What is the name of your state? Nevada LLC operating in Georgia.
This is long, I'm sorry, but I want to get in all the facts. If someone could give me their thoughts, I'd appreciate it.
I own(ed) a paint franchise (residential and commercial painting, franchise territory sold, but still have an active LLC) that I ran on the side in addition to my fulltime job. I had a manager who helped me run the business.
I had a customer who refused to sign a contract for the interior and full exterior painting of their home...$16,000 worth of work.
Of course I said no contract, no work unless you pay in full up front.
They said no problem and gave us $7,500 to start the interior work. They were given the contract that spelled out the scope of our work. They wouldn't sign it of course, but they had what they were getting for $16k.
7-8 days later we are done with the interior, they are happy (I fully expected them to be difficult to deal with, but at this point they were not).
They then give us another $7,500 to begin work on the exterior of the home. At this point I thought these guys are actually good guys (gay couple), didn't expect any problems from them.
Before they gave me the second $7,500, I told them I was closing the business and this was actually the last job I was overseeing (I don't actually paint). It was a franchise and I turned my territory back over to the franchisor maybe a month or so after this job. They had no problem with the situation.
So we begin work on the outside. 3 issues arise.
While we're working, one of the homeowners asked us to take a look at a second floor "smoking porch" (just a little porch on the second floor made for one person to stand on) they would like to have removed. This is obviously not in the contract, but we said we could have someone take it down. The entire process involved taking the porch down, removing the door, places new studs in the wall, putting up new drywall in the inside and new siding on the outside. We're basically removing a porch and making it look like the door wasn't there.
We removed the porch and they had zero complaints. Happy with the work.
For the price of that project, the homeowner claims they were told by my manager that this would cost $250......two-hundred and fifty bucks for all that freak'n work. Of course my manager says she never said that and no firm price was ever agreed upon. Ok, so not good for me, but in good faith we should be able to settle for a fair amount.
Then the next problem. There was nothing in the contract for painting a large deck that wrapped around 3 sides of the house. The owner of the house tells my painters that they are suppose to paint the deck, so they put one coat on it. The owner calls me mad as hell because it's suppose to get two coats. I then inform the owner that painting the deck is not in the contract at all, but if he would like I would have them put another coat, but that's going to be more money he owes me. He says ok, my painters put another coat on the deck.
$750 of the "contract" was for the replacement of some wooden spindels (sp?) on a huge porch they had that wrapped around the house. Once we started the outside work, we found out those spindels are custom made and would take at least 6 weeks to order. I wasn't going to be in business that long, so I informed the owner that the only choice I had was to refund them the $750 and additionally, I would put them in contact with my carpenter and they could contract with him to do the work.
He says that's not acceptable, then starts saying he's not going to pay me for the extra work and if I don't finish the job, he's suing me. And, that if I don't prove to him we actually put two coats of paint on his house, he's suing for that too.
Two coats of paint?????? That is what we put on the house and that is what the contract calls for. How do you prove you put two coats of paint?
The only support I have is bills from Sherwin-williams that show how much paint we bought in the color of that house (which was a unique red color) and the fact that the house went from BLUE to a RED color......no way you can do that in one coat without it looking horrible, which is not their claim. They thing it looks good, they just don't think they're getting the "protection" of two coats.
As for "finishing the job" there were some areas that needed to be touched up and we had not replaced the spindels.
I told him until I was paid, no one from my company would be painting a damn thing on his property.
So, he ends up suing me!
Claiming I owe him $4,000 for uncompleted work AND**************that we only put one coat of paint on his home.
I countered sued him for $1,500 for painting the deck (very reasonable) and $2,000 for removing the porch (VERY reasonable) minus the $750 I planned on refunded him for the spindel work.....Net $2,750 he owes me.
The case was suppose to be next week, but it has been delayed because apparently these guys also named the Franchisor of the company, who is based in Utah.
Along with any other comments about the case in general, what case do they have against the Franchisor?
Last thing, the my LLC has no assets and probably had $30k in loses during 2007.
If I lost the case, could I tell them to go jump off a bridge because the LLC is not in operation and has no assets?
This is long, I'm sorry, but I want to get in all the facts. If someone could give me their thoughts, I'd appreciate it.
I own(ed) a paint franchise (residential and commercial painting, franchise territory sold, but still have an active LLC) that I ran on the side in addition to my fulltime job. I had a manager who helped me run the business.
I had a customer who refused to sign a contract for the interior and full exterior painting of their home...$16,000 worth of work.
Of course I said no contract, no work unless you pay in full up front.
They said no problem and gave us $7,500 to start the interior work. They were given the contract that spelled out the scope of our work. They wouldn't sign it of course, but they had what they were getting for $16k.
7-8 days later we are done with the interior, they are happy (I fully expected them to be difficult to deal with, but at this point they were not).
They then give us another $7,500 to begin work on the exterior of the home. At this point I thought these guys are actually good guys (gay couple), didn't expect any problems from them.
Before they gave me the second $7,500, I told them I was closing the business and this was actually the last job I was overseeing (I don't actually paint). It was a franchise and I turned my territory back over to the franchisor maybe a month or so after this job. They had no problem with the situation.
So we begin work on the outside. 3 issues arise.
While we're working, one of the homeowners asked us to take a look at a second floor "smoking porch" (just a little porch on the second floor made for one person to stand on) they would like to have removed. This is obviously not in the contract, but we said we could have someone take it down. The entire process involved taking the porch down, removing the door, places new studs in the wall, putting up new drywall in the inside and new siding on the outside. We're basically removing a porch and making it look like the door wasn't there.
We removed the porch and they had zero complaints. Happy with the work.
For the price of that project, the homeowner claims they were told by my manager that this would cost $250......two-hundred and fifty bucks for all that freak'n work. Of course my manager says she never said that and no firm price was ever agreed upon. Ok, so not good for me, but in good faith we should be able to settle for a fair amount.
Then the next problem. There was nothing in the contract for painting a large deck that wrapped around 3 sides of the house. The owner of the house tells my painters that they are suppose to paint the deck, so they put one coat on it. The owner calls me mad as hell because it's suppose to get two coats. I then inform the owner that painting the deck is not in the contract at all, but if he would like I would have them put another coat, but that's going to be more money he owes me. He says ok, my painters put another coat on the deck.
$750 of the "contract" was for the replacement of some wooden spindels (sp?) on a huge porch they had that wrapped around the house. Once we started the outside work, we found out those spindels are custom made and would take at least 6 weeks to order. I wasn't going to be in business that long, so I informed the owner that the only choice I had was to refund them the $750 and additionally, I would put them in contact with my carpenter and they could contract with him to do the work.
He says that's not acceptable, then starts saying he's not going to pay me for the extra work and if I don't finish the job, he's suing me. And, that if I don't prove to him we actually put two coats of paint on his house, he's suing for that too.
Two coats of paint?????? That is what we put on the house and that is what the contract calls for. How do you prove you put two coats of paint?
The only support I have is bills from Sherwin-williams that show how much paint we bought in the color of that house (which was a unique red color) and the fact that the house went from BLUE to a RED color......no way you can do that in one coat without it looking horrible, which is not their claim. They thing it looks good, they just don't think they're getting the "protection" of two coats.
As for "finishing the job" there were some areas that needed to be touched up and we had not replaced the spindels.
I told him until I was paid, no one from my company would be painting a damn thing on his property.
So, he ends up suing me!
Claiming I owe him $4,000 for uncompleted work AND**************that we only put one coat of paint on his home.
I countered sued him for $1,500 for painting the deck (very reasonable) and $2,000 for removing the porch (VERY reasonable) minus the $750 I planned on refunded him for the spindel work.....Net $2,750 he owes me.
The case was suppose to be next week, but it has been delayed because apparently these guys also named the Franchisor of the company, who is based in Utah.
Along with any other comments about the case in general, what case do they have against the Franchisor?
Last thing, the my LLC has no assets and probably had $30k in loses during 2007.
If I lost the case, could I tell them to go jump off a bridge because the LLC is not in operation and has no assets?