, be forced to pay twice. If the owner still owes the GC then you can try going after the remaining funds.
You need to seek legal advice. I would be contacting the State AG office too. These kind of companies get banned from doing business pretty quick in Kansas.

Thats really shit folks.Hate seeing crap like this happen to anyone.I guess all of us if not some have been caught out at some stage in business with crooks like these.
If nothing comes after your lawyer has tried to deal with them i would recommend if you know anyone or a group of heavy handed people shall we say that you get them to pay a friendly visit to there office or home to have a friendly chat.I had no choice but to resort to that measure for someone who owed thousands for painting his entire house inside and out,needless to say he paid immediately when his new friends asked him to come and play!!

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I caution you to be careful about being any more public about this. Iā€™m not a lawyer, I only play one on TV :grin:
One tactic of scumbag companies is to rip people off and if the offended starts calling them out on social media they will bring a Libel Suit against the offended. Then the scumbag companies will string the offended along to put pressure on them to make them walk away from everything. They are from New York, if they file a libel suit against you, they will do it in New York. Whether you are right or wrong they can make this painful for you.
Careful what you say on Youtube and facebook. It sucks, I know, but itā€™s the rules of the game.

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This is from Legal Zoomā€¦
ā€œA person who wishes to successfully sue you for libel must generally prove the statement is false. In most states, truth is a complete defense to a libel action. You generally canā€™t sue if the statement in question is true, no matter how unpleasant the statement or the results of its publication.ā€

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This is correct Garry. However, itā€™s the filing of the Libel Suit against you that can force you to waste a lot time and money defending yourself.
If you have the resources to wait it out, they will wait to the last minute to drop the suit. You are still out the money and time.

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Iā€™m not picking any fights on YouTube or Facebook and hadnā€™t planned on it. After reading their reviews and speaking to a local company they have screwed over I wanted to share that with you guys just in case, by some small small small percent chance that their company contacts anyone of you for work. Also just to say donā€™t be a dummy and do your research.

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Is that common for others too?

In my area thereā€™s no way youā€™re getting any money down and thatā€™s even on jobs four times that size.

I know itā€™s common in other industries. Havenā€™t done many big jobs like that. I did one job in the 10 thousand range with no money down ,but it wasnā€™t a sub job it was through thd apparant company itself. I was on pins An needles until the check arrived. Did it with my brother in law
, an he was so against doing it with out a down payment I literally had to beg him . I kept telling him thatā€™s not how it works , an he kept saying yes it is ā€¦ thnsk god the check came .
I think if I Ever get anything of that size again I will ask for a down payment . I thought also in this industry ( service ). You do the work then get paid.

Puts a not in my stomach when I hear someone getting burned like this. I like the advise your getting hear. I hope it all pans out for you guys. Scum like this needs to be stopped

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id think you could quite easily bring the company to its knees if you conduct a thorough campaign of awareness [on the net ]

i got diddled a few years ago[ by somebody else in a different industry] and like you i was one of many . i only lost Ā£200 but it was the principle of it .some other totally decent people lost 1000s. Anyway after thinking it thru carefully i [and others] conducted an awareness campaign,flooding the net with total truth review stories that will warn Anybody who might be contemplating doing the work for them [ expose the bad guy/gal behind it ] and this resulted in the business ceasing trading within less than a year

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Keep bugging them, contact the building you worked at and tell them they never paid you. You have to get nasty to get paid. They owed me money and finally got paidā€¦I keep telling everyone QUIT doing job for 3rd party companies and they will go out of business!!

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Supposedly after some phone calls friday the check is to be mailed out Monday ?!?!

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Hereā€™s to hoping it clears.

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You can in California. On new construction that sucker is as binding as stink on dookie.
Your advice is solid tho.

Donā€™t be gun shy on the next big project tho. Youā€™ve seen the horror movie already so you know when the scary parts are comingā€¦
in other words, make sure you get some working capitol from them before you lift a finger. If they are worth their salt, they will do it. Everyone knows a small business like ours CAN produce results but they also know that its a cash strapped business as well.

I do this sort of thing all the time! It takes that stress away so you can focus on the project, not on lining things up just in case they donā€™t pay so you can get your men paid. Yeah, Iā€™ve seen that movie too. I donā€™t like the way it ends either.

Hope this thread helped you a little man, and again, sorry this happened to you.

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How about the ones that call you and brag about how they got 30 gajillion x stores and they will give you 15,000 of them if you will do them for 6 bucks each.

And they call from New York.

And want to pay in 90 days.

ā€¦oh yeah, and you have to have either you or your tech check in with the store manager upon arrival, upon completion, manager must walk the job and sign the work order you HAD to print out on paper so the manager could sign it, and put a store stamp on it or you werent going to be paid.

I could do this all night.

I hear you on that one man.

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Yeh thorSG1, interesting to know about California rules. Itā€™s possible itā€™s that way in Kansas too. Letā€™s hope itā€™s the same.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier:
If you can/are going to bring a Mechanicā€™s Lien against someone, there usually TIME SESATIVE (Meaning, you have as little a 90 days from the time you provided service to file the ML) Time is your enemy.
Also, usually for a Mechanicā€™s Lien, the rules are different for general contractors and sub-contractors. Different for commercial and residential, as well.

ā€œDonā€™t be gun shy on the next big project thoā€¦make sure you get some working capitol from them before you lift a finger.ā€

True, very true. I like the payout schedule discussed here earlier. It might not be the standard in the industry but we need to make it standard for our own companies. Sometimes the hardest rules to stick to are the ones we create for ourselves.

Luke and Renna, thanks for the heads-up on this and I hope it sorts itself out.

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