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When is work considered a side job?

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jdbs3

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NH

I was looking for a roofer to fix a chimney leak. Seeing a person up on a neighbor's roof, I asked if he was a roofer. He replied yes and gave me his business card for his construction business (a 2 person operation). Since he had a legitimate business, I asked if he could look at my roof and give me an estimate of the work needed and cost to fix it.

After looking at the roof for 10 minutes, he said he felt it only needed some caulking and that he could do it on the spot. He sounded convincing so I agreed to his suggestion; this took an additional 5 minutes. After the fact, I asked about cost and gave him a check for his work

To make a long story short, the fix did nothing. And subsequent feedback from other roofers confirmed the shoddy work he did in these 5 minutes.

I filed a complaint with the BBB requesting he return my money. He is now saying this was a side job, thus BBB dropped my complaint since it was filed against his company.

And yes, I wrote the check to him as requested. He said his partner was not entitled to any of it since he was too lazy to get up that day.

From my viewpoint, I asked him for an estimate and agreed to his suggested "quick" fix because he was an owner of the business. There was never any suggestion by him that he was doing this as a side job.

The money is not the issue. To me it is more important to file a complaint with BBB so that others would be aware of his practices. But BBB has dropped (deleted) the case based on his comment of it being a side job.

There is no legal definition I can find for a 'side job'. So should this work be considered work done by an owner of the company, and my complaint against the company a legitimate one? And if so, how do I argue it was not a side job?

Or should it be considered a side job, thus one that I cannot file a complaint against the company for?
 


Hot Topic

Senior Member
You count too much on the BBB. They can only mediate between the person you dealt with and you. They can't force the person to do anything anymore than they can force you.

You can file a complaint, but even if it goes into their records, there's little chance of anyone seeing it. In fact, they might blame you for some of the circumstances.
 

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