Help! Need Advice. Landscaper Did Service at Our House That We Did Not Approve of and Now Wants $$$

[romantico]

I need some advice. I moved in with my Mom about 2 years ago. She needed some work done on the house and I hit some difficult times financially,so it worked out for both of us. This winter has been brutal. We've got a great guy who plows are driveway. He does not charge us as much because we pay him cash and since last summer everything he has done for us has been great. Well, we've had a ton of snow and we were worried about our roof. New roof about a year and a half ago but we had a ice dam form and the snow was mounting. We called around and got several estimates,all being way more than I could afford. Well, we got talking to our snow plow guy one day and he said he could do it. We asked him for a quote and it was not as bad as the others so we told him we'd get back to him.

This week,we've had no snow and it is slowly warming up. One day it got up to 43 and melted a lot. We saw it slowly dissolving and I was relieved I was not gonna have to shell out big bucks to have the roof cleaned off. Now,keep in mind our snow plow guy does not come over unless we call him to. We usually tell him when we have to leave and since he lives down the street he comes on by. We called him on Tuesday because we had some snow overnight and the D.O.T truck left a massive amount at the end of our driveway. He came over plowed us out with no problem.

Wednesday my Mom had a Doctor appointment. When we came home the roof was cleared. My Mom panicked because we both agreed,we did NOT call to have anyone do it. Our snow plow guy called while we were out and said he went ahead and did it. We called him and he swore we told him to do it. We asked if this was true why did he not call the night before to confirm? We called him the day before and asked him to plow our driveway. Why did he not mention it then? This all stinks. My Mom asked a lawyer at work and he said do not pay. Why would we pay for a service we did not authorize. Well, the snow plow guy called today and wants his money. He wants to stop by the house and pick it up in cash. Do we have any legal rights in this matter? I heard my Mom when she called him last week and she left it as we'll get back to you. I suggested paying him what we owe him for the snow plow services and attach a note saying we will no longer need his services.We're taking our business elsewhere.I thought I should insist all correspondence be in writing and documented.I want him to know we have no intention on paying him. ANy advice would helpful. (sorry for such a long post)

[HopeHoops]

1. Cash? Hmm. THERE's a big red flag. Call the local police department and ask how to report fraud.

Most municipalities do not treat contractor fraud lightly. If he doesn't have a signature from you authorizing the work, he has no case. I did handyman work for 3 years and I rarely accepted cash (and only from regular and trusted customers) because I liked the paper trail from a check - I photocopied them all before depositing them to make record keeping easier. Whatever you do, don't pay him and don't let him bully you. If he tries to strong-arm you in person, call 911 and report him for attempted home invasion.

[romantico]

3. I agree

We thought paying cash worked to our advantage because he said at the time(last summer) that we were getting a discount for paying cash.What made me nervous was his bookkeeping. We could pay him and he could turn around and say we didn't. By paying cash there is no record and he never gave us any receipt. I think because the weather is warming up he is getting nervous. He's had a good month in January and he is nervous about February and March.What pisses me off is the ice and snow would have been melted off in another week. So, the work he did was a breeze because a lot had melted already. Also, by doing this while both my Mom and I were out we have no idea how long the job took, how many people were on the job,etc.My Mom's lawyer friend said the most he could do is take us to small claims court. Odd thing is, he waited over a month to bill us. I was a little irritated because we got one huge bill. He called last weekend and asked if he could pick up the cash so we left it for him in our storm door(about $200 cash) Here he is waiting a full month or more to bill us and now he did the job just 2 days ago and he wants his $$$ ASAP (Guess he is afraid we will wise up and not pay him)

[Highway61]

2. The key phrase here is

"he went ahead and did it"...WHILE YOU WERE OUT. Since he lives down the street he saw you leave. My advice (and it is only my advice)don't pay him. Make sure you find someone else though who will be johnny on the spot if it snows from here on in and is just as reasonable. Also, invest in a roof rake. (about $80) We live in Maine and take care of the edges of the roof everytime it snows. Prevents ice damming (sp?) Great investment.

You signed nothing for this service and was a verbal agreement. You are NOT obligated to pay.

Just my opinion

[romantico]

4. Thanks!

Very wise and damn good advice!

[ohiosmith]

5. Don't pay and document, document, and document some more. Advise him in writing that he had no

authority to perform the work and have reported him to the appropriate authorities.

Good luck.

[Kali]

6. if he is a neighbor

I would probably just pay him and quietly terminate the business relationship

if he says anything be upfront, direct, and honest. You did unauthorized work and we paid you for it, but we are finished with this relationship, thanks.

[HERVEPA]

7. Wise and practical advice Kali

[LynneSin]

8. I have to agree with this

although another thing you could do is pay the service and then stress that he is not to do any future work unless pre-authorized to do so. Remind him that you had not request this service but to be nice you'll pay this time.

[MilesColtrane]

18. +1

[Bunny]

9. What everyone is saying about not paying him is probably true.

He had no right to do what he did without your authorization.

But... you wrote that he's your neighbor, he's been real reliable in the past (you referred to him as a 'great guy'), and he's been charging you less for snowplowing than the market would dictate. Maybe in the interest of maintaining neighborhood harmony, and as appreciation for the past favors he's done for you, you could offer to pay him half the amount. Insist on an invoice for the work, and then terminate your snowplowing agreement with him. And invest in a roof rake, as someone else mentioned.

[romantico]

10. To Be Clear

To be clear,he is not a neighbor. He lives about a mile or two down the street. I have been happy with his service and price but I can not dismiss a lot of things in this matter. He does have an accent but it has NEVER been a problem in the past. When My Mom was speaking to him we had him on speaker phone. We both noticed his accent was becoming stronger and stronger the more excited he was getting. The fact that we spoke to him the day before about plowing the driveway and he never mentioned it is odd. We called other contractors for estimates and each and every one of them called and left messages asking us if we still wanted the job done to call them back and let them know.He was the only one who did not.Last thing we said to him when we were asking him about price and such was that we'll get back to him and let him know(he was not gonna be able to get to it for another week yet once the weather warmed him his schedule became available) If it was a miscommunication than I feel bad but I heard my Mom talking to him and we both agreed that we would call him if we decided to go with him(he knew were gonna call others and get estimates)

The real kicker is he waited a month or so to bill us and now less than 2 days later he wants his money.....in cash......NOW! Either way,this will not end well for either of us. If we had asked for him to do the job there would be no problem. However, we were both relieved when we saw snow and ice beginning to fall of the roof. I saw this as money saved.Thanks for the advice!

[Kaleva]

17. I'm confused about the sequence of events.

If he did the job just last Wednesday, why this statement:

"The real kicker is he waited a month or so to bill us and now less than 2 days later he wants his money"

How could he wait a month to bill you when he just did the job?

It isn't unusual for people around where I live to pay those who shovel roofs and plow driveways in cash. It's the norm. I think there was a misunderstanding on his part and he waited till better weather, when he wasn't busy plowing, to shovel off your roof. He may well have been under the impression he had the job.

If he has been very good and reliable in the past, my advice would be for you to pay him but to make it clear when work will be done in the future.

[romantico]

19. He

He did the job this past Wednesday but the work he did plowing our driveway was from December and all of January. We didn't get a bill until the 3rd of February.Well,like I said there were a lot of things that made us both suspect something fishy. The biggest one being him not calling to confirm. We spoke the day before and asked him to plow the driveway. You would have thought he would have mentioned coming out the next day to remove snow from the roof. He knew our schedule and waited til we were out to do the job. Bottom line is,neither of us feel like we can trust him after this and we don;t see why we should pay for something we did not ask for. We made it clear we'd call if we decided to have the job done. To pay him for his mistake makes no sense to us.

[Kaleva]

20. Did he ever call back to confirm when you wanted him to plow the driveway?

I certainly wouldn't trust him if you had never mentioned anything to him about shoveling off the roof and he went and did it anyways and wanted to be paid for it.

One thing I've learned in my years of being self employed is that verbal communication isn't very reliable and misunderstandings do happen. For bigger jobs I do, I'll write it all down and go over every step with the customer to make sure both sides fully understand what is expected.

Again, it's my gut feeling that there was an honest misunderstanding and he isn't out to part you with your money. Shoveling roofs, even when alot of it is already melted, is hard and risky work and I haven't done it in years. That what kids are for!

[suninvited]

11. you want to know what I think happened

he was planning on making big money clearing roofs because of the weather situation, and when the temps got up and the snow started melting he realized he better act quick on all the roofs (I assume you were not the only ones he had talked to about roof clearing) and rushed around doing them all before the phone calls saying that it wasnt needed any longer started coming in.

I disagree with many of the other people here who say pay. I say let him take you to court if he is so sure that he was authorized to do the work and prove it. I don't think he has a leg to stand on.

Unscrupulous business people COUNT on people just being nice and instead of making a fuss when they have been ripped off just paying it. He KNEW when he got there that the roof didnt need to be cleared.

I mean, you did use the phrase 'big bucks', so I am assuming we are talking about more than a few dollars. Stand your ground. Asking for a quote is NOT THE SAME as authorizing work.

[romantico]

12. It

It was $200. He said it was $75 an hour per man and two people were sent to do the job. Of course, there is still a wall of ice on the edge which he wanted to come back later to do until we raised hell for him doing it in the first place. Looks like the snow was swept off,that's it. Does not look like it took very long but without us being home we have no way of knowing for sure. Could have taken one guy 30 minutes to do. Another point is,whenever he removes snow from our driveway he always waits for us to call to give him our schedule. We had snow on a Saturday and told him to come at his leisure because we were staying home. Another day it snowed on a Tuesday and we needed to be out of the house by eight o clock in the morning. So, he works around our schedules which is easy for us and him.So,if he waits to hear from us to remove snow from the driveway why would he not wait to hear from us about removing snow from our roof? Again, thanks for the all the replies. It has been very helpful to me.

[seabeyond]

13. don't have the money. that is how you know you didnt ask him to do it.

because you dont have the money. couldnt pay if you had asked him too, and you cant pay now especially as you didnt ask him to. no $

sorry for the misunderstanding.

what i would say

[romantico]

14. I

No, I had the money and was willing to spend it if I had to. A week ago here in Connecticut we had three snow storms coming. One turned out to be just a few inches,the other turned to rain and the third,which they thought would be a storm dropping about 12-15 inches,went off to sea.I was nervous about another storm weighing in an extra foot of snow on the 5 or 6 inches we had on the roof already. Don't get me wrong,I was not happy about paying for this service but I'd rather pay for that then a new roof.I was relieved when the storm went off to sea and we actually had some sunshine above freezing that began melting.A day before he came out to remove the snow we saw a significant change and noticed the snow was melting. I'm convinced it would have been totally gone within another few days.I'm sure as hell that he knew this as well and wanted to get over here ASAP.If I did have the $$$ I would not have even bothered getting estimates.One guy quoted me $800 to have just the front removed.I'm glad we got estimates and if we had another snow storm coming I can assure you we would have hired our snow plow guy for the job.

[ThomThom]

15. Don't pay but that means you will have to find someone else to

clear your snow in the future.
He can't say too much if he is getting paid in cash, that means he is NOT paying taxes on the money he brings in every year from you and all your neighbors. The IRS would be very interested in him. Do you know any other neighbors that pay him in cash? Turn him in.

[Maine-ah]

16. purchase a roof rake. They're pretty cheap.

I have a metal roof, and the snow usually just slides right off. Sounds like an earth quake. This year, we actually had to use the roof rake though.

I'd take the advice from the previous posters.