I just learned a valuable lesson!!

[asylum575]

Go down to county clerk's office and put a mechanic's lien on the property. He probably won't catch it till he tries to sell it. It will cause a great big headache for him to clear it. It will not get you anything now, but when it's all forgotten, it will come back to haunt him.

 

[DCS]

What?!
Did the judge think you did the work just for giggles?

If you were denied your claim due to no contract, then why doesn't the neighbor file charges against you for vanalizing his property with your tractor?

I would think if you had shown past payments for verbal contracts that it would stand to reason there was a pattern of your neighbor and you doing business this way.

Did he deny that he asked you to do the work or what? More details!!

I never actually had a chance to go to court! I was never contacted about anything. I just never heard anymore about it, so I contacted the DA's office and they told me the case was dismissed.

 

[Diamondpilot]

My friends dad bought a new Cutlass Convertible in the early 90's. Remember when they made a come back? Anyway it was junk and after a month of owning it with tons of issues that were not solved by the dealer he took a week off work and parked along the street by the dealers entrance and stood there in his underwear with a big sign and the POS Cutlass. He told everyone his experience as they entered the dealers lot that Saturday morning. Only took a few hours of that and the dealer was eating out of his hand.

He had a full credit at the dealer within a day. He took that credit to the Dodge dealership next door that was owned by the same people and got a Ram truck.

Chris

 

[john_bud]

I see some suggestions in this thread to do some illegal things. Such posts should NOT be made.

Exactly. Small claims court will get the problem resolved. Sugar or roofing nails will get YOU into trouble and it only shows that you are not as bad, but worse that the other goofball.

jb

 

[JB4310]

I'm sure every state is different, but regardless of the law with just a verbal agreement how could any court even consider it, without at least an impartial witness like Bird mentioned.
Otherwise it would just be a he said she said affair how could any judge make a decision on those "facts" except to make no decision, maybe if you had receipts for specific parts or had pictures of his tractor in your yard you'd have a chance in a civil action but I wouldn't risk loosing more money on that.

Like you said, lesson learned. I guess I have yet to learn my lesson, I'm a state registered home improvement contractor, we are required to provide a contract for any work by the governing body, dept of consumer protection. It's mostly geared to protect the consumer, but could be helpful for the contractor if a dispute came up. I tell customers any contract I write is going to protect me more than them.

I often work with out a contract, I know if I finished a job and they refused to pay me I'd have no way of collecting, besides asking nicely. In 26 years of being in business I've yet to be sued or had to sue anyone to get paid, I've found that for myself I work better with trust than contract, not recommending this to others but that's what works for me.

On the subject, I just gave a lady a quote of $5,200. yesterday for a basement drainage system, she agreed so I asked her if she wanted a contract and she said she didn't care, what ever I decided. I told her lets both think about it for a couple days and if either decides for one we'll do it. In this case I may opt for signed contract as that's around the dollar amount I start getting a little nervous about.

JB.

 

[Bird]

Yep, JB, I think with the majority of people, their word is as good as a contract, but that still leaves a lot of them you can't trust. When I had vinyl siding put on my shop building for $2,700, the company owner came and measured, calculated, and gave me a price to which I agreed. He wasn't around when his employee finished the job, so I just gave that employee a check. Then when I decided to have vinyl siding put on the soffit and fascia, ceiling of the breezeway, around the front door, some more rain guttering, etc., the company owner came out again, did his measuring and calculating and gave me a price of $4,500 to which I agreed. He said, "Same payment terms as before? Half now and half when finished?" I said, "That's not what we did before. I just paid it all when finished." And he said, "Oh, OK." That time, I wasn't paying attention when the employee finished and left, but the owner called that afternoon to ask if he could come by and pick up a check, and did. We never had any kind of written contract; we just both did what we said we'd do.

 

[wcpeabody]

I think Civil court would wind up the same way the criminal court did. His word against mine.

Also, what the lawyer at the DA's office told me was "That in order to convict someone on Theft of Services, you have to prove intent." In other words, I would have to prove somehow that he never intended to pay me when he hired me. How in the world would you do that?

Civil court and criminal courts have different requirements for verdicts. Remember the OJ civil court verdict?

I would consider small claims like people have suggested. The burden of proof is not as high as criminal court.

 

[LBrown59]

Civil court and criminal courts have different requirements for verdicts. Remember the OJ civil court verdict?

I would consider small claims like people have suggested. The burden of proof is not as high as criminal court.

Good Advice.

 

[rtdiggr]

I case i missed it did the guy actually say why he didn't want to pay you?


I know it is frustrating but it is probably worth just walking away. Don't put yourself in a bad legal position for this dead beat.


Karma is a wonderful thing.


Shane

 

[sixdogs]

Go down to county clerk's office and put a mechanic's lien on the property. He probably won't catch it till he tries to sell it. It will cause a great big headache for him to clear it. It will not get you anything now, but when it's all forgotten, it will come back to haunt him.

This can be a good idea. I did something similar years ago and forgot about it. On July 3rd one year--at 4:30pm the topic instantly came up again when the sale of their property failed. They actually wanted ME to come to their aid to sign the release. Nope.
Then they wanted to come to me with the $350 check. Also no. So they paid with cash and all was pleasant and done with. But they remained unrepentant.

Small claims court is my first choice. You have very little to lose. Get a witness or two that saw you do the work.

 

[RWolf]

In Texas verbal agreements are binding. Two things stick out here. 1. Past work done and 2. DA appears to have not wanted to pursue because of the small amount. I am also in agreement that Civil/small claims would be a better choice. I also like the idea of the lein just not sure if Texas has anything like that for land (probably does).

 

[srs]

I see some suggestions in this thread to do some illegal things. Such posts should NOT be made.

Bird, you are right, but sometimes you just get sick and tired of people screwing over you. And with the way the court system works (as you know from your days as an officer) you can understand how people sometimes have to take the matter in their own hand.

 

[Bird]

Bird, you are right, but sometimes you just get sick and tired of people screwing over you. And with the way the court system works (as you know from your days as an officer) you can understand how people sometimes have to take the matter in their own hand.

Yes, I understand, but taking matters in your own hands usually only results in making matters worse. And posting suggestions that someone do something illegal can sure come back to bite you if you ever get sued (or suspected of doing something illegal) and your opponent finds those suggestions to use as proof of your propensity for crime.

And actually, I probably erred in asking people to not post illegal suggestions when I should have simply removed those posts. If someone acted on those suggestions, the "victim" might sue Tractorbynet for telling him to take such actions. To the best of my knowledge, so far, the courts have held the person posting the information to be liable instead of the website owner, but who knows when that might change. And there's nothing to stop a person from suing a website owner, and if a person or company is sued, even if they win, it usually costs quite a bit.

 

[DCS]

To me, it's always better to just do the right thing and go to bed with a clear conscious. So, I am not going to retaliate.

This guy has been sued by other businesses in the past. I found this out after the fact by checking the county records online. So, he knows what he can get by with and what he can't.

Now, I know what I should do and like the song by (Who) says "I won't get fooled again."

 

[johnk]

I think pictures of the area before the job and pictures after the job is completed is also worth a thousand words. { Or Dollars!} in court. That would at least show the work done even if a dollar amount wasn't in a written contract..Just a thought.

 

[DCS]

Exactly what I am going to do in the future.

 

[ccsial]

It is really sad people can lie with a straight face with no remorse.

Yes, they are called politicians.

 

[LBrown59]

Yes, they are called politicians.

 

[Predator]

Yes, an oral contract is just as binding as a written contract.
Yes, it is your word against his.
However, for it to be your word against his you have to take him to small claims court, you have to tell the truth and he has to lie. It's one thing to stiff someone with the bill, but another thing to lie under oath in court. If you drag him down to court and put him on the defensive, he'll probably come clean.
When I was in college, I signed a lease from May 1 to April 30. A couple weeks before I moved in, my landlord asked me if we could make it May 15 to May 15 of the next year, because the previous renter wanted another couple weeks. I said sure, I'll just pay the rent on the 15th of every month instead of the first. That fall my landlord had a stroke and sold the property to one of the local college town slum lords. They went by the signed lease and told me if I wanted to stay till the 15th I'd have to pay another half month's rent. What could I do? I moved out on the 1st. I lost two weeks rent but I learned a valuable lesson.

 

[dqdave1]

File the mechanics lein; easy to do, someday you will remember him and he will be your best friend.