• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Contractor seeks advice for deadbeat client

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

joelog

Junior Member
CT

Hi, I'm a paint contractor insured in CT, but was hired to paint a home in NY. The client (general contractor) paid most of the bill, but still has an outstanding balance of $2,000. He's claiming because I don't carry workmans compensation in NY he shouldn't pay me the balance because of tax reasons.

Do I have a case here and if so how would I go about taking him to court? I do not have a signed agreement, but do have pictures and the homeowners have said they are very pleased with the work and even offered to recomend me in the future.

Thank you in advance for reading this, and of cours any help you can convey.

Joe

PS- if it went to court, is it possible to have the homeowner,s subpoenaed to appear for this type of thing? I'm thinking if he knew I was goiing to contact them he would pay the balance.What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?
 


I am just trying to bump you up for the real experts on this kind of situation. You see it does seem to me that if he paid for a portion of your bill he can't really argue out of paying the residual for some bogus reason.

Let us hope this bumps you up, there are some good lawyers around here, but because of that they have clients on the outside and can't put as much time in here.
 

BL

Senior Member
joelog said:
CT

Hi, I'm a paint contractor insured in CT, but was hired to paint a home in NY. The client (general contractor) paid most of the bill, but still has an outstanding balance of $2,000. He's claiming because I don't carry workmans compensation in NY he shouldn't pay me the balance because of tax reasons.

Do I have a case here and if so how would I go about taking him to court? I do not have a signed agreement, but do have pictures and the homeowners have said they are very pleased with the work and even offered to recomend me in the future.

Thank you in advance for reading this, and of cours any help you can convey.

Joe

PS- if it went to court, is it possible to have the homeowner,s subpoenaed to appear for this type of thing? I'm thinking if he knew I was goiing to contact them he would pay the balance.What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?
You State you do not have a contract with the General contractor ?
Is the General contractor licenced ?
Sure you could take the general contractor to small claims court , anyone can file a small claims action .
The problem would be for you to prove the Gen. Contractor owes you the balance , either by them admitting it , or the Judge beleiving YOU .

Having the homeowner testify you did a wonderful job is not relevent to this case .
The Contractor is claiming they do not owe you the balance because of tax purposes.
It cost very little to file small claims actions . File in the Gen. Contractor's jurisdiction of business .

I would first send a demmand letter for payment . Send it Certified RRR US postal mail . Give them 7 business days to respond , after receiving the demand .

State in your letter any tax issues are their issues , not your , and if you do not receive payment , you will notify the State and federal tax Depts . , and file small claims action .

See what kind of response you get .
 

dcatz

Senior Member
I'm reasonably sure that I'm going to end up agreeing with BL as to the solution, but I'm curious abour the WC tax issue.

You don't go into detail but, if you were a sole proprietor, with no employees of your own, you wouldn't need WC coverage in any state. Even if you hired your own subs to assist on a particular job, you could require that they carried their own insurance and wouldn't need supplemental WC coverage in the majority of states. Is your situation similar?

If the general contracted with you as a sub, the contract price is the contract price. Just from your post, I don't see the relevancy of an alleged tax issue, as you explain it. Do you know if he got audited and his earned premium jumped because all subs did not have coverage? Did he request a Certificate of Insurance from you before the job? The only thing that makes sense is that he had to pay additional because you didn't have WC coverage. If so, that's his problem and he can't retain part of agreed payment to fix it.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top