Ripped off

[Injured]

Absolutly fuming with myself.
Got a call form a guy asking about a concrete slab for hardstanding on a site in St Helens. Went and measured up gave him the price and everything was agreed.
Started the job one monday morning and when got there he said he wanted bigger slab. Ok no probs I said and rang around to change all the orders. Got it all dug of and stoned up that day but also said to him needed some money that day as job had got over 4 times bigger and so wanted part payment which i always ask for as trust works both ways. Any way he kept delaying and coming up with excuses as to why he couldnt get money to me. In the end I cancelled the concrete and said I was not concreting until I had some cash off him.2 weeks down the line and he now doesnt answer my calls and the slab has been concreted.
Totally pi@*ed off should have made sure I got a true home address and met him there before I started the job so I now believe I am over £1000 pound out of pocket.

I hope no one else has to go through this.

Sorry for the rant but needed to get it off my chest.

[jonnyboyentire]

You can of course remind him that the stone still belongs to you and as you havent been paid you will be having it back. Two big guys with pickaxes or a breaker should do the trick.

I hate tw*ts like that.

Or you could of course start dumping all your diggings-out on the slab - returning his spoil so to speak.

If you take it lying down it will happen to you again, word gets about.

[GB_Groundworks]

once fixed it belongs to the property there a latin term i cant find at mo to explain it,

i'd turn up with my 3cx and breaker and say i want paying please or im going to reclaim my stone haha

[dig dug dan]

you should be able to take action against him;. Was it has property? did he live there?
Don't let him get away with it

[seanandruby]

Your name is what this guy needs to be :;):

[Dave_L]

We've had some sticky ones lately - we are now doing pro forma invoicing for works for people we don't know.

Money up front otherwise we don't arrive on site.

[lutonlagerlout]

feel for you mate
i nearly got caught last year on a similar thing,job kept getting bigger from £1-3 k then i realised that he didnt actually live at the place i was doing the work alarm bells started to ring. he was permanently looking for micro faults.
anyway i got paid but there was a 2 week period where all i had for him was a mobile number and he wouldnt reveal his home Address
i think Mickg has had similar stuff and only does domestics now
and from that i only work for people who live in the house your working on, I dont subcontract off other building firms, and do stuff for schools,the council etc as its a guaranteed payer
makes me feel sick
think the phrase is terra summat
LLL

[enigmaenigma]

Not my image and nor is it my run down of the law within this area, as it is one that was originally posted here upon the forum and by one of us – I can’t remember who it was though?

what's attached to the soil becomes a part of it etc, or words to that effect

I couldn’t find the original posting, but knew I had a copy that I could repost myself.

[Injured]

When I left the site it was shuttered ready for concrete but I didnt concrete it.

I went round to the site last night and have now seen that it has now been concreted some time this week.

The worst thing is I only have a mobile number for him and was given an address but it doesnt exist.

[GB_Groundworks]

Engima that's it forgot I scanned it in haha doh! To much water under the bridge, haha

Long story but my dads firm lost c£970k to a 40 yr old mate on a job, land sold on a handshake then the guy mortgaged it so we had to pay that off before we could sell the houses. We bankrupted him but wanted to do worse.

The article is out of the fmb magazine btw



Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1285445291

[michaelthegardener]

back in march i got ripped off by 50 quid for a fence i did that made me as mad as hell so i cant imagine how youre feeling for a grand my one was kind of my fault i had a bad feeling about the customer but as the winter had been so bad i did it anyway they supplied the materials then tried to blame me for them being crap ??? there was nothing wrong with my work but some of the pannels were split yet they said it was my fault alot of agro later an i settled for 50 less than the price just to get most of the money out of it they later let slip they had had the pannels in the garage a year !

[Dave_L]

Which is why I would never fit/use someone else's supplied materials.

As sickening as it is, I think you are going to have to put this one down to bad experience.

[lutonlagerlout]

personally i couldn't do that dave
its the guy that ripped off injured who should/will be wishing that he paid up.
if someone tries to knock you,they are effectively taking food from your kids mouths
there are a few ppl with reputations like that round luton,big builders but they never make the last payment
i never have and never will work for them
still feel gutted for you injured
LLL

[mickg]

sorry to hear that Injured

is this the guys site or was he doing the job for someone else and he asked you to concrete the base, all I am coming to is he still around this same site or has he gone missing completely ?

[Injured]

He has told me it is his land and that they rent it out to other businesses as storage yards he has said they have a few by they I mean him his dad and his brother.

I could sit outside it all day untill he turns up but I have a good thing going with a firm where I work for him wen I dont have anything else on and it would mean losing more money.

Also rumours have ihe is involved with the gypsies too, so there is apossibility it could get out of hand.

Still unsure what to do yet. I have spoken to a mate who s acopper and he said if I can prove from the outset he wasnt going to pay they will look into it as it is fraud but otherwise they wont help as its a civil matter.