Tommorow

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-08-2007
Tommorow
30
Thu, 07-19-2007 - 4:20pm

I've made a brief mention that we have alot of stress in our lives right now. We are suing and also being sued by a contractor we hired 2 years ago to do some remodeling of our home. He did a large amount of damage to our home, so we are suing him. He is counter suing us for an obscene amount of money ($100,000) no, I did not miscount my zeros! He is smoking crack rock for sure! Anyway, tommorow is our mediation. I am just asking for all prayers, good thought, and positive karma. This has taken such a toll on us mentally, physically, financially and it's taken it's toll on our relationship. So, maybe with a little luck tommorow this will all get settled and for the first time in 2 years we might actually get our lives back! Just typing that makes me cry because I want that so bad but I can't let my hopes get too high.

So, please hold us in your thoughts tommorow!

Shannon

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-29-2003
In reply to: irishowl
Sat, 07-21-2007 - 12:46am
((((((((Hugs Shannon and Shelly)))))) So sorry all this crap is happening to you both...


 C  >^. A .

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2003
In reply to: irishowl
Sat, 07-21-2007 - 5:37am

OH NO...


This REALLY sucks!


I want to ask what may be a dumb question though... how come you have to pay money to make this stop? if you drop your suit against him... he has to pay to prosecute you, right? Doesn't sound like he has loads to spend on that. It would mean walking away disappointed, but you're both already THERE. Is there any way to stop this whole thing without adding insult to injury and having to freaking PAY too?


hon, I feel so awful for you both.


*group HUG*

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-05-2007
In reply to: irishowl
Sat, 07-21-2007 - 8:07am

I am so sorry Irish!!!! Ugh!...With that previous figure of $100,000 I was so, so worried!!! I thought...what is he claiming he did, add a bath and 2 bedrooms and a kitchen? From what you said, settling seems the better (yet sucky) option. If you dont pay, he'll put a lien on the home if he is claiming he was not paid for work done. And you wont have clear title to sell it. You could stay there forever...and not pay?

The thing is you could COST him way more than $5,000 just by word of mouth... You'd think he'd care about his professional reputation?!! I am so sorry!


Roxy




Edited 7/21/2007 9:15 am ET by roxy_blue
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2007
In reply to: irishowl
Sat, 07-21-2007 - 9:25am

Shannon, this is really bad. It seems that he either didn't do the work specified or did shoddy work. You must have been holding back the final payment and then decided to sue him. Now, of course, he wants that money. It just kills me when you can't make people SEE what is being done to you. Now you have to pay, whatever work was done sucks, and the recourse is many more times worse than the original problem.

I am soooo sorry. It's like your hands are tied in a roomful of doors and you can't get to the knobs.

Ugh, how can you stand waiting until Monday.

(((Enveloping Hugs to you both)))

Blue

BLUE DIA
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-08-2007
In reply to: irishowl
Sat, 07-21-2007 - 10:47am
It's a long story but here is the short version. We hired him in Jun 2005 to do 3 phases of work on the house......a sunroom to replace an existing structure on the back of the house, a bathroom remodel and a garage conversion. He only finished 1 phase, the bathroom. And to do that we were forced to move out of the house for 6 weeks because he was so slow and there is only 1 bathroom in the house. The agreement was $1,000 a week, which he was paid, up to a certain amount. We also asked him about doing a new roof since he could not get a permit to do the sunroom. Without us even signing a contract he tore our roof off. He roofed about 1/3 of the roof, then was supposed to be gone for 1 week for minor elective surgery. He came back 5 weeks later, we had never heard from him while he was gone. Before he left he was supposed to have wrapped up the roof and materials. We took him at his word, until we heard water running down the backs of our walls. Our insurance company sent out a water restoration crew who spent hours covering the gapping holes he had left up there. We had 5 industrial dryers running day and night for nearly 3 weeks to dry it out. Our insurance paid for the back walls of the house to be torn off and rebuilt. We paid a new contractor to reroof the house. Then, just before Xmas 2005 he shows up wanting more $$ so he can get back to work. We told him he was fired......etc and to come get his stuff. He never did, never tried despite our sending him a certified letter. In May 2006 we get a letter from his attorney stating we have cost him $10,000 a month because we refused to return his things. Then in August he illegally filed a mechanics lein on the house......he has our home hostage and that is how he can get $$ from us. Apparently he thinks he would win in court and is willing to take this all the way. We feel very strongly that we would win in court.........but we dont have the $$ to take it all the way. Yesterday alone probably cost us $1,000 in legal fees. This could easily get up to $10,000 more on top of what we've already paid. This guy does not work anymore, he has nothing for us to get from him. So, even if we won our law suit against him we might never collect from it. This has never been about $$$ for us, we are willing to cut our losses, we just want our house back. But, to pay this piece of garbage a $5,000 tip for doing what he did to us is just horrible. We are both so depressed and miserable right now.........this is not a victory. It's a royal screwing over.
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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-05-2007
In reply to: irishowl
Sat, 07-21-2007 - 12:56pm

Oh this is terrible! Ugh. I would be so tempted to not budge. Unless you are about to sell the home, the mechanics lien wont hurt you until you get it sorted out. I would bring all the documentation. He touched the roof without your go ahead?! Unless he says you gave him the verbal go ahead. But he has to prove it. I would not have let him touch a thing until the bathroom got done and i found what kind of work he did. Oh what a royal MESS! Lordy! Is small claims court an option to save on legal fees? And not pay the $5,000?...juts throwing that out there...in case. You have all the details...Oh I am wishing you well!!

I am so sorry...You'd think there is a better resolution for this! Maybe there is. Hang in there Irish. This too shall pass. One day...this all will be just a bad memory.




Edited 7/21/2007 1:13 pm ET by roxy_blue
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-08-2007
In reply to: irishowl
Sat, 07-21-2007 - 3:28pm

:lol We didn't let him touch the roof, we came home one day and it was gone! We woke up at 7am the next day to a crane putting pallets of shingles on our roof! The amounts of the law suits are way too much for small claims court. The lien is important though because they filed a forclosure contingency. That means that if 3 years from filing if the matter has not been settled our home can be sold to satisfy the lien. Never mind that we have considerable equity in this home that we need to try and tap right now because the repairs that our home needs still have not been done because all our $$$$$$$$$$$ is tied up in lawyers.

We don't have the $$$ to keep fighting, no matter how you slice it. So, we are going to settle to have our lives back and attempt to pick ourselves up by our boot straps. We don't know what else to do.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-05-2007
In reply to: irishowl
Sat, 07-21-2007 - 3:40pm

I am Sooooo Sorry. This sounds so yucky! I am sure it will be so hard to trust after that. I wish i could waive a majic wand...make it go away. I wonder if this guy has pulled the same stunt with others...Maybe if there is a pattern there it might help your case.

Big HUgs
Roxy

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-23-2006
In reply to: irishowl
Sun, 07-22-2007 - 10:20am

(((((((((((Shannon)))))))))))


I am so sorry you are going thru this.

 PPCLSIG.jpg picture by CalyD44

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-08-2007
In reply to: irishowl
Sun, 07-22-2007 - 11:39am

Hey Caly! Thanks for the hugs and support. I think we are both slowly coming to terms with this, but neither of us is happy about it. Justice has a price, and it's the sad truth. If we had the $$ to keep fighting this, even knowing we would never get a cent from him, we would keep this going just so he didn't get anything from us. But, it boils down to being practical. We'll have our home back, our lives back........you can't put a value on that. This has changed me though, I don't like that. I always believed that 99.9% of people are good but you don't hear that from the media because this society would rather focus on negative things. My "rose colored glasses" as Shelley likes to say. I don't think I believe that anymore. I've always believed you trust people until they give you a reason not to because people really are good for the most part. I just feel very negative about people in general right now. I hate this man for so many reasons. He made my wife cry........I'll hate him until the day I die for that alone.

Anyway, this will probably be resolved tommorow and hopefully we can start moving on.

Shannon

PS I really do appreciate everyone's hugs and support and opinions. It has been a very difficult time for us to say the least.

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