This is a long read but worth the time. I try to be a good neighbor and despite my rants here online, I’m generally a nice guy in person. That being said, I too have limits. One quote that has stuck with me for years was my boss who owned his own baseball camp in New Jersey where I spent 8 summers as a counselor. He was the nicest guy as long as you didn’t abuse that relationship. He always said “Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness” and that has been my mantra in life.
To summarize, our homeowner’s association passed a mandatory item that required us all to have our houses painted. One of the homeowners in our subdivision is a general contractor and he had connections with a painting company so we let him handle all the negotiations (Mistake #1). When he presented this company as the one with the lowest bid, we find out months later from another homeowner who chose to go with another company that wound up being $500 cheaper. To make matter worse, we find out that our contractor neighbor was actually paying the painting company himself, meaning we had to write a check to his “consulting” company instead of our homeowner’s association. The executive board at the time knew about this but it wasn’t made general knowledge until this guy sends us all an email saying he needs to make additional payments for the company to finish the job. The initial agreement, like most contracting jobs, was half the money up front and half when the job is complete to each of our satisfaction. All of a sudden now we find out he’s paid the company in full and needs the remainder of our balance so he’s not in the hole.
Now, typically, we’d all say “Tough luck, that’s your fault you put yourself in a financial bind that none of us were aware of”, but with him being a neighbor we didn’t want to get into an antagonistic relationship with him since we see each other almost every day in passing. It was stupid of him to take on this financial responsibility himself, stupid of the executive board to approve that, and stupid of him to not withhold final payment to the painting company until the job was done. Of course, contractors stick out for other contractors and while we thought since he was a resident and had our best interests in mind, it turns out he could have cared less about certain items that still have not been complete. Our house has a portion of stucco to the left of the front door and when we purchased the house, the color matched the front of the house
When this painting company “finished” their work, it’s now an off shade of grey, not beige like it was, and this began my point of contention with my neighbor since he insisted he be the sole point of contact with this company. Read the email string below and keep in mind that I am trying to be as diplomatic as possible in order to get the job done and not have a negative relationship with him since he is out neighbor. It winds up being semi-cordial throughout, until this week, 8 months after the job should have been done.
12/9/05 – an email to the board president at the time
My apologies for not remembering - are we giving Steve (the treasurer) a down payment now or the entire amount?
12/9/05 - From the board president
Just half . The 2nd half will be due when the work is all done.
2/15/06 – an email from the board president to our group
Dean needs everyone to pay the 2nd half of what they owe for painting. These checks should be made out to DFS Consulting, LLC. You can leave them in the box on Steve Warrens porch (B-2) and he will get them to Dean.
2/15 - My reply
Thanks for the update. Can you tell Dean that I am going to wait to cut a check until they finish my 2 side decks? I'm uncomfortable with giving them full payment until they complete the work.
2/14 - Dean’s reply
DFS Consulting is my company not Superior and I am not going to give them final payment until 100% of the work is complete and fina . Although, I do have to pay them draws during the process and have been paying out of pocket, I cannot continue to carry the cost and this will make it easier to manage the process. I understand your concerns and promise to make sure everyone is satisfied prior to final payment. So please work with me, because if everyone is going to hold back you can see what position this will put me in and that is all I am trying to avoid.
2/23 – My response to the group
Let me begin by thanking Mariah and Dean for facilitating this whole painting process for our association. It's not an enviable task but someone has to do it. That being said, I do have a problem with the terms of agreement being changed midway through this process, especially since it is not just a few hundred bucks we're talking about. Had I known that one of our members was going to be paying
Superior out of their own pocket, I would have objected. That little fact was never made known to us, as I'm not comfortable with having Dean or anyone else be put in a financial bind. Having had negative
experiences with contractors before, not paying the final amount until the job is finished correctly is the only leverage we have.
We have the money to pay Superior for the rest of what we owe and I will gladly drop a check in Steve's mailbox the day the job is done. I'd rather hassle Superior if they fail to do a satisfactory job than having to make Dean do it. Using a third party just prolongs the ordeal.
Most of us don't get paid for work in advance and the same logic should apply for any contract work. I'm not implying that Superior won't live up to their agreement, but half up front and half when the job is done should be satisfactory to them if they're a legitimate company. If they have a problem with that, then they're not a company I'd want to deal with in the future.
2/27/06 - Dean’s reply
I have been a builder and construction consultant for over ten years and I assure you I know how to work with the trades and make sure we are 100% satisfied prior to final payment. The funds are going to me (DFS Consulting), I am not paying for anything that is not earned. I also know how paying certain ways and in a timely manner gains the motivation/quality and respect from contractors as well. Superior is doing over $100, 000 worth of work for me right now and I know I have plenty of leverage for all of us and that is why I have taken the responsibility and liability of this project. The purpose of asking for the funds now is not to pay Superior in full, but to help me help everyone and avoid chasing money down on the 11th
hour...that's all. I will be happy to update everyone of the payment process if that will help. They are a legitimate company and it is only my request to handle this in this fashion, most people have cooperated already and I am not going to force anyone to anything they don't want to, so I will get a check from you when your unit is 100%, which will be prior to the end of the week, therefore I will need to know when we can paint the doors in the morning so they can remain open to dry.
More time goes by and I drop an friendly reminder email on 4/17/06 to Dean.
Has Superior given you a timeframe as to when they'll do the stucco to the left of my front door to match the front exterior? I just wanted to make sure they hadn't forgotten about me. Thanks!
His reply
They are coming back to paint two more units, just waiting on final commitments and I thought I would have them do everything in one trip. Sorry, it's just taking the others longer to commit to the painting of their units. I will update you as soon as I have final dates scheduled.
July 16, to Dean
Please give an update or I will call Superior myself this week for them to finish the job they never completed.
On July 24th, I wrote this to the group since Dean hadn’t replied
Does anyone still have Superior
Painting's phone number? They never finished my place (having the
stucco match the front color) and I need to follow up with them. I'm
not a fan of third-party communication when it comes to contractors and
this is a perfect example of why it doesn't work. If anyone else has an
issue, let me know and I'll relay it to them if you'd like.
He finally replies on 7/29
Sorry for the slow response, but I have been traveling a lot over the past two months. I recently talked with Superior and he should be sending someone next week. If not I will be sure to get over there myself and take care of the outstanding work. Superior has been doing a lot of favors lately, so I may pay him back by taking care of this for you. If I do not see them by Thursday I will take care of it Friday.
Sorry again for the slow response.
He sends me something on August 6
I noticed Superior has not taken care of the color change on the retaining wall at your front door, I will pick up the paint and take care of it this week. I thought they would be by, I agreed with Superior to take care of the job as a favor to be returned to me. I WILL have it done this week.
My apologies,
Another month goes by, so I sent an email on Sep 20 with one word in it – “Update?”
He replies on the same day
I swear, I went to paint it that week we talked and it looked to me that Superior had painted. I just assumed it had been resolved. I should have time next week to jump on it, I have been out of town. Sry (sic) again.
10/4 rolls around and I write to him
I've gotta be honest - I'm getting impatient now. Superior started this in February and we're now in October and the job's not done yet. This is why I didn't want to give the full payment until the work was actually done. If this isn't complete by Friday, I will be calling Superior and they won't like what I'm going to say. You shouldn't be forced to do work that they should have done and I don't want to get in a confrontation with my neighbor.
And now it turns ugly. He replies:
I was under the impression they did not paint the wall, but they did paint it, you just want a different color than the firewall. For what it's worth you got the best deal and the job was done quickly with the minor exception for the color, which was painted to match the firewalls, so I am a little disappointed in the tones and lack of appreciation of how well you were taken care of. Superior doesn't have anything to do with it and you can deal with it however you want, but I think you should really look at what you did get instead of a color discrepancy
Now I’m pissed. He took advantage of the fact that I was a neighbor instead of a client because I obviously would never have been this soft to a 3rd party. Today I posted something on our group’s message board and am awaiting the fireworks.
I wanted to bring this issue up in our meeting but I unfortunately had to leave early that day before we got to this topic.
For what it's worth, we need to ensure that no tenant in our group be financially responsible for any project our subdivision takes on again. We had a painting job begun by Superior Painting in February when we found out that Dean had taken on financial responsibility for this project, putting him in a bind if payments weren't made. When it comes to contractors, I make it a point to not make final payment until the job is done. Against my better judgment, I made final payment to Dean since he had already paid the money to Superior (supposedly) and I didn't want to put my neighbor in a financial tight spot. Little did I know my best interests wouldn't be looked after. The stucco to the right of our door still doesn't match the color of the house, which it did when we purchased our home several years ago.
After being patient and trying not to have an antagonistic relationship with my neighbor, the job still isn't done, Superior was never contacted about it, and I get this lovely response from Dean.
"For what it's worth you got the best deal and the job was done quickly with the minor exception for the color, which was painted to match the firewalls, so I am a little disappointed in the tones and lack of appreciation of how well you were taken care of. Superior doesn't have anything to do with it and you can deal with it however you want, but I think you should really look at what you did get instead of a color discrepancy. "
I couldn't be more disappointed right now.
The gloves are off.