Help! In desperate need of legal advice...

[ehorn]

Mike,

I'm sure you have meet with some legal counsel already but I know that depending on where you live hopefully you have some laws passed to help protect you. I know here in the state of AZ only a company you have a signed contract with can put a lein on your property. I had this issue when my orginal builder went under and the steel company tried to put a lein on the property. They just scared us with a preliminary notice but legally could not put a lein on the property. Doing so could in fact fine them up to $20k which is not worth their effort for a job that costs $1.4k.

I would say that by the builder not paying the subs for the work and them pouring the wrong deck that they are in breach of contract so they would have no right to say you are breaking the contract. They also have no right to trespass on your property and take the equipment, I've also heard of contractors switching out equipment when you're asleep with cheaper or broken stuff so be warned as well. Lock all your gates.

Oh I also did loose my contract with the builder but their staff mailed me a copy back. If yours looks like they messed with it, go to their office and review the orginal copy. You have every right to review any records they have on you or your pool. Also look into if your state has a seperate licensing board for contractors. If the contractor has to carry a license then you can make a formal complaint with that department.

Eric

[Strawfoot]

Thank you Eric. Today we meet with the lawyer to draft a letter saying they've violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, because they never informed us there was a difference in what was poured into the deck and what we paid. We overpaid on the deck by about $1600, plus another $900 that we paid for a fence they did not put up. Deck was poured in November.

I am not sure if the decking company has ACTUALLY placed a lien against our home, or if they were just threatening to do so. I'm going to check on that today also.

Wish us luck!


Mike

[chazas]

I had a similar situation with the last pool I built.

The contractor arranged for plaster, but the plaster job was bad, and he hadn't finished several other things. I had trusted him with a "final payment on day of plaster" clause but I refused to pay more than half of the full amount until the problems were fixed. He went ballistic.

The next day he showed up with the police to try to remove the pool equipment from our yard, as per the kind of language you're talking about. When he told the police we were holding "his equipment," they thought he meant his tools and construction equipment. When we pointed out that it was installed pool equipment for which we had already paid, the police (somewhat chagrined) backed off. We told the police we were willing to pay half of the remaining amount and the other half as soon as the problems were fixed - I actually had the check in my hand. The builder refused.

Of course, he had to take us to court to try to realize on what was, effectively, a security interest in the equipment. He didn't hire a lawyer up front so he filed the wrong kind of lawsuit - which as a lawyer I was able to recognize and promptly remove it to a more senior court with a much more expensive, and longer, litigation process. He also failed to file a mechanic's lien, so I published the required notice of completion and when the time period was up he couldn't do that. By the time he actually consulted a lawyer it was too late.

After over a year we settled and he only got part of what he wanted. He never did finish - we had to hire someone else to do it.

The moral of the story is, consult your lawyer, listen to what he or she has to say, and don't be bullied. The contractor can't just show up and start removing pool equipment. You can have him arrested for trespassing if he does so without a proper court order.

[CarlD]

My brother's closest friend is a pit bull of a criminal lawyer who had a kitchen remodeler pull that nonsense on him. He did a lousy unfinished job but wanted his money and sued. By the time they were done the contractor had to pay HIM three grand!

[webfeet]

I understand what you are facing. Just read some of my threads. I am in the process of suing my PB at this time. I am in south Arkansas, PB is out of Monroe, LA. The suit is filed in Monroe. My attorney practices in both LA and AR. I still have $5800.00 of PB money, but I need more than that to fix the mess he's made.
Best of luck. Keep us posted. Webfeet

[Jeffski]

Great advice from everyone. I will only add that the lien doesn't really mean squat until you try to sell your house, which I'm assuming you aren't going to do since you just put a pool in. Don't lose sleep or let him bully you with that. You can get the lien released (if he can even get one) after you resolve the money part of this. Sounds like a court date is in your future. Good luck and stick it to him.

[Strawfoot]

Great advice from everyone, thank you!

We are at a point where the pool is completed enough for us to enjoy and we are going to small claims court to either A) drive these snake oil salesmen out of business, or B) recoup some money.

It is really not a bad looking pool, I'll post some pics later. The guy who built and designed the pool quit their company because he wouldn't work for free, and they have pretty much sent out gomers to do any follow up maintenance.

The liens from the subs are no longer an issue, though they still have a mechanics lien against us from when the job started. We ALMOST have our backyard in shape, and we are fixing to go round and round in small claims to recoup the money we spent to bring everything up to code. Gas, plumbing and water for the cabana got green tagged today, after we took out the permit in our named and re-subbed out the work!!! Electrical is next.

Thanks to all of you. Do NOT do business with Backyard Fantasies of Haltom City/Grapevine TX, as they are anything but such...


Mike
Arlington, TX