Yeah, I know..... there is an unwritten rule about mixing friends and business......... and I recently found out the hard way........again..........

Being semi-retired from the chemical business, I began my own remodeling business several years ago and really enjoy it.... that is until this year when I agreed to do some major remodeling for a friend on a hundred year old house that was little more than a dump........ but a dump that he thought would be an "estate" as he called it...........
As a friend, I agreed to do this for " my actual costs" without a contractor's fee............. and since I am writing this, I guess you'd have figured out, that he stuck me! For over $8000.00..........

After realizing I was going to be unable to deal with him personally, I went on to court and readily got a judgement for the full amount BUT............. now he's appealing it which simply delays it for several months......

It's not like this guy hasn't got the money.... he's a high up engineer for TVA and makes a 6 figure income..........

Being in this business for several years now and pretty much work only by referral, I've never lost a dime but then comes along a friend who takes me to school on scamming. I drive by his house now and see about $4000 of MY materials attached to his home and the rest in our labor............

The sad thing now is that since he has appealed, I HAVE to have a lawyer for the next step (about $2000) and can't recover my costs for such because I didn't notify him in writing about legal fee recovery before we started the job.

It is such a shame when one gets done this way, but really a shame when someone you know and trust does it. Once again, the moral of this story is......
"keep your friends nad business far apart"...........

 

two words come to mind here:

HIT MAN

 

Or the moral might be: Be pickier about your friends.
I am serious. We've all had friends that we knew did something slightly shady right? Well, don't think that, that same friend wouldn't also treat you the same way eventually, because given the chance, they will. The same guys you share a few beers with, that tell you stories of how they 'got over' on somebody will also one day, if the opportunity presents itself, 'get over' on you. It's all a game to them, nothing personal.

I have a friend that 'wheels and deals' but everyone has been happy with the deal. Including me. I have done work for him, and we always set up the deal first. X amount of work for X amount of $. Same with stuff I have bought from him or he from me.
Remember "A good deal is one that is fair to both parties."

 

sorry about your situation, if an attorneys is going to cost you try settling for $6k and run dont walk away from this guy.

i have a rule , full price and you get the same treatment as my customers that make my lifestyle possible or Free and i do it when i get time.

 

Yes, I've tried to settle with this guy a couple of times to no avail........... Even after the court found in my favor, he still refused to deal.............even at 5k settlement........
This was all due to him wanting his dormer valleys to look good when we applied a metal roof. Regular and standard was not good anough so together we designed a type of "J" channel to cup the metal ends, therefore leaving a very nice clean valley.........He was there for the application also. The roof sat there as it is for 4 weeks before he complained about anything.... now saying it will leak............and he wants it torn off................. at my expense..........

I simply don't understand him. He helped design it and was on site when applied and it hasn't leaked..........The "J" was designed with a large underneath layer that attached to the regular valley material so I KNOW it won't leak. When applied, he readily accepted since it does look a lot better than standard.

I have worked with a lot of engineers and their unreasonable impractical ideas but this guy really beats the cake. I always stand behind my work and will always respond to any problem but this problem is his attitude that his ideas are always the ONLY CHOICE........... and even though I warranty the roof, I simply will not tear off something he selected , at my expense.

That's why I tried to settle for 5k.........knowing it only involves 700 sq ft and a lawyer is gonna be at least 2k........... the 3k would be more than enough to tear it off and reapply new metal. All this cause he changed his mind, even though he was fully involved in the whole process............

I found afterwards that he has had "problems" with several persons concerning work on his old home. No one has pleased him and if I had just checked, I would have found a couple of other incidents of him not paying for work done to his home.

Yes, even at my age, there are lessons to be learned when it comes to friends.............

 

that happened to a roofer that i worked for one summer back in high school. We had just put a brand new roof on his house (double layered shingles too) 3400 sq ft. My boss gave the guy 2 weeks to pay before he took action. He never paid, so my boss didnt go get a lawyer or anything, he called us up at 9pm one night and said for us all to meet him at the house. We all lined up our trucks and had the lights on and we ripped his brand new roof off and left the mess all around his house. We even ripped up some of the new plywood we had put down and kept it for the next days job. Needless to say, we never got our money but he did have to pay another roofer to clean up the torn off roof and put and had to have another put on.
Some people are asssholes, but at least we had fun rippin goff his new roof