• 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.

Not paid by employee--very long

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

Cpviolet

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

This is a pretty complex matter, so I am for-warning anyone who chooses to read this, that this is complicated.

The “We” in this letter refers to The Bethany Group Employees.

A little background:
The Bethany Group “was” a property management company that managed about 55 or so apartment complexes, condos etc…
Several properties that The Bethany Group managed had a “majority” owner/investor. The majority owner had 51% while The Bethany Group had 49% ownership.

Myself and about two dozen of my employees worked without pay from February 2009 until the first full week in March 2009. It all started around November/December 2008 when our pay was delayed several days. We were initially told that it was a banking error (which happened to be Black Friday when people wanted to cash their checks for holiday shopping) and that pay would be on Monday instead of that Friday. We received our pay on Monday, and we all thought “that was that.”
During this time our Employer “The Bethany Group” had said that they were going through a “re-capitalization.” We started losing contractors because they were not getting paid, past residents were calling and saying they never received their security deposits, and internet services, and other services were shut off due to nonpayment from The Bethany Group. We received several emails from Greg Garmon, CEO asking us to “hang in there” and money from the re-capitalization was coming. This was told to happen mid-January 2009. We experienced a delay in pay again on December 26th 2009. We were told payroll hasn’t been fully funded and we were to expect pay on the 29th- Monday -three days later. On Monday, we received another email from CEO Greg Garmon that “the wire from our funding source missed the 2PMPDT cutoff as planned” and “payroll was sent but not received in time to upload direct deposits and release the checks.” Bottom line: We didn’t get paid until Tuesday. Four days after checks should have been sent out.

Through the month of January, payroll has not been received on time. During this time, the properties were in disarray. Trash was mounting very high because they could no longer pay someone to pick it up, apartments could not be “turned” for new residents because there were no money for supplies, therefore we couldn’t rent apartments and vacancies went sky high.


Sunday 2/1/2009
Email from CEO, Greg Garmon:
“Team---We have secured our funding source and will be receiving a wire tomorrow (Monday) to pay for the back payroll that was due a week ago Friday…we are expecting additional funding this week to make Friday’s normal payroll. However, if delayed, everyone will be paid no later than Wednesday—Feb 11th…..”


Thursday 2/19/2009
Email from CEO Greg Garmon
“Team—Tomorrow’s payroll will be delayed. We are doing everything in our power to get payroll resolved as soon as possible. I will keep you updated on our progress.”

Monday 2/23/2009
Email from CEO Greg Garmon
“Team—I apologize for the limited information and delay regarding payroll funding. We worked throughout the weekend on our recap and the due diligence materials in order to secure the funding. The final outcome is expected late tomorrow or Wednesday…Our secondary funding source option is still in process with final documents expected by noon PDT tomorrow…I’ll will email as we get further information…”

Tuesday 2/24/2009
Email from CEO Greg Garmon
‘Team—We have a critical conference call on our recap scheduled for tomorrow morning…I was advised by the Fund Manager, they are waiting on a legal option to complete this effort today or tomorrow…”

Wednesday 3/4/2009
Email from CEO Greg Garmon
“We have met with our investors and attorneys over the last several days in attempt to get payroll resolved and move our operations forward. All efforts remain at a standstill, and although we will continue to work at getting the payroll funded, with our portfolio operations deficiencies, we have insufficient funds to continue to manage our properties nationwide. With no additional resources to continue to fund the shortage, we will transition the property management this week. We will be turning over our management to the lenders or court receivers who will make the day to day decisions beginning this week.”

From 1/30/09 through 3/6/2009 the employees of The Bethany Group have not been paid. Many ask---why stay if you are not getting paid? I cannot speak for everyone but I wasn’t about to quit, with no job lined-up (and I was looking.) Plus, if you “quit” there isn’t the opportunity for unemployment. Additionally, we were getting emails with updates so we thought we would have gotten paid eventually.

As of March 6th 2009, The Bethany Group filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors. About 97% or so of the properties went into receivership and are operating properly. Those employees at those properties were eventually paid out their back pay by either the bankruptcy courts, etc…

My employees and I make up the other 3%. The properties we currently work for, and worked for with The Bethany Group, had a majority owner who “swooped in” and “saved the day.” This owner had saved these properties from bankruptcy because they are 51% owner. Our properties are not and did not go into receivership. We also have papers disclosing that we were “not included in the bankruptcy.” During this time, myself and my coworkers filled out Wage Claim Form for the state of Maryland so we could get paid our back pay.(Total of about 200 hours per employee) We each filled one out and sent them to the DLLR State of Maryland. One by one we each received a call from DLLR that they had received our claim and they will be in touch.
A few weeks later each employee receives, in the mail, written documentation that the State of Maryland cannot help us. We were told that they cannot help us with getting our back pay because The Bethany Group had filed for bankruptcy and we needed to contact the bankruptcy courts. We argued. Yes, The Bethany Group did file for bankruptcy however; our property was not included in the bankruptcy. We were, again, told to contact the bankruptcy courts.
After a simple telephone call to the USBC (United States Bankruptcy Court) District of Maryland, we were told: ‘We cannot help you….bankruptcy was not filed on your properties…” We explained the situation a thousand times to many different people and the answer was always the same: They did not file for bankruptcy { proof of this was shown since we HAD documentation on from the owners/investors that we were clearly not in bankruptcy} The owners had saved us from that. So, we went back to DLLR with the proof of our properties not going into bankruptcy and the same answer came back “we cannot help you.”


So…my question is….who can?

The owners are now our new boss’s. They had essentially brought the properties back to life, the residents are happy, services (some) had been restored, however our back pay has not. The owners had basically said “we need to go after The Bethany Group for the money” but if they filed bankruptcy, then we go to bankruptcy court for that. Well….you know how that ended up. We thought about hiring an attorney and it is still much an option, but with attorneys fees, etc, will it be worth it in the end?

The other burning question is---wouldn’t the owners be responsible for the back pay since they are majority owner? The Bethany Group defaulted so wouldn’t the owners have to take the hit as well? The owners are now our employers so it wouldn’t be good to just sue them for it. We all care for the jobs we have (we had to, to be able to go almost 6 weeks without pay and still be here) and would not want to put our jobs in jeopardy. Not to mention the job market is not good right now. Plus to a few people, losing their job could also mean losing their home since they live on the property.

I really need some direction here. It’s been almost 5 months since we lost out on 6 weeks of pay and its hurt each of us in some way.

If we wanted to seek a lawsuit do we really need an attorney? We have sooo much evidence including emails that we would get paid on certain dates and never did, plus…well you can’t just NOT pay your employees…

How can we seek legal council? Can we do it ourself without a lawyer and how would we go about doing that?

Thank you so much for listening.

If you would like to contact me, please email me at
[email protected]

I will take ANY advice.

Thanks again.
CMP.
 


pattytx

Senior Member
You can file a civil law suit or you can file claims for unpaid wages with the state DOL; the latter is free.

BTW, about 95% of that post was information that was not needed to compose this response. Basically, I got not paid/not paid on time. That's all we needed. What's the complicated part?
 

mlane58

Senior Member
I can't believe you and the other emnployees affected are still woring for these idiots. You all need to file wage claims with the Maryland DOL.
 

ahamilton

Junior Member
Also An Unpaid Bethany Employee (TX)

Focus on the fact that the company owes your wages - not your property- so you will need to send your claim to the courts in Santa Anna. You can find the form online at www.cacb.uscourts.gov/

I am also still unpaid. I managed a property in Houston and refused to stay when the interim company took over the properties. After all, the properties are still technically owned by thieves.

I also filed a wage claim with the State of Texas. It is awaiting (long wait) an investigator. I will probably be directed back to the California Bk Court. I did send my claim to the court in Santa Anna in March but have yet to receive any correspondence other than the certified receipt.

The last course of action other than getting an attorney (I heard the AZ employees have opened a civil case) is to file a lien against your property in the local courts and if the property is ever sold you may recover your wages.
This may cost a few hundred dollars.

Good luck. I try not to dwell on this and if we ever get paid I will count it a blessing. I would be very interested if you gather any new information, possibly the name of the trustee?
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

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