California.singinging
New member
What is the name of your state? Oregon
**Any help is greatly appreciated**
I was tracked down by an old customer/work friend who I was the original contractor on her stucco home years ago, begging me to do some additional work that needed to be completed by the end of this summer (as a friend since I had stopped operating my business a year ago). She refused to use anyone else so as her friend I agreed to help her out and we came to a verbal agreement of what she needed done, the total cost (which of course was greatly reduced from what my business quote would have been), payment terms and approx time to complete along with her deadline. She gave me a small payment upfront for material as agreed and the next payment was to be made mid-way through, then final payment upon job completion.
Right from the beginning there were issues....going against my recommendations regarding window installation years prior those needed replaced which set my work back quite a bit, then she kept changing her mind regarding what exactly she wanted done and how much more if she added this piece and what if she took off that piece etc....I advised her all the changes were resulting in way more material than originally planned and she needed to cover the cost of that at now the 1/4 mark point. A day or two after she gave me the extra material cost she had to go out of the country on a family emergency with no info as to her return date but would be in contact with me while she was gone. That ended up being a little over a month with her returning sometime last week and there was little to no communication from her during that time.
I continued to work on her house all the way through to the final stage about a week and a half ago, which takes two people to complete, so I brought in one of my old plastering buddies as well as my close friend of over 13 years who needed work to help me. She was expected to be home last week but I never heard from her the day she said she'd be back so I figured she didnt return as expected and I didnt want to come across as unsympathetic if she was grieving or had experienced a loss so I took the last few days of the week off from working on her house to handle some personal business of my own beings that my guy also was unavailable to help me out and needed a few days with his family. After those few days were over though he wasnt responding to my calls or texts and I still had no word from her so yesterday I went to her house to check and see if she had returned and where I was at with finishing the job and discovered the two of them had gone behind my back and negotiated a new arrangement to complete the job I had almost finished and he was doing it for less than half of my price!!! Here's the kicker.....AND she is keeping ALL my tools, equipment, material...everything...my trowels Ive had for over 15 years....everything I own from my business is all there....I've been leaving it there for 2 months busting my ass to do this for her and she has the audacity to say I owe HER money because she doesnt believe I was there working while she was gone as well as she doubts that the one original payment she gave me in the beginning was spent on the stucco mix needed for her home since I never brought her the bag to show her prior to her leaving the country so she is refusing to return my property which of course is being used by my old friend to finish this job now that its at the final stage! And she says Im not allowed on her property!!
I went out of my way for her, spent my own money on specialty tools and other items needed while she was gone, ALL the scaffolding (which she was adamant about needing right away and promised to pay for half, but was always conveniently unavailable whenever I asked for reimbursement), as well as going ahead with the work even though she hadnt paid the second mid-way payment. I was trying to be sympathetic to her situation and even though it was a financial burden on me to cover the costs upfront without payment, I had complete faith in our arrangement
Obviously Im shocked and heartbroken at both the betrayal from her as well as my close friend.......but that aside HOW DO I GET MY PROPERTY BACK!?
**Any help is greatly appreciated**
I was tracked down by an old customer/work friend who I was the original contractor on her stucco home years ago, begging me to do some additional work that needed to be completed by the end of this summer (as a friend since I had stopped operating my business a year ago). She refused to use anyone else so as her friend I agreed to help her out and we came to a verbal agreement of what she needed done, the total cost (which of course was greatly reduced from what my business quote would have been), payment terms and approx time to complete along with her deadline. She gave me a small payment upfront for material as agreed and the next payment was to be made mid-way through, then final payment upon job completion.
Right from the beginning there were issues....going against my recommendations regarding window installation years prior those needed replaced which set my work back quite a bit, then she kept changing her mind regarding what exactly she wanted done and how much more if she added this piece and what if she took off that piece etc....I advised her all the changes were resulting in way more material than originally planned and she needed to cover the cost of that at now the 1/4 mark point. A day or two after she gave me the extra material cost she had to go out of the country on a family emergency with no info as to her return date but would be in contact with me while she was gone. That ended up being a little over a month with her returning sometime last week and there was little to no communication from her during that time.
I continued to work on her house all the way through to the final stage about a week and a half ago, which takes two people to complete, so I brought in one of my old plastering buddies as well as my close friend of over 13 years who needed work to help me. She was expected to be home last week but I never heard from her the day she said she'd be back so I figured she didnt return as expected and I didnt want to come across as unsympathetic if she was grieving or had experienced a loss so I took the last few days of the week off from working on her house to handle some personal business of my own beings that my guy also was unavailable to help me out and needed a few days with his family. After those few days were over though he wasnt responding to my calls or texts and I still had no word from her so yesterday I went to her house to check and see if she had returned and where I was at with finishing the job and discovered the two of them had gone behind my back and negotiated a new arrangement to complete the job I had almost finished and he was doing it for less than half of my price!!! Here's the kicker.....AND she is keeping ALL my tools, equipment, material...everything...my trowels Ive had for over 15 years....everything I own from my business is all there....I've been leaving it there for 2 months busting my ass to do this for her and she has the audacity to say I owe HER money because she doesnt believe I was there working while she was gone as well as she doubts that the one original payment she gave me in the beginning was spent on the stucco mix needed for her home since I never brought her the bag to show her prior to her leaving the country so she is refusing to return my property which of course is being used by my old friend to finish this job now that its at the final stage! And she says Im not allowed on her property!!
I went out of my way for her, spent my own money on specialty tools and other items needed while she was gone, ALL the scaffolding (which she was adamant about needing right away and promised to pay for half, but was always conveniently unavailable whenever I asked for reimbursement), as well as going ahead with the work even though she hadnt paid the second mid-way payment. I was trying to be sympathetic to her situation and even though it was a financial burden on me to cover the costs upfront without payment, I had complete faith in our arrangement
Obviously Im shocked and heartbroken at both the betrayal from her as well as my close friend.......but that aside HOW DO I GET MY PROPERTY BACK!?
