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Sooooo... How's everyone's quarantine going?

cuttin edge

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
Messages
2,692
Location
NB Canada
Occupation
Finish grader operator
After the long cold winter, just got word that the spring weight restrictions will be lifted Sunday night, and I will be back in the saddle on Monday. Lots of new regulations for social distancing. Aparently I have to sanitize my machine before I go home at the end of the day in case the floatman has to move it. Going to have to change teaching my daughter's grade three stuff to evenings. The dog must know too, as she has been moping around all morning.
 

suladas

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2016
Messages
1,731
Location
Canada
We require half the money when we start to do the prep on your driveway, and the full amount once it's paved. That gives most home owners a couple weeks to have the rest of the payment ready

That would be nice! I'm looking into being bonded and for any demolitions for new customers unless they are recommend by another customer i'm thinking at least 50% deposit up front. Too much money out and taking the risk of getting paid.

Finally got paid for 5 month old invoice from customer, and the next day they were pissed I wasn't back working. Funny how the money came quick once I told them no more work until they find some money. They forgot they still got a 3 month old invoice. Started back today and they still weren't happy. Maybe they will be happy all future quotes for them will be my normal rate +20%. 10% for the holdback that takes a year to get, and 10% for interest because it takes on average 4 months to get paid. Or they can find someone else, i'm not a financing company.
 

Skeans1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2018
Messages
82
Location
Rainier, OR
That would be nice! I'm looking into being bonded and for any demolitions for new customers unless they are recommend by another customer i'm thinking at least 50% deposit up front. Too much money out and taking the risk of getting paid.

Finally got paid for 5 month old invoice from customer, and the next day they were pissed I wasn't back working. Funny how the money came quick once I told them no more work until they find some money. They forgot they still got a 3 month old invoice. Started back today and they still weren't happy. Maybe they will be happy all future quotes for them will be my normal rate +20%. 10% for the holdback that takes a year to get, and 10% for interest because it takes on average 4 months to get paid. Or they can find someone else, i'm not a financing company.
Can you put in the quotes 10 percent interest charged per 1000 if not paid in full at 30 days?
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,257
Location
Canada
Even if recommended from other customers keep the payment contract the same. No special privilege's for anyone. You don't get special privilege's when you have to buy fuel and other supplies.
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,248
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
I quit using small claims court because of that. You can win there pretty easy with a signed contract. Now you have to collect and if the deadbeat don't want to pay, how do you get the judgement done? Short of some physical altercation you will have to go back to court, this time with a lawyer to get a judge to garnish wages or forfeit property. I like the sound of denying use of the subject property. One other thought though, since I no longer pay to provide someone else's parts, I don't have an anchor I can pull in.

I don't know the laws in WA John but here is how it works in AL.

Say I do a $25,000 job on a small office/warehouse building for the owner and she doesn't pay. The first thing I have to do is send a Notice of Intent to Lien. This is basically an arbitration scenario required by the State that usually works in getting paid. I've had to send 2 in the last two years. Big Corp Retail will make a general contractors head roll when a NIL is delivered to their home office - speaking from experience.:D

Now in my example, say the owner I did the work for throws the NIL in the trash and doesn't respond. After the waiting period I have my lawyer file the lien and then immediately file a lawsuit to perfect the lien, filing a Lis Pendens in conjunction. The Lis Pendens locks the property down from being sold, transferred, etc. In addition no bank will loan money as the title is not clear until the Lis Pendens is removed. It's a very power tool in getting paid not many know about. This would cost me around $1,000 to $1500 at this point. I've never had to go this far yet and I hope I never have to.
 

suladas

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2016
Messages
1,731
Location
Canada
Can you put in the quotes 10 percent interest charged per 1000 if not paid in full at 30 days?

They wouldn't accept it, they'd rather overpay. Their contract is 45 days after invoice date 2% + their banks prime rate which is 2.85% but they have no intention of honoring that even.

For everyone else i'm going to be putting 2% per month for anything past 30 days though.

I've just had it with them once i'm done this basement i'm not interested in doing anymore work for them regardless of the rate, unless they pull their head out of their a$$, which I don't see happening. The way they are building the units is going to have so many issues it's not even funny, and i'd rather get out before the lawsuits start piling up.
 

suladas

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2016
Messages
1,731
Location
Canada
I don't know the laws in WA John but here is how it works in AL.

Say I do a $25,000 job on a small office/warehouse building for the owner and she doesn't pay. The first thing I have to do is send a Notice of Intent to Lien. This is basically an arbitration scenario required by the State that usually works in getting paid. I've had to send 2 in the last two years. Big Corp Retail will make a general contractors head roll when a NIL is delivered to their home office - speaking from experience.:D

Now in my example, say the owner I did the work for throws the NIL in the trash and doesn't respond. After the waiting period I have my lawyer file the lien and then immediately file a lawsuit to perfect the lien, filing a Lis Pendens in conjunction. The Lis Pendens locks the property down from being sold, transferred, etc. In addition no bank will loan money as the title is not clear until the Lis Pendens is removed. It's a very power tool in getting paid not many know about. This would cost me around $1,000 to $1500 at this point. I've never had to go this far yet and I hope I never have to.

Things are fairly similar here and unfortunately i've had to do the lis pendens thing a few times. It works well in some cases, but not all. The times it doesn't work is when the contractor is the owner of the property and has no financing, in those cases they have no desire to do anything until they are done and ready to sell. The other thing they can do is pay the lien amount plus 10% into court and get the lien and lis pendens removed, depending on the lawyer that costs around $1000-$1500. After dealing with a few deadbeats who refused to pay i've got really well versed in the legal process unfortunately.
 

Willie B

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
4,039
Location
Mount Tabor VT
Occupation
Electrician
Things are fairly similar here and unfortunately i've had to do the lis pendens thing a few times. It works well in some cases, but not all. The times it doesn't work is when the contractor is the owner of the property and has no financing, in those cases they have no desire to do anything until they are done and ready to sell. The other thing they can do is pay the lien amount plus 10% into court and get the lien and lis pendens removed, depending on the lawyer that costs around $1000-$1500. After dealing with a few deadbeats who refused to pay i've got really well versed in the legal process unfortunately.

My father, then me have been in business near 60 years. 99% of customers will take at least 30 days regardless what I put on the bill. Most do pay soon after that. The few I'm forced to actively collect, a workman's lien has usually worked. Still, I've had a few I never did collect. Most recently, a high roller owned a property I believe valued about $2,000,000. The job wasn't quite finished when cash flow dried up. I filed a lien, hired a lawyer, went through the expensive process of preparing a suit, had a court date.

The homeowner's lawyer must have had some real clout. She got it assigned to a judge of her choice who had to travel 100 miles one way. Said local judges would be prejudicial in favor of my lawyer. My lawyer advised me to settle. Said the deck was stacked. I ended up with half what I was owed.
 

Ronsii

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2011
Messages
3,464
Location
Western Washington
Occupation
s/e Heavy equipment operator
My father, then me have been in business near 60 years. 99% of customers will take at least 30 days regardless what I put on the bill. Most do pay soon after that. The few I'm forced to actively collect, a workman's lien has usually worked. Still, I've had a few I never did collect. Most recently, a high roller owned a property I believe valued about $2,000,000. The job wasn't quite finished when cash flow dried up. I filed a lien, hired a lawyer, went through the expensive process of preparing a suit, had a court date.

The homeowner's lawyer must have had some real clout. She got it assigned to a judge of her choice who had to travel 100 miles one way. Said local judges would be prejudicial in favor of my lawyer. My lawyer advised me to settle. Said the deck was stacked. I ended up with half what I was owed.
Yep.... that's why whenever people start talking up a guy with money as a 'great person to work for'.... I always chime in with a "well you don't think they got all their money by giving it to other people do ya'? "
 

suladas

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2016
Messages
1,731
Location
Canada
Yep.... that's why whenever people start talking up a guy with money as a 'great person to work for'.... I always chime in with a "well you don't think they got all their money by giving it to other people do ya'? "

Yep it can be a trap. I know a guy who closed his landscaping business from 1 bad job. Did like 150k in landscaping he got a bit of the money but the guy saw him coming and basically said i'm not paying you, sue me. He complained about the garage slab but before ever giving the guy a chance to look at it he got a really fancy epoxy coating on it that nearly cost as much as the pad and expected it to be taken off the bill. So he sued him, went through the whole process of about 2 years and only got a fraction of what he was owed. He had no real complaints he just didn't want to pay he offered like 25% originally but couldn't back up the number with actual issues with the work. People like that need bill collectors who show up at your door and don't take no for an answer.
 

RollOver Pete

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
1,510
Location
Indio, Ca
Occupation
Operating Engineer/mechanic
red-barn-3.jpg Screen-Shot-2020-05-13-at-5.36.33-PM.png

The Red Barn, located just down the road in Palm Desert has been there since air. It's obvious that the owners are ready and wanting to open regardless of Calvin Grewsoms rules. It is not surprising that even though they have not been open in over 2 months, the Red Barn's liquor license was suddenly pulled. For what? They didn't serve to a minor. Could it have been because they referred to our "Governor" as a slang term for penis? You decide.
 

Mike L

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
1,901
Location
Texas
Occupation
Self employed field mechanic
Here in Maine if you come from out of state you are required to quarantine for 14 days before being in contact with anyone else. Last weekend I met some fishermen from Massachusetts who owned a second home up here and had just come up for the weekend and were headed home and today we were traveling home from our camp up north and lost count of the out of state plates we saw on the interstate. You can’t tell me they all quarantined for 2 weeks just to enjoy the memorial weekend. In the last week I’ve seen herds of people everywhere who were not social distancing and traffic seems to be picking up. I think people are over it. We’ve had relatively low numbers and people are sick of staying home and need to go to work and live a somewhat normal life.
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
Now you understand the idea of a second wave. In two weeks we should have an idea of how deep and how much change in the past life styles the world's populations are going to face. My bet is that it is going to change, but no one knows yet just how much.
 

kshansen

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,129
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Now you understand the idea of a second wave. In two weeks we should have an idea of how deep and how much change in the past life styles the world's populations are going to face. My bet is that it is going to change, but no one knows yet just how much.
Well I look at this long weekend as a large scale science experiment. At least in some parts of the country.

If there is a major uptick in cases in the next week or two it will show that those in favor of the social distancing had a point.

If the trend stays pretty much the same as in the last few weeks then I guess we have killed off the majority of the weak and vulnerable so the strong can go back to normal!
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,257
Location
Canada
I wonder how long it takes to show any symptoms? Some could have it and not show any symptoms but others will show symptoms. I don't know if it takes 2 weeks or 2 month's but I think if there is a spike in new cases within say a month, then the experts recommending social distancing were correct.
 

digger242j

Administrator
Joined
Oct 31, 2003
Messages
6,628
Location
Southwestern PA
Occupation
Self employed excavator
All the particular quarantines that have gone on on a more or less individual basis (like people arriving in the country, or sailors getting set to go somewhere like a submarine, etc.) seem to have been "14 days." Seems like they figure if you catch it, it'll show up in a couple of weeks, (or not).
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
Have heard three to five days if you are going to be symptomatic. After two weeks they figure you don’t have it.
 

suladas

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2016
Messages
1,731
Location
Canada
Stuff is picking up here too, places are busy and tons of traffic again. It makes sense, there is so few cases here. Find out in the next week here if some of the opening up causes a spike in cases, I really doubt it with all the pre-cautions that are being taken.

One big change i've made is buying so much more on amazon. If it was the same price as in store i'd always just go grab it, now i'm ordering it instead. It's pretty convenient and after this crap is over I don't know if I will change back.
 
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