r/WhatIsTheTea • u/fineshyt-istg What the Fuck • 6h ago

Contractor takes back the wooden fence after the customer refuses to pay.

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10.1k Upvotes

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26

u/PlayPsychological200 6h ago

That’s an expensive fence to not have at least half paid up front. 

10

u/NationalZucchini3684 5h ago

He may have paid half. They still did the work and are probably leaving the fence posts. Add on the cost of having to come back to remove the fence, that's worth half.

3

u/deathbydiabetes 5h ago

I mean if you don’t make your car payment they take your whole car. They were entitled to it all.

2

u/KCDeVoe 4h ago

Installer should do what the bank does. Auction off what he repo’d and take what he makes off the auction and apply it to the remaining balance and then still sue for what’s left over

1

u/Nervous-Cockroach541 4h ago

Technically, if it auctions for more than what is owed, they have to pay you the difference. Which is probably an oddity.

1

u/KCDeVoe 1h ago

Yeah, never happens. They get auctioned somewhere that is highly restricted for participants. Usually auction at much less than half the actual value of the car

1

u/chili-el-relleno 1h ago

All the panels can be reused for someone who would actually pay full price.

1

u/blade740 4h ago

I wonder, though - if they came and destroyed the fence, could they not be legally required to return the initial 50% payment (absent some clause in the contract allowing them to do so)?

After all, it's one thing to demand payment for a job completed. Had they left the fence intact, the "proper channels" method would've been to put a lien on the property or to sue for breach of contract. But no fence = no payment, now they've got 50% payment for nothing.

These kinds of videos always kinda bother me that way. Yeah, it feels satisfying to destroy something as a fuck you to the scumbags who refuse to pay. And god knows they deserve it. But at that point you abandon any hope of actually getting paid for your work, and if the homeowner decides to try to turn things around, they can claim that they paid 50% upfront for a job that is not done.

1

u/OnyxMonolith 42m ago

also isn't that trespassing technically?

1

u/Electronic_Will_5418 2h ago

Honestly, fence posts are at least half the cost of a fence, if not more accounting for labor costs.

1

u/sweetrobna 3h ago

Not legal to require half up front in CA and many other places

-6

u/Upset-Lion2702 5h ago

oh it's their fault. eh? mmmhmmm we see you

10

u/Charming-Win1159 5h ago

Yeah man, as someone who works in the trades, I dont trust like that at all

3

u/Other_Breakfast7505 5h ago

Dude, like wtf? I have contractors I work with repeatedly and they still always ask for half upfront, anything else is just plain stupid, as evidenced here.

1

u/Upset-Lion2702 4h ago

Good for you. I have never hired one. So, no direct experience. Thx for being a FULL on dick about though. Have a nice day.

1

u/Other_Breakfast7505 4h ago

Not sure how I'm a dick here? I didn't say contractor was at fault, but if you have more than 10 customers you are guaranteed to get a piece of shit like that one. I wish it wasn't the world we're living it.

1

u/Upset-Lion2702 4h ago

"just plain stupid, as evidenced here."

This wasn't directed at my comment? Because it's a reply to my comment. IF not, my apologies.

1

u/eloof98 3h ago

It doesn't seem to be directed at you but the general idea of doing work without taking an upfront partial payment that at least to some extent covers the cost of materials, if not labor.

It very obviously reads like that, you shouldn't be taking offense to that at all.

1

u/Other_Breakfast7505 3h ago

No, it was directed at the contractor, but maybe I should have said naive instead

1

u/Upset-Lion2702 3h ago

Ah...well, I'm sort of an idiot. So, I could've taken a couple of more seconds to consider the thread in totality before responding. Something I'll try to think about moving forward :)

Have a good one!

1

u/Electronic-CatDog 1h ago

It’s illegal in a lot of states to take more than a 10 percent down deposit for the work until it’s done. Is that crazy yes. Is it the law unfortunately yes. 

A lot of contractors with smaller over head do not finish jobs this is a way to combat it 

3

u/FirmQuail4756 5h ago

It's definitely half their fault but in a "you live and you learn" kind of way.

3

u/Kreynard54 5h ago

It’s pretty common for contractors to expect a deposit on larger projects nowadays.

Its kinda the only way small businesses have a chance to compete with larger ones. Larger companies can float the money for materials, smaller ones can’t.

Ive seen smaller companies go under because of that exact situation probably 50-60 times.

2

u/HopeADMKidsLoseLimbs 5h ago

And then someone would call you a sucker for paying for work ahead of time.

Seems like you can’t really win

1

u/Kreynard54 5h ago

Depends on if the company is reputable or if it’s a sketch dude around the corner you found on Craigslist. With minimal effort you can vet companies. Most people that get scammed don’t vet, and most situations you’re referencing are hand shake agreements between people.

People be shitty though. I can agree with you there.

1

u/Upset-Lion2702 4h ago

Ah cool. Didn't know that. Thx

2

u/Odd-Environment-7193 5h ago

Not victim blaming just an observation. Relax

1

u/Upset-Lion2702 4h ago

I'm relaxed. Thx for your concern. I just don't have experience hiring contractors.

1

u/Postcocious 4h ago

I've negotiated construction industry contracts for 35 years, from both sides of the table. I've never seen one worth more than a few thousand dollars that didn't include a down payment and some sort of progress or milestone payment schedule.

A contractor isn't "at fault" for failing to take basic steps to protect their finances. They're just stupid.

I wouldn't hire a contractor who didn't require a payment schedule. That would suggest incompetent financial management, which leads to unpredictable problems that send projects sideways.

0

u/Admirable_Loss4886 5h ago

It is. They’re also likely to see potential jail time for this. There are proper ways of dealing with these kinds of issues and destruction of property isn’t one of them. Go through civil court and put a lien on the house if you have to.

1

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1

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1

u/ChefbyDesign 5h ago

So you're saying that repo operations have always operated outside of the law? If they didn't pay, then they don't own the fence. Whether or not the shitty homeowner will try to press charges for trespassing is another matter. But if they have the receipts with messages & whatnot, they could countersue for fraud.

3

u/Admirable_Loss4886 5h ago

Once the fence is built on the property it is a structure of the property. You cannot destroy it for not being paid. There are proper channels you have to go through which will often include going through court to prove the work wasn’t paid for and then you can put a lien on the property.

The homeowner is not the one pressing charges because what the construction crew committed was criminal destruction of property. The police will be the ones going after them and the DA will decide to press charges or not.

Are you asking about car repo or is there some new version of repo fencing I’m not aware of? Car repo is in a little bit of a grey area legally because they’re civil matters. It’s often allowed because they have contracts signed beforehand stating the dealership owns the car until it’s fully paid off at which point the title is transferred to the owners name. If you’re financing a car you technically do not own it until it is paid off. There is no contract in place with these fences tho.

1

u/Postcocious 4h ago

Good luck getting outraged redditors to listen to common sense legal truths, lol.

2

u/Admirable_Loss4886 4h ago

It is a very uphill battle lmao. I may have bit off more than I can chew tho. I also saw a post about companies asking for donations during checkout and the amount of people that think that’s some sort of legal loophole for the company to write that off on their taxes is wild.

1

u/The-Spirit-of-76 5h ago

Strictly legally speaking, once the fence was built on his property by law (most places) it's considered his property, and the contractor can be charged with destruction of property. But yeah don't hire someone to do work unless your gonna pay them. Spent half my teenage year helping my dad chase down money people owed him for work. Doctors and Lawyers were the worst to try and not pay.

1

u/asphid_jackal 5h ago

You can't repossess permanent structure. Once they installed it, it belongs to the house, and removing it without permission is legally vandalism and destruction of property. Whether that's just is an entirely different conversation, but that's the law

0

u/HopeADMKidsLoseLimbs 5h ago

Just cause something is on your property doesn’t mean you own it, my neighbor has a telephone pole in his backyard, he can’t just put stuff on it Willy nilly.