Collections & A/R Issues we ALL have....

[musician/lawnman]

Riddle me this fellas..... Why the hell is it that if one of us shoplifted a $1 candy bar we'd be put in cuffs, yet clients can default on account balances in the hundreds after signing a binding contract, duck your calls, not answer the door when you know that their home & that's a civil matter? You can lein the house but what good is that likely to do for you? If you were to take a $300 deposit on landscape work & never show up do you think that would be treated as a civil matter? Bet not. You'd end up arrested for fraud & operating a business in bad faith. So why is there no legislature to protect us out there yet? In most cases it's not like we can go repo our products for lack of payment. We can't get our service hours, labor, fuel, maintenence back so how the hell are we supposed to fight back & protect ourselves?

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LAWN CARE & LANDSCAPING
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[CHEESE2009]

Lawn care business tips

I hear ya man. I did a big tree/shrub planting job for a customer and chased him for my money for the entire season. (it's illegal to remove the plants from his yard once they are planted - interesting right? Especially when he didn't pay) It's not like they'd hire me if I wanted to charge up front, even then sometimes you have to charge as you go - which is why we depend on our customers. We need a way for us to NOT depend on our customers, too much risk is involved - too much B.S!!!! Forget what anyone tells you, were going to have to ask for a larger deposit from customers before any work is done. It's a big trust issue... You start the job and ask for payment after = customer can rip you off You ask for payment before you start the job = customer thinks you'll rip him off I say F'em... Everything should be paid for in advance. If you charge $100/m for lawn maintenance but didn't show up for whatever two-sided reason, the customer will say, "I want it taken off my bill" - too damn bad! Because from now on my prices don't get divided up into individual visits, it's a one time fee per month. Just like any other service.. If you have satellite and pay to have tons of channels.. Just because you didn't watch every episode doesn't entitle you to a discount... OTHER companies can do it, now we should be able to. Set prices, minimum prices, nothing is divided anymore to accommodated the cheap a55 customers.

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Security Officer Cheese2009
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Last edited by CHEESE2009; 10-26-2010 at 10:42 PM.

[Hedgemaster]

Psssttt...

U want I should send over my dawg to pee on the deadbeat's lawn?

[CHEESE2009]

Originally Posted by Hedgemaster

Psssttt...

U want I should send over my dawg to pee on the deadbeat's lawn?

I already pee on their lawns... lol

[Steve]

I am sorry about all that happening and you are right. It seems that the laws are tilted away from the contractor.

Have you considered taking any of the problem customers to small claims court yet? Or what have you found to be the best way to deal with non paying customers?

[stevef1201]

When I set up my business I had good advice from the lawyer. Litgation is not cheap but adding the line about paying reasonable atornies fees and cost for collection helped. He has had to take 3 people to court this year. Actual damages were less than 500 dollars but the judge ordered alost 1800 in payments to cover attorny fees and costs. They were pissed about haveing to pay so much more. He also request and got a siezure order for one of them, that means that (I) we could sieze any property personal or real and sell it to cover the ordered payment. Even had one of them call me an a__hole over this.

[jymie]

They didn't pay YOU, made YOU chase them around to get paid, still didn't pay YOU, but YOUR the a55hole. That is just total audacity to me. I really like putting this in late bill notices:

"If we have to send this to collection, you will be responsible to pay in addition to the amount you owe, all additional collection costs we incur to collect this debt, including lawyer fees. A judgment or lean against your personal property will also occur. So please take this moment to settle this debt to avoid all this unnecessary legal action."

Anyone who I have to stop, I make it a point to stop when ever I see another contractor servicing them to let them know they screwed me so be careful.

[Steve]

When I set up my business I had good advice from the lawyer. Litgation is not cheap but adding the line about paying reasonable atornies fees and cost for collection helped. He has had to take 3 people to court this year. Actual damages were less than 500 dollars but the judge ordered alost 1800 in payments to cover attorny fees and costs. They were pissed about haveing to pay so much more. He also request and got a siezure order for one of them, that means that (I) we could sieze any property personal or real and sell it to cover the ordered payment. Even had one of them call me an a__hole over this.

In the past we talked about collections on here, but I think most of the time it was small claims and without an attorney.

What made you choose to use an attorney and was this still small claims court?

Looking back at it now, do you think you could have gotten the same results yourself or were the results due to the fact you had an attorney?

I am sure others wonder if it is worth it or not.

[stevef1201]

One guy only owed one month. his wife told me when I showed up to mow that they didn't me anymore as they had bought a mower. I said ok. (this stuff happens) and she said that they would send me a check. I sent (over 3 months) 6 letters and knocked on thier door about 20 time. So I turned it over to the lawyer. Judgment was for me of course, original bill was only 120 dollars, lawyer fees 250, cost 200. my loss of pay for being in court that day 300. cost of serving with court order for seizure 150. Then the actual seizure and sale of personal property was 150. We sold everthing that we could get our hands on to cover all of the above cost. She was really pissed when she had to turn over her engagment and weeding rings. Cry cry cry, buckets of tears. told her if she payed her damn bills she would not have this problem. (found out later that they forclosed on for not makeing payments on house, had thier car repossed.) Very glad I was the first to go after them

[Steve]

She was really pissed when she had to turn over her engagment and weeding rings.

This is really fascinating! How did you go about seizing such personal property?

I would think that would be very difficult?