Stan, I stopped listening at about the 12 minute mark, so if you covered this in your video I apologize in advance. I work in the construction industry, but on the commercial side. In describing the scenario you and other contractors experienced, you mentioned that you signed what I would call a "conditional" lien release ... a document which waives your lien rights in exchange for payment, but which is also conditioned upon the check clearing the bank upon which it is drawn. So if the check doesn't clear the bank, your right to lien the property is not released or waived. Since the G.C. in this case was receiving funds to pay subs/suppliers from a bank, I assume the homeowner had a mortgage with that bank. So the bank would be the first secured lien holder, and as such, the bank should have insisted upon "unconditional" lien releases from you and any other sub/supplier supposedly being paid with the funds coming from the bank BEFORE ever remitting any payment to the G.C. An unconditional release differs from a conditional release in that is includes an acknowledgement from the party signing it (you and any other sub/supplier) of payment (it says you've received payment for your work ... typically with a statement like " In consideration of payment in the sum of _______, receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, ..."). So you never sign an unconditional release unless and until you've actually been paid, and by that I don't mean you've received a check from the G.C. ... payment has not been "made" unless and until the check clears the bank upon which it is drawn. Until then, use a conditional release form only. In this case, since the bank released funds without first obtaining unconditional releases from the subs/suppliers furnishing labor and/or materials to the project, the bank screwed up. But as you pointed out, your lien rights were not waived by the conditional release form you signed, unless and until the check cleared the bank, and at that point, you and the other subs/suppliers still had a right to pursue a legal remedy (file a lien against the property) to recover payment for your work. I don't know if you did so (sounds like you didn't), but as soon as you learned that the G.C.'s check bounced you should have gone down to the County recorders office and recorded a lien against the property. You don't need to be an attorney to do so and it's not expensive. You just have to make sure the format is correct and that you haven't missed a filing deadline (in Minnesota, the statute of limitations period for recording a lien is 120 days from the date of your last furnishing of labor and/or materials to the project). There are also prerequisite notices (such as a preliminary notice) that must be served by certain parties on the property owner and or the lender if applicable with a certain period of time (generally in Minnesota, this applies to 2nd-tier subs/suppliers, and must be given to the Owner and Lender with 45 days of your first furnishing of labor/materials to the project). Bottom line, if you do your due diligence, you won't be left holding the bag. In this case, had you filed a lien, you would have likely forced the bank to pay twice (not the homeowner) because it was the bank that failed to get unconditional releases from the subs/suppliers on this job. The lesson here is to know your rights and exercise them if you have no other recourse ... and don't give up your rights until you've actually been paid for your work.
You have covered this better than anyone else. You are right. I still had my lien rights and i worked with the homeowners to help them through this fiasco. I do feel the bank screwed up in this situation.
If the check from the GC bounced, go directly to the state attorney general and file a criminal complaint. I had a GC write a bad check once. I contacted the AG office. They asked me if I would settle for a lesser amount or if I would go all the way on the matter. I said "all the way". The gal said "Good, he's done this before and the other guys always settled." I said, "I would rather see him in jail than settle for 99%" She laughed and put out a warrant. He was arrested during a traffic stop a couple months later on a Friday night. He calls me Monday and tries a sob story. I told him "Talk to the AG about it, it is out of my hands." He tried negotiating a payment plan with me, I said "Talk to the AG." 4 months after the check bounced I got my money in full and he lost his contracting license. Bad checks are felonies in most states. Prosecute him!
@@Dirtmonkey obviously the bank screwed up in your scenario. However, it was you and any other contractors who signed waivers, which you admitted scammed you, that screwed up as well. You and the homeowner are in the same boat. There should never have been any reason to assume the homeowner is responsible for double payment.
As a contractor and built several homes in my town. In the early 90s I had a problem with the IRS. I was injured on a job and could barely move for over 6 months and it took over a year before I could actually try start to work again. Had to sub out my framing trim work siding etc. The IRS accused me of cheating on my taxes because my profit went way down. I went round and round with them through legal letters the way you're supposed to trying to work this out. One day after I received a draw and put it in my business checking account I went around and paid all the contractors I owed and the yellow sign waivers just like we did all the time. We all trusted each other and I never had a problem after over 150 homes built. Most of us ate breakfast at the same place for years. When they went to cash the checks there was no money in the account! The IRS waited for a draw and then cleaned out my bank account which I found out after I went to the bank. The bank didn't even know what happened they had to look it up! All the subs knew what happened and were sympathetic and knew I would take care of it somehow. Except one a new heating and cooling business that just started in town I used because my regular guy was too busy. They file lawsuit and started a whole legal mess! That prevented me from getting any more money from the banks to pay off my subcontractors. I had to make a quick sale on my home that housed my wife and three boys to pay off the subs. Thinking that in a few years I'll build another one and I'll get back on track. Well that never happened. The damage was done and the word was out in the small town. But I completed the house I was building at the time and the people were happy and moved into it all out of my pocket. After writing a scathing letter to the federal judge the house I was renting was surrounded in the middle of the night and they took me away. I did not threaten anybody in the letter I just told him about the IRS and the corruption! I spent one night in jail and paid $125 fine. I am 64 years old now and still a carpenter but that Old situation left me the bad taste in my mouth the rest of my life. So when I hear about contractors doing this on purpose it just makes me sick to my stomach! Sorry for the long talk here but needed to get it off my chest. Thanks for sharing your video.
I've got a scam you guys will love. About 20 years ago, my ex was living in Georgia, an hour north of Atlanta. She hired a guy named Henry Talbot Burns, a well known GC, to build a million-plus dollar home. The guy was building a number of homes in a very affluent sub-division. Unfortunately, he was both an alcoholic and a gambling addict who owed the mob a bunch of money. She says the home was about half constructed and she'd paid him over $250K when he just disappeared. He had like 7 other clients who'd paid him at least as much, with one couple into him for upwards of $500K. Apparently he used a lot of the payments to pay off his gambling debts and as a result, a number of things about the actual construction were sub-par. He disappeared because he went into hiding from the mob. He was eventually found and arrested and spent a few years in prison. When he got out, he moved to Lousisana and opened up shop as a GC, building houses again. I'm told that all those clients lost their homes because they couldn't find another contractor willing to take over and finish the job - nobody wanted to risk putting thier name on potentially negligent work. He's court ordered to make restitution payments to my ex of about 10% of the amount she lost to him. I just googled him and apparently he's moved to North Carolina. To be perffectly honest, I'm really surprised someone didn't kill him. His name is Henry T Burns. True Story.
Thank you for this video warning others of contractor scams. I was a victim of a dishonest contractor several years ago when we added an additional room onto our house in WA state. A general contractor was recommended to us by friends of ours who were unaware that the guy they were recommending was a scammer. Toward the end of your video, I was listening to your tips and you are right on. The one tip in particular that you mentioned about making sure a contractor actually has a physical place of business is so important, and the lesson we learned too late. Our contractor had his business name and contractor license on his pickup truck, but he was a one-man operation with no physical office. I did the usual due diligence in checking his contractor license and name of his business with the state licensing website and found no problems. But, we learned too late after this guy disappeared that he had gone to the length of using another legitimate contractor's license number as well as the letterhead for their business, so despite checking on his business to see if it was a legit company (the one he misrepresented was legit), and checking with the state on the contractor license number to verify no documented issues, we were scammed anyway. This guy started the work, did a fairly good job doing the demo work and started the framing for the new addition above our garage, then he took money from us for materials and disappeared, never to be seen again. We took him to court and obtained a default judgement against him, but never found him and have never collected on our court judgement. And you know what is even more difficult than finding a contractor to do a remodel in the first place? Finding a good contractor that is willing to come in an fix a poor remodel left halfway done by a scam contractor. We thought we had done what was necessary to check out a contractor before signing the paperwork, but we were scammed anyway and ended up learning a hard lesson and now I am much more aware of the warning signs to look for before agreeing to hire an unknown contractor.
Maybe the guy is dead. I'm a civil engineer in brazil and once i built this house to a banker. He ask me to sign a bibble of a contract and said "we gonna be cautious with contracts because people die all the time". Forgive my english
That sucks. I actually specialize in coming in and fixing other people's mistakes. I have crews, but a lot of things I do myself just out of "my name is attached to this" pickiness. I come out looking great in the end every time because I explain the process, explain what needs to be redone completely and what can be salvaged, and have complete transparency in the entire process. I don't do an upcharge on material, Clients get the price I paid for material, because I am skilled enough to be able to pretty much name my price. Though there have been a couple times where I've felt so bad for the people scammed that I find out what the scammer's bid was and how much they paid him and just finish/redo everything for the remainder of the scammer's bid. I work mostly on Referrals, the majority of my clients do my advertising for me and send me more clients. It works out pretty well for me.
Poor Carl. He's a fan and the first thing he hears is "I'm doing a video on the biggest scam". I can just imagine what was going through his mind lmao.
I bought a pole style barn from a national name company. They used local dealers/contractors to do the actual building. So even though I called the building company directly they had me dealing through a semi local outfit. The only thing that saved me was I paid the national company for the building materials. Then the local contractor was paid in draws as he completed work. The trouble started as the building was under roof but not finished. I had to have the building complete before bad winter weather. So timing was important. The work crews started to not show up for weeks at a time and the building just set there. Contractor stopped answering calls. The national company was no help as they had been paid and could care less if it was built or not. I tracked down the crew doing the actual work and they told me they had not been paid for any of the work they had done on the barn. I worked out a deal with them to pay part of their back pay and all of the future work on a daily basis. They would work 8-10 hours and I would cut them a check. I got the barn done on time but lost around $7500 to the contractor. I will never deal with a multi layer setup like that again.
I think I got a knot in my stomach just listening to you and only because I know what it means to save and save some more for years and have nothing in the end. Thank you so much for the awareness. May the Lord give you favor and multiply your wealth where you cant contain it because people like you give others work and thats what AMERICA needs. Good honest workers!!
Depends on what country you are going to. I bought a sea side property on the Black Sea in Bulgaria for 5k cash. I rented it out for years. Ended up selling it since I wasn't in Europe anymore.
I had a much similar situation in Colorado in 2018. My GC was a total scammer as it turned out. We weren't living in CO at the time we initiated our retirement home build with this guy. I checked with the bank that he used, the city inspector and other GC's that we also quoted. This simple background check revealed nothing out of the ordinary. This GC had build many homes in our valley including his own and had lived in our town for 17 yrs. However, his scam was not paying the contractors by claiming that they had non insured illegal immigrants on the job site. He would wait until they were almost finished with their jobs and then threaten the company owners that he was going to sue them and go to Homeland Security and get the illegals deported. As it turned out, the local banker was in his pocket as was the building inspector. He took my $$ but never paid the contractors. I hired a local attorney and found out he had been pulling this scam for the last 15 years. He would change the name of his company as he was sued and start over again. We ended settling out of court for about half of what we believed he owed us. Cost us about $50K in non recoverable charges. So here are my top five red flags fo hiring a GC: 1) Look at his business over the last 10-20 yrs. How many name changes? Why? Were they incorporated in different cities and counties? Why? 2)Get a complete list of the banks he has used over the past 5 years and do due diligence with them. 3)Contact various contractors and see if any inconsistencies arise over the GC. 4)Network in the city and ask the locals about this GC. Go to several restaurants and bars and ask. It's amazing how word travels. 5)Get a recent list of past customers and contact them if possible to get their take on the deliverables.
Thanks for sharing this story with us Stan and I am sorry that you and the other people got scammed . I can't stand liars, scammers and cheaters and thieves and dope heads .
I'm not sure I believe it. Dude said he got scammed for 20k plus two others. So lets say he owed them all 20 so this guy is claiming dude skipped the COUNTRY for 60k?
As a commercial construction inspector who had to advise major US banks on funding millions each month for draw requests my company's policy was never advise funding unless and until, the "work was completed and in place" per the AIA. Then and only then, and pending receipt of waivers would funding be advised. The only exception was for applications for stored materials, which we would "paper up to the nines" to include certificates of insurance covering the materials stored at a verifiable and insured warehouse, authorized right of entry to take possession in case of default prior to on-site delivery, inland/ Marine Ins. for shipment, etc. etc. nobody got a dime unless the paperwork was " a Lock".
I purchased a house that had cracks in the master bathroom's shower tile. Funds were set aside from the purchase to cover the repairs. I had three local contractors bid the job. I did my homework (or so I thought) with all three with the State Contractor's Licensing Board. I selected the middle contractor. My alert flags went up when they had to borrow our vacuum cleaner on the first day of demo. As things proceeded, I was told by one of the carpenters that the Contractor had gotten into a physical altercation with an elderly customer a few weeks ago. During the build, the contractor came to me and told me that the reason I was experiencing cracks was that my bathroom was rotating, and it needed to be stabilized. He proposed sinking a hole below the bathroom and installing a 12"x12" beam with arms reaching out to "grab" the bathroom to prevent it from rotating. Then I found that the new ceiling fan's vent was just thrown into the attic without venting to the outside. I'm making the story short here, but he eventually showed up at my doorstep demanding money. He attempted to enter my house uninvited and when I threw him out physically, he tried to reenter holding a framing hammer head high. As they say, "Don't come to a gun fight with a hammer". He was arrested. He eventually sued me three times. First for the mechanic's lien of $1400, second for Breach of Contract for $25,000 as I would not allow him in to finish the job, and third for $800,000 as he claimed I colluded with other customers to prevent him from working in the county. He lost on all three accounts. But it was a very traumatic experience for my wife and myself. After doing some research on this contractor, it was apparent that what he did with me was typical for his M.O. This is why I suggest to people that are considering a contractor to check the local Superior Court records to see if they have either been sued or have, they sued. This guy has over 60 suits to his name
Here in central Kentucky I am a general contractor and there is no license requirements. Literally anyone can call themselves a contractor. When looking for a contractor or specific trade I always recommend going to the supplier for the job and asking them for recommendations. They will only recommend contractors who pay their bills and have done business there for a long time.
Here in CT, you just need to show initial proof of business insurance, pay the fee & you get a "registration". $220 per year for remodeling & $450 for new home construction. Contractor's Registrations can be verified online, but I suspect most people don't bother. The fine for contracting without a registration is $500 for 1st violation, then $750, etc... slap on the wrist. There is a little known advantage to at least hiring a registered contractor, however. It's the Construction Industry Recovery fund that victims can get $ from if scammed by a reg. contractor.
No skilled license requirement in WA state either. I have been scammed a few times but only one got away with it. One of the scammers i jumped in his car and said i am with you until you pay me,, he went straight to bank. Anther i said my father in law says that if anyone screws anyone in his family he will come over with a bat and hit him over the head,, got paid that time also in cash same day. Have also helped two contractors get paid.
I haul heavy equipment rentals in ND and i can tell you who's paying for the equipment and who im repoing our stuff back from by heart. About 2 weeks ago i had to locate and remove 2 telehandlers a skidsteer and rough terrain scissor lift from a farm with an unfinished barn. He was desperate to find out what's going on. I told them that im removing it for a reason and to talk to the contractor. I felt bad but it's business and there's nothing I could do.
Great job Stan I'm very thankful for your video; I almost got scam in NY by a GC I got lucky and in my lawyers office I fired the GC just as he had convinced even my lawyer for me to release 80% of the banks money when he clearly had not fulfilled his agreed first phase of the project. It was my first time having to manage a large budget for a 2 house renovation and the GC was coming off shady so I had all my meetings with him in my lawyers office. My suspicions prevailed and saved me but I had to evoke a cut throat attitude with the GC otherwise I surely would have been a statistic. I even got threaten by the GC but that didn't stop me from safeguarding my interests. Thank you for your time sharing this story I greatly appreciated it.
Congratulations on a great video... as a manufacturers representative I've seen this happen all to often with horrible scammers and crappy trades people. Wishing you all the best in the future
As a General Contractor, this video gives me a few different reactions... First, it goes BOTH ways. I've been ripped off by clients, I've been ripped off by sub-contractors, I've been ripped off by investors, and I've also been ripped off by larger GC's who hired me as a 2nd or 3rd tier sub... I've also had people accuse me of ripping THEM off, which has NEVER happened. I have one guy that I built a house for in 2018 who still owes me $50K, but sometimes it's just easier to move on and forget about stuff like that. It sucks when these things happen, but it is part of the game. The thing that bothers me about this video is your advice about using well known highly established GC's, cause that's a bunch of BS... In fact, it's usually going to be the younger (less established) companies who are going to do a BETTER job because they are trying to build their reputation. Again, I've been ripped off by HUGE GC's who have been around for 100 years, but I have NEVER been ripped off by someone who was just getting their foot in the door. So yeah, your advice here is CRAP, and it makes me question if YOU would have been able to start your business if people didn't give you a chance? That doesn't mean that people shouldn't do their research, but just because a GC is well established, bigger, and older doesn't mean anything. IF they're in trouble, they will rip someone off just as fast as anyone else...
I'm actually proud there are still interested individuals who are still interested and willing to provide a good service for there common people in the communities they live in.. It utterly hurts to say there's still those who will earn your trust & business and toss it out the window. But, able to somehow feel there still isn't anything they're doing wrongfully against you with a straight face.. Thank you for your video..
The "brick and morter" location is proportional with the work the contractor is doing. I did GC remodeling and used my home as my office. I started doing hone repairs and sales prep/final punch and expanded my services as I established a reputation. Was booked out 2 years with kitchens and baths when I got hit as a pedestrian by a DD. Finished every job with the help of my wife and the crew I had. Took months to do it. Every customer refused to change GCs. It was nice knowing I had a reputation that even the customer wanted to help me when life hit the fan.
Im a contractors son, my grandad was a contractor, Im a retired contractor. We were in the same location 102 years. We worked mostly on reputation. That came from honesty, quality and integrity. My grandad also owned 2 sawmills and 4 lumber yards.You treat one customer bad in a small town, youll HAVE to leave or be lynched.Im retired and my boys are carrying on.
The thing is, honest contractors that do a quality job for a price that delivers value to the customer will never, ever want for all the work they can handle. 1 scam can ruin your business.....honesty can make you rich.
I agree ... a decent contractor should be making $120k per year ... year after year ... even after paying for a surety bond ... which is what Dirt Monkey should have checked for before he got $20k in the hole ... doesn't the State require this? ...
@@russcrawford3310 I don't know what it is about contractors but I have never been worried about a homeowner screwing me. We just did a 100k job without a contract, I took 15k draws every 7 days, max we could lose on this would be the 15% profit
I am a retired lawyer who prosecuted many cases like this. Best protection is title insurance, performance bonds, and the use of escrow accounts to be sure all payments to sub-contractors are actually paid and cleared before the main contractor receives payment from the home owner or lender - better yet, have the home owner or lender pay the sub-contractors directly and have both main contractor and sub-contractors execute lien wavers, and did I mention title insurance and require a performance bond? The performance bond will protect against contractor fraud. This was easily foreseen and could have been prevented. I made a career out of chasing these problems - bankruptcy, debt collection, lien management, and contract enforcement suits - any way you look at it, I made money ... so be careful and hire a qualified attorney before you build - yes, pay more to protect yourself from this sort of mistake. All easily avoided. Just my take. Your mileage may differ. JT
Easiest way around this, and stop a scammer in their tracks, never accept a personal or business check. Only cash or certified bank check. Make that a condition of signing any lien waiver, and never worry about a scammer ripping you off.
I work at a bank and I have to say the cashier's checks can still be forged or faked. I've had multiple cashier's checks from members selling their stuff and we find out it was fake
@@NealD yes and no some time banks will be very stingy with verifying checks if you get the wrong person on the phone you might not get a answer. if you bring it to the bank the check was written off of you could get the answer
Online banking is best.. auto deposit..write proper contracts, sign receipts and keep your paperwork safe. No cash, no cheques. Anyone in business who hates online banking and sticks to cheques ain't right..make notes in the email transfer for 'x' receipt number etc.
Great advice and every project I have had built for me I did not need a construction loan but I did have an attorney engaged to help protect against these types of issues. Key is having a GC that has been around a long time and had roots that run deep….
Thanks, Stan. Everybody needs this advice. But you know as well as I do that these con men get so good at it , you don't realize you were taken until it's too late. And you know these guys are still operating in another nearby state doing the same to other people. I know because we had a roof put on by these guys. And a furnace fixed by another. They came highly recommended by neighbors and the development we live in. Turns out they were both misinformed and were probably in cahoots with them anyway. It's horrifying what they get away with .
Wow. Good, solid advice! Thank you for the information. There are many good, solid contractors out there. Unfortunately, there are also some really slimy, bad ones too (just like most professions, unfortunately!) I hope you and the other contractors can track this POS down! Good luck to you!
Yeah, I’ve had clients be extremely (and suspiciously) pushy about a lien waiver to GET PAID. I simply tell them they can pay cash and I’ll print and sign one on the spot, or they MUST wait until the check clears my bank.
Im in MN too. We get cold. Need that frost protection for sure. I was working on a bathroom floor pour for a customer out at the mistake lake Mdewakanton reservation that had a basketball court in the basement. Place was huge. The bathroom I poured in was 3000 square feet so there's a couple of references for size of a structure required to have a basement that big. I actually live in St Paul and have family over there in WSP. I was surprised at how familiar this post was . Crazy. Thanks for posting, this is awesome. You just got a new fan. 👍
I was a plumbing contractor and I'm retired now. I was always surprised to find out that most customers never checked my references or checked to see if I was really licensed. 🤯
Straight up scam I live in Ks and we have a lot of scams after tornadoes or floods. Roofing companies and remodeling contractors come from out of state and pull all kinds of scams. Shame how just one person can ruin things for so many. I wish more contractors used this platform to show off their work like yourself. Thanks for your information and sharing.
@@Dirtmonkey I was going to say big scams after HURRICANE Even the Mayor of New Orleans was scamming after Katrina. He went to Jail. Big scammers when Emergency happen to community. They look for easy victims. If you ever go to Con. Expo. Check out the prices the Big Hotels/ Casino charge during Convention. Then look at same Big Hotel chain after Con Expo/ Con agg. Is over. They know people will pay double the fee for hotel room. The whole Las Vegas strip is sold out during that biggest Convention in Las Vegas.
The lesson I learned is make sure your contractor has valid license and Workmans comp insurance. If you can prove anything illegal you can put a claim out on the insurance bond and the insurance bond will cover the financial loss. Most of the liabilities have a limit of $15,000. I hired a contractor who ended up wanting much more money for work that he didn't end up doing and when I refused to pay he threatened to walk out leaving the work in a dangerous setting. I went ahead and paid the amount he wanted because I was afraid the glass door would fall causing harm to my family. After I paid him I filled a claim against his insurance bond claiming coercion, fraud, and endangerment. The Insurance company told me to "name my price" and I offered to pay him for the actually work he did. The contractor ended up returning the rest of the money.
I just recently came across your Chanel truly enjoying it!!I used to be a paint contractor,my point is Ive been scammed by home owner customers it happens both ways! Customer's not all of them, can be scammers also!! Thanks god bless!!
I'm glad you explained this type of fraud, theft. In Hawaii there was such a problem with this exact fraud that laws were enacted to require anyone applying for a contractors licence to work under a licenced contractor for a prescribed period of time ( I think it was 2 years) as one of the qualifications. It did greatly reduce the fraud, it seemed as though there people funding their Hawaii vacations using this theft. I don't know if the law is still as rigid, it might have gotten watered down in the years since.
One thing is clear here, I'm not the only one that has been ripped off by a scam artist. However, I also had a customer shaft me for $10K one time, so to be honest I think this goes two ways. I have a close friend who also got ripped off from his customer who just happened to be a lawyer. In short, there are good contractors and bad contractors, but there are also good customers and bad customers. Thankfully, the good ones (in both cases) far outweigh the bad ones. Nuff said.
I agree with you but most of the time the customer can't run. You have at least a chance of suing them since they are in a residence unlike a contractor being on the move. Escrow accounts work great also.
I still have 4' high stack of boxes from lawsuit that customer screwed me out of over $100k... It can happen once, but not again... If it does, it's 100% your fault..
my cousin builds decks for people. he says that he'll never work for a doctor or a lawyer ever again because they always come up with an excuse not to pay and if you demand it or try to sue them for it, they counter sue and win cuz they are rich and smart and evil. I'm not sure if I'd say that doctors are so much less trustworthy than anybody else, but lawyers are definitely a no go for me. I do computer consultation and have had good experiences with doctors, but I've never found out what it's like to do business with a lawyer because after my cousin's story, I decided to never find out.
I was a contractor back in the 80’s and 90’s in California. I had a customer that i had done 2 previous jobs for that wanted a very large remodel/addition done to their home. The other jobs had gone flawlessly. So, I met with them a few times over a couple months, and even brought in the architect to draw it all up for them. Then i gave them a bid of $478,000. I found out a month later they decided to go with someone else. I found out that this other guy underbid me by $5,200. They had given him my bid. 2 months later i get a desperate call from the owner. This “contractor” had skipped town, and the country, with 1/2 the money. The customer said that the contractor got his 10% down and then the 40% when all the materials were delivered. He did some work. All under par and He had paid the materials on his credit account, where he had 30 days to pay it. He left and went to Mexico with $230, 000 of the customers money and defaulted on his credit account. The customer was devastated. I looked at the job and it was going to cost more to fix the things this contractor had done then if he had done nothing. Sadly the homeowner ended up loosing the house to the bank because they needed to recoup the money this guy stole.
My mom was a single mom. She secured a HUD Loan to renovate the 2nd floor of our broken down home. She hired a shyster friend of a friend with a supposedly legitimate construction company. Shortly after work began and against my vehement advice, mom paid the shyster in full. Work slowed, eventually stopped completely. Our 2nd floor was now unlivable and our yard was littered with rusty construction equipment. Mom passed away shortly thereafter, house was sold as is. Do NOT pay in full until job is complete and Certificates Of Occupancy or whatever town documents required are secure.
As a homeowner, I took care of this by paying the suppliers directly. Wait, WHAT??? Then the contract can't make his margin on the product. Yes, he can as long as the homeowner understands this is part of any legitimate business deal. We agreed up front on profit and overhead cost margins. I'm not talking a box of screws. When my house burned down (with 6500 of my neighbors in N.Calif) as soon as I had a GC and plans, we went on a shopping spree. I dropped a check for framing, foundation concrete, roofing, all of it even though I wouldn't need it for 6-12 months. Then the prices shot through the roof as material shortages (competition from the neighbors) drove prices up. But mine were paid for and delivered on time with no liens. Everybody got paid on time and on budget.
As a contractor id never want to work like that. Its not about making money on material, at least for me. I've never marked up materials, just jave a set per foot price that slides up or down based on quantity/footage of work. Mostly because I wouldn't want a homeowner holding me up, buying wrong materials etc. Unless they ordered and you just paid? Guess that's whatever.
@@jonny-b4954 it was totally a case of the contractor and I going down to the wholesaler and contractor placed the order for exactly what he thought he needed for the job rang it up and instead of the contractor paid for it I just wrote a check directly. So the materials bought and paid for no liens on my house we made sure we got the right stuff and the contractor makes a fair markup and we're all happy. I understand that has to be the right amount of trust between both sides to make it work
Sad to hear the customer ended up eating the loss, to me it sounds like the bank should have been the one losing money. But not surprised they would find a way to shirk the responsibility and push it off onto the most vulnerable party - the customer.
No, What the sub-contractor should've done was insist that he be paid, have the man's check clear the bank, and then sign the release. That would've made certain that all things were on the level! The other man, if he were honest, would've understood that this is just part of being in business. The bank was just doing what was necessary to prtect itself, it's depositors and investors.
Exactly contractors should not give a release until a check clears that makes sense. That is the purpose of a release to say I was paid already .Whoever put the clause as long as the check clears in was a scammer setting up the scam
Instead of telling only the story, say the damn guys name that ripped you guys off, if you really want to protect everyone. Guys like that is why it’s so hard for us honest workers to even get work these days.
They could sue if any part of the story is misremembered. Leaving out the name helps to ensure slander doesn't happen. It could also be seen as a personal attack. I'm sure he wouldn't want someone calling out his business by name in a video.
@@mezmerizer0266 That and the dude bounced to another country. Wouldn't do any good because he could be anywhere. He may not even be in construction anymore. He could have changed career paths after leaving. So saying "Don't trust Henry Briggs" or whatever isn't going to do much good.
I'm not in the business nor will I act like I know how things work, but I believe the bank should be on the hook as well, before issuing a check to the General contractor just because he showed up with paperwork, they should have sent the actual money as a certified check to each vendor so he alone couldn't cash a single check!
Shady contractors have been trying to this for years only to find that a system is in place to verify everything. Many banks make the check out jointly unless an unconditional waiver is provided. The bank did not do their due dillegence. The customer has a case against the bank for dispersing their money without proper verification.
I had a guy do the same thing to me in my second year of business. Screwd everyone over. Used my basement forms, equipment and one of my employees to pour the basement. Got paid and left Idaho and hytailed it to Arizona. All of us suppliers worked it out with the home owner and never heard from the guy for about 20 years. Found out he lost his family, all his assets and ended up in his parents basement. Freaking loser.
@@Dirtmonkey It absolutely comes back around. People don't realize that you can only reap what you sow. Do bad things and you will have bad things happen to you. Maybe not today, tomorrow or even 6 months later but I promise you this, it is on its way everything in life comes full circle.
In this generation we are seeing people emboldened to do whatever it takes to get a quick-fix whether money or dopamine. The rarest “skill” today is integrity. People who genuinely care about their fellow man are a rapidly dying breed.
It's been my experience it's never a generational thing. Its a crooks adapt thing. Older folks are used to doing things a certain way and expecting it that way. Crooks watch and learn and used established ways and norms of doing things to stick it to ya. Just never trust anybody, even guys that have done work for you in the past. Aways keep one step ahead and dont go to sleep on anything. That's when they get you..
Yeah. Thanks to YT, we're "seeing" it in "this generation". Prior to YT, every previous generation was flawless, so clearly it's only going to get worse. Maybe we should CANCEL UA-cam so that future generations won't be as abysmal. Dummy
@@Steve-hj6xv The Bible says wicked men will advance from bad to worse. It describes that in “the last days” people will be exactly like what we’re seeing now. So, I guess you’re not only calling me a “dummy” but the Apostle Paul and the God who inspired him to write it.
Great information, really helpful. I had a so called contractor, scam me out of approximation of 17000.00 on a small cabin build on rainy lake, he started project, but never finished it , I was referred by my realtor who sold me the property, it was her boyfriend who had wrote me contractual agreement, but never completed the agreement he wrote the agreement to include a finished product, maybe finished 30 percent of project, I wanted to take him small claims court, but realized he's unemployed and almost homeless..I guess I'm somewhat fortunate, didn't loose more..thx for your informative video.....
Nothing makes me madder than scammers, People work hard for what they have and some have to make sacrifices to have work done, then to have some scum come along and scam them....
What makes it worse is how much time and energy those scammers will put into the scam. I mean if they put that energy into positive productivity, it might take a little longer but you never have to look over your shoulder...
I completely understand why now it is difficult to get licensed in some states. I want to be established and be known for great and quality work. I was scammed before by a supposed partner remodeling in Michigan. Due to that experience I will not do business with family again as I want to give a great product that meets or exceeds expectations.
Very surprised the bank extended the funds w/o ordering a completion point appraisal, I would love if the bank would pay me that quickly I usually wait 3-5 days to get paid from the bank after the appraiser confirms the completion value. Thanks for the video, nice job.
Yes you are correct so that kind of tells me the inspector that works for the bank was probably in on it because what they call escrow account aka construction loans always have an inspector that gives the ok to release the funds.
When I was doing renovations, I would always make a 3 tier payment schedule like this: 1. If the job looks like less than $1,000 in materials then I would cover it up front. 2. If the job was more than $1,000 in materials then you need to take 50% up front. 3. If the job was a permit build such as a complete renovation including other contractors I would make sure payments were made before signing any documents for liability. The benefit was that having personal relationships with reputable contractors you have a fall back in case there is a problem. I hate fly-by night contractors, seen a few and they never make it big. You see a small operation where the boss drives a Lariat trim, the main employees come by work van or truck & trailer, with the gopher in a Toyota Tercel? That’s who I want to employ. Always been a fan of sharing the wealth and it makes me feel good when I can bring a young person up out of despair and into a gainfully employed position. Maybe a little off-topic but I really have a heart for people and would always love to help a person break free from the shackles of poverty as long as they can learn to be better and behave professionally. In my future endeavours I will continue to do the same; teaching mostly young men to be honest, stay clean, and to start making themselves a path to success. Haven’t had the chance to bring up a lady but there’s always time. Definitely had to send a few people home though, such a shame.
" Always been a fan of sharing the wealth and it makes me feel good when I can bring a young person up out of despair and into a gainfully employed position. Maybe a little off-topic but I really have a heart for people and would always love to help a person break free from the shackles of poverty as long as they can learn to be better and behave professionally'. Well said and wholeheartedly agree
@@rickhuntling7338 limits to 10 percent but if you do any work at all you can get more. That said, I always cover costs to begin with since $1000 is so small, it really doesn’t even cover the permit fees and I feel the clients are more comfortable having work begin before paying anything. Might bite me in the butt eventually but usually it’s only a bit of money and mostly labor that I do before getting any money
Around 1970 my parents bought a house in North Indiana, it was at the beginning of a dead-end street, it being an older structure they wanted to renovate it. A Bob Valentine lived at the end of that same dead-end street (so he had to drive past our house to get to his house) My parents gave him $3K to get supplies & start fixing it... He skipped town for 6 months! 🤯🤷♂️😳 When he came back he'd wave & smile, as if, it's all good or hi neighbor! 👋🖕💩 I don't know if they ever took him to court! 🤦♂️💩🤬
Got ripped off for $30,000 by a GC. 33 years ago I wanted to build a super insulated sip(Structural Insulated Panel) home. I found the ideal GC that was very well known in this rural community. I drew my own plans and had the SIP company check the engineering of the home if built to these plans. Being a SIP home everything from wiring to plumbing is different than a conventional stick built home. So my plans we submitted/approved/and in the manufacturing phase. Most builders were confused and inexperienced with a SIP build. The highly regarded GC I found was excited about the chance to build something different. He agreed to do the job and was awaiting word the site was excavated. Dirt work done forms in place. I get a call from this GC's wife explaining I would need to find another GC since her husband was just diagnosed with terminal cancer and she wanted him to spend his last time with her(GC was in the background yelling, "NO I PROMISSED THOSE KIDS I WOULD BUILD THEM A HOUSE!" She then said to me, "NO HE IS NOT, FIND SOMEONE ELSE!" SO there I am. It so happens that the real-estate agent that had sold my house and sold me the panels for my home had built these homes before but currently only wanted to sell the panels and real-estate(by the way he worked for my wife's cousin as a real-estate agent). No other builder in the area was interested in a SIP build. So the agent agreed to build my home. I was using cash to do this build. SO no bank watching things. As the excavation was done I wrote a check to the GC for his and the dirt work. As each of the rough in jobs were completed I wrote checks. Suddenly work stopped on my house. I went into the small local hardware store and there was a plumber I knew did my rough in. I asked why he nor any other contractors were doing any work. The plumbers response was, "The people that house was being built for had run out of money!" I responded, "I am the guy the house is being built for and I have money in the bank and had written him a check for the rough in plumbing!" Plumbers response, "That's not what the GC told him and that the plumber needed to listen to him if he wanted to be in on the dozen or so homes he is going to build!" When I asked the GC he said "The subs are busy on other jobs!" When I pressed the GC on what was really going on he said we could meet at his home and talk about it. SO the wife and I drive to the GC's home and the property had a high fence and Rottweiler's in the fence and he came out and let the wife and I inside. The barking growling dogs practically knocking us over as we walked into the house. We all sat down around a dining table and the GC positioned the dogs one beside me and one beside my wife. Then he begins, "SO what's the issue?" I stated, "work stopped on the house and the plumber in the store said I had run out of money!" Then the GC says, "so you do not trust me?" I then said, "I do not know what to think!" He said some word I did not understand and apparently was a command to the dogs. They both growled and looked like any second they would attack us. We were escorted outside and through the gate. I knew a real- estate lawyer who also knew a private investigator. The lawyer said, "In Missouri the laws are pretty much set up to protect the builders and all they have to do is, "Show good faith and do their best as the know how!" The private investigator found the GC rented or leased everything[house, cars and had no money in his name(all in his girlfriends name)] No replacement contractors(plumbing, etc.) would continue another contractors work. SO I repaid the contractors all the money I had paid to the GC for them a second time. What else could I do? I had a hole in the ground. Foundation poured. Rough in plumbing. Floor poured, SUbfloor built. Panels "ON THE TRUCK" coming from St Louis, Mo to my Kearney, Mo build site. SO became my own GC and when the walls were up and the roof on we moved in. The county insp allowed us to move in as long as there was no exposed wiring. Over the next 10 years I bought interior doors as I got the money. Put down salvaged hardwood floors etc and I got the money and what was on sale. BBB useless. Laws in Mo allowed the builder to "do his best!" TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS!
@@travisthompson1679 They severed their relationship with him and went to working with me directly. I showed them the info from the investigator and so they believed me.
@@eddienash5426 I see. That's ridiculous that you got screwed. That is something that should be an open and shut case in my opinion. Sorry that happened to you.
That's Exactly What I'm Over Here Screaming! THE ONLY WAY THOSE OF US THAT ABIDE BY HONESTY & INTEGRITY is to not only call out these imbeciles, Yell them out , Make them famous ,Blast them with photos ,video of there error'ed craftsmanship. With a well explained reason as to why you stand for what you're saying. With all due respect this is my moto with everything, hell I'll even check folks who are angrily verbally assaulting fast food workers , typically over nonsense stuff but as a society where do those of us with values actually stand up & Say Enough ! 🤔
Unfortunately, the Libel / Slander laws are such that to do so would put him at risk. Yes, he would probably prevail in a court of law, but attorneys going to trial is very expensive.
It seems this GC made 120k? Can't see that lasting very long.. Especially if your "on the run" .. Even if living in another country... The guy will regret it when the money runs out.....
Wow, quite a tale! My compliments on your crystal-clear explanation of it -- you would make an excellent trade-school teacher, down-to-earth, excellent speech, very credible. Also, high-quality video, nicely done! Your next career is as a UA-cam star...
Yep, not a homeowner but a fellow subcontractor. Here in socal a huge contractor, Dream Design Homeworks death starred and took down an estimated 50 to 60 homeowners midway through their builds. Not sure what happened but they full on ghosted, by the time out sales reps stopped by to check in at their office everything was gone, not a single human being to be found. very scary.
I only work for a few contractors I know. I don't work for developers because they want you now and want the cheapest subs. I like working directly for homeowners and a few select contractors.
100% correct.They want you at there immediate beckoning call,and always trying to get the lowest pricing.I've seen Home builders go thru every contractor in the area,all based on cheapest pricing.No loyalty,no quality.Just cheap pricing.I work all residential,smaller jobs and some municipal work,1 man show.Everyone pays on time,have almost 0 issues.
It hurts every one when this happens. As a homeowner I trusted in a roofing company here in Wisconsin which cost me 16,ooo dollars Sounded so great at selling me a badly needed roofing replacement. Everything but the real truth. Learned my lesson the hard way.
Roofing “storm chasers” are notorious for getting 50% deposits from 10-20 houses all on the same street, then disappearing. Local companies are worth the extra expense because it’s cheaper than 1/2 your money in the wind.
@@tjnucnuc basically don’t be an idiot like this guy and never pay in advance for work that hasn’t been done. And if you can pay for materials yourself.
@@tjnucnuc or go with a contractor which is safer but you’re going to be charge extra so they can pay for all they equipment tools and rents lol “overhead”
As a general with a fairly new company, this was extremely helpful to me as well cuz knowing what subcontractors and clients are looking for to limit their risk is key to know. Terrible to hear but obviously things worked out cuz your crushin it nowadays bossman!
Happened to my parents in 2008. Damn near the same story. Big project but nothing crazy. Second story on the house and a three-story garage. The roofer came up to my parents and said one day after they had ripped the roof off the house" yeah my check bounced" My parents had all they could do to get him to wear the tight the roof again . Thankfully he was a reasonable person and at least finished, but come to find out they were the fourth person he had scanned for the most amount of money, just over $100,000.They went to court and won. As did everyone else come to find out. He had 20 year to pay and even the lawyer said "good luck seeing your money". Cause he "filed bankruptcy". How convenient being an LLC. My parents have struggled for everything they have and it's so disheartening to see someone take advantage anyone. I can only hope that some way my parents can get justice. This prick didn't leave the country. This is the quick version of the story but karma is a bitch and I hope he gets his someday.
Yea he even says on the video that you aren't supposed to sign until the check clears. Three different businesses, including his own, did the opposite of what he himself suggested.
You can submit a signed “conditional” lien waiver BEFORE you collect payment. The “unconditional” lien waiver is submitted post payment. Plus they have progress and final lien waivers depending on the phase of the project you’re in. Along with doing due diligence on the contractor, you should get educated on the paperwork. Also, if you have reservations about the contractor, (we have em about our clients too) you could always open up escrow and have escrow make the payments. Waivers would be submitted and escrow sends out payment accordingly. It’s not just for buying houses.
My father would always say "the only way you can ensure anything is done properly is to do it yourself" Thieves everywhere. A good friend of mine lost his house to a fire. Vultures showed up and took his money; $80,000 and disappeared.
If he had put the effort into doing the work as he did scamming he could of done the job, gotten more work, n kept making money without having to worry about being arrested. What a waste😥
I'm not a contractor but my Dad and I built 3 houses together and multiple garages and barns. We did most of the work ourselves and used very few subs. On the second house that we built, I was 27 at the time, was on 10 acres of rich farmland and I hired an excavator and he recomended his father to pour the basement. Both had been in business a long time and had a good local reputation. The first red flag that I missed was when he appologized for messing up and setting my foundation 18" lower than planned. The second red flag was he kept pulling his equipment off the job without finishing the grading. This went on for months and prevented me from planting grass and kept us in constand mud and erosion. I worked midnights at the time and would work on the job site till 4pm daily. He would always drop his equipment off right as I was leaving and be gone the next day. One day I was at the job site and a neighbor approached me and ask if he could buy a truck load of top soil. As you can imagine the shock and anger I felt. The next day I had my Dad leave in the truck and I stayed in the house. I had just started a new job and my Dad reminded me to not do something to end up in jail and loose my job. Thankfully I listioned to my Dad! I caught them red handed and of course he tried to weasel out of it, The guy that ran the dozer for this owner ended up quiting and came by the next day to personally appologize. I saw him a year later and he was driving a semi and making more than before. Another way the owner of this excavating co. screwed me was he ran his heavy equipment over the area where my septic field was planned. The idiot even argued with the county official when he came out to look at the site. I ended up having to go 200 ft behind the original septic site. Had i not had enough land I would have really been screwed. Finally the excavators Dad who poured the basement and garage did a poor job on the garage part. When Dad and I did a diagonal measurements on the garage portion it was an inch out of square. When I confronted him he said "Oh thats not too bad you can just shim it up" What a Jerk. My Dad and I ended up tearing out one of the garage knee walls and repouring it so it was square else the brick would have been hanging an inch off the foundation. I know this comment is very long but my hope is it will help someone to recognize the warning signs sooner than later.
Now that's ballsy.. he must've had it all planned out for a while. I can't imagine being the client, they now feel obligated to pay the subs, but they're losing out big time. I've got a friend that has concrete pump trucks as a business, they're pretty cool. Too bad he wasn't set up when you filmed
Hired a roofing contractor to replace my shingle roofs on my house and horse barn with steel. He had just completed a roof for my friend and it looked good and he was highly recommended. The contractor also lived a couple miles from me. I agreed to a contract that was 25% up front, 25% for materials upon delivery to my house, 25% when the work was 50% complete and the final 25% on completion of the job. Things were fine except a couple of bogus change orders for additional materials he claimed were needed (about $1,000 in plywood) When I paid the second 25% I reminded him I would require lien waivers for all the material before I paid the third 25%. His reply was, “oh, I don’t do lien waivers”. I let him know that state law required him, as a licensed contractor, to provide lien waivers. Now I’m worried. When he got exactly 1/2 of each roof (house, garage, and barn) covered with steel, he came asking for the third 25%. I of course said “sure, as soon as I get the lien waivers for the material. He again said he doesn’t do those as hey buys all the material using “his own credit” I say he’s not getting paid. He threatens to fire his crew as he can’t pay them. I say I’ll contact the state about his license. That afternoon I get a call from his supplier asking why I won’t pay because they won’t issue a lien waiver until I pay the contractor and he pays them. I explain that I had paid several weeks ago on the day the materials were delivered. Offered to send the a copy of the contract as well. The next day I had lien waivers and a crew working as fast as possible to finish the job. Also, it turned out that exactly the amount of plywood was sitting unused in my yard when the roof was finished. It disappeared the next day before he showed up to collect his final 25%. When I asked about the plywood, he says “oh, leftover material belongs to me the contractor.” That change order was deducted from his final payment. Yes, he was definitely a scammer but not very good at it.
what is a lien waver? my roofer showed up gave an estimate and i paid in full. he gave me all his info. he never returned. it took 5 months before i got my money back from the bank. he does this for a living. im not the only one.
When a material supplier supplies material or subcontractor does work, they have a lien on the property until they are paid. Since you are paying the contractor, they need to show they are paying their suppliers. Some contractors don't have a big cash cushion, so they need the payment so they can pay their suppliers. But, you want to know they used your money to pay the supplier, or the supplier can come after you. That's what a release of lien does, is to show that their suppliers have been paid. Never pay a contractor in full up front. They may need your money to buy the materials, but they usually don't pay workers until the end of the day, and a roof usually is finished in one day.
@@johnhaller5851 okay, thank you. i usually oblige the trades person when they say they need to be paid in full but i wont do that anymore. i think that they dont trust that im out of state investor. they dont realize that they are in control cause they can put a lien on the property. i on the other hand dont have any guarantee that they will do the work. hmmmmmm...
You guys are lucky. Are provider's can't do no liens cause the sell materials to the contractor so all sits in your hands. And if customer or GC does not paid that is it your burn ! So we can go around bean a bank or financial institution giving credits ! No money no Hony !
We could all wright a book on scammers. But I really lucked out on one: They paid me and I gave them a lien waiver. Something seemed fish to me, so I went right to their bank and got cash for the check. A few days later the bank called me and asked me to bring "their" money back. I said no, their next response was for me to bring the money back and they would give me a loan for the check amount and I would make loan payments to the bank. They did not like my response to that. The builder had cancelled payment on all the checks about an hour before I got to the bank. I was the only one to get paid! The bank has two bad check lists, the one they is updated daily. the second list has the bad checks as the come in during the day. The teller only checked the first list.
I thought a check made out to a business was not able to be cashed out from their bank. Maybe your check was made out to you directly. When i first opened my business account the bank put 1 week hold on all the checks i received for first 90 days it was rough.
Pretty ballsy guy to scam the bank and lie to people directly in their faces . He'll get caught eventually. 120k isn't enough to live forever on. He'll be scamming wherever he is now until he's dead or in prison. He doesn't have a honest bone in his body. I hate dishonest people. Glad u are making your videos helping people out
@@Dirtmonkey for all you know he could have had other scam money and possibly didn't even leave the country Like Jerry Seinfeld said "yea, mom and pops whole scheme was to move into town, set up shop and build a good reputation for 20 years just to run off with all of my shoes"
Being a sub contractor that relied a lot of GC's it was always thankful we mostly worked for gov't jurisdiction so being paid was always backed up and tracked. One thing to maybe look at as a homeowner (bank) to make sure subs get paid is paying them directly with the GC's endorsement or actually using joint checks. As homeowner that is protection from having a lein filed on your property. Hope they eventually find this GC and rake him to get every last cent owed.
A Contractor who made me change my career - I used to be a roofer in my hometown and did pretty good, worked with good bosses, went to the capital and found a good boss as well who knows a lot and can teach a lot as up to that point I worked on just 2 story private buildings. A few months later in this new project, there was a Contractor who bought everything for us as he was the one who handled the money provided by the owner, in my hometown each boss handled the money so that we would later do the paperwork and orders quicker. The contractor employed several bosses with their crews, Roofing - Electrical - Carpenter - Heating - Windowers (?) etc. After close to a month we had a week to set everything up and ready so that it wouldn't leak as it was said that heavy, week-long, rain will come in and just half of the roof was done at that point (Electrical was in our way for the other side), the Contractor said that what we needed should be delivered the next morning. Well, the morning comes, no one gets the tools/materials that they ordered and the Contractor went on a Holy Pilgrimage that took around 18 days as he was walking there. I barely got paid and had to look for another job, went into IT after. Later I met my boss at my new work and he told me that the unfinished roof leaked also through the open window frames and damaged so much of the 5-story apartment building and that the owner is suing the contractor. Boss also took on another project soon after that.
This scamming goes on in every profession , all the paperwork in the world won’t protect you from scammers . I’ve found a handshake and looking at the other party directly and saying you will pay me even if you go through bankruptcy, works well , because they know there will be consequences and you will be compensated ( maybe not with currency but a payment will be made)
I worked in the construction field for a good many years and wouldn't sign one of those things if you paid me to! That's why my Father would insist on being paid before he signed those things and having the check clear the bank first! That being said, my dad did get one guy that tried to scam him in a slightly different way. My dad was doing a small subdivision in California with a guy and when it came time to pay my dad off the guy tried stalling him off, and stalling him off and stalling him off! My dad was no dummy and figured he was pulling something and talked to a lawyer and the man's bank. The bank manager clued him in on the scam the guy was pulling. Which was to skip town, then come back and file bankruptcy. Thus leaving others holding the bag!, The lawyer told dad to file a form with the man's bank that got the guy's account frozen, which dad did at warp ten speed! The man called him very quickly and asked why he did that and complained that now he couldn't take his family to Hawaii! My dad said something like"Yeah...on MY MONEY!" Then dad told him that his account would only be released if and when he and my dad went to his bank and he gave dad his funds there and then in cash. The bank closed the man's account out due to fraudulent activity and, I think, was forced to shut his doors. So you see there are ways to handle guys like him!
This is one of the reasons why Maine is now starting a certification program for builders. To make sure they know building code and structural engineering knowledge. A friend recently hired "some guy" off of Facebook, who seemed knowledgeable and gave a good quote. I was checking the work as it was going on, and it was clear to me that this contractor was either a scam, or totally inept. I got my son involved who is a licensed engineer, and he conferred with me. The guy was fired, deposit returned, and mu son and I did the work. Two bathroom rehabs. Fun fun fun.
We had a landscaping contractor do that here .He got 5000 dollar deposits for jobs cashed checks never went back, The bad thing is he passed himself off as a veteran owned company.
There was a deck builder who had a showroom in a strip mall, with a few decks put up in the space. I didn't feel good when he said he wouldn't get the permit himself, so didn't use him. Not long afterwards, he was arrested for using the deposit from one job to pay for complete the last job until he ran out of money. I'm not sure if he was truly dishonest, or a bad businessman. That strip mall location and the lumber to make sample decks was a lot of overhead for a deck builder.
Honestly it really is sad to see the state that things are going down to, the levels of stupidity and selfish greed that people are constantly showing, Im not in construction but i am a 3rd generation machinist, have a business and a shop with my dad, its insane that this pops up in my youtube recommended because around the time the video was posted we were sent an industrial tree grinder to fix, once it was fixed we had called the owner and let him know that it was ready but we hadnt recieved payment and he said that he wasnt going to pay and the truck would be at our shop to pick it up the same day, Before i could even say that we wouldn't release it to the driver to be loaded he hung up. Driver arrived and I had to tell the driver he can either sit there and wait or he can turn around and head back home because until we get paid, the grinder doesn't leave our property. We fought with the owner for 2 weeks, he called the police on us numerous times and accused us of theft, Finally he phoned and said that he had paid which we confirmed and released the grinder to the driver for pick up. Fast forward a week, the guy had a driver just show up with an excavator with a broken arm, we asked for information on whos it was, the driver gave us the name and it was the same person so i phoned him up and i told him politely that because of his reluctance to pay us in an attempt to get work done for free that i was refusing to do the work, he told me that we were the only shop close enough to him to which i told him that he should have thought of that before he tried to get free labor out of us so it is not my problem. If he wants something fixed he can go somewhere else because we do not want his business. It boggles the mind at how brazen people are these days, even my dad said that this was something you would never see back in his day and why this behavior suddenly reared its ugly head now is a mystery. In my opinion i chalk it down to the modern age and how people seemingly measure their success by a series of numbers instead of measuring the success of what they have achieved and work they have done.
"...this behavior suddenly reared its ugly head now is a mystery". It's not a mystery at all. The decay of society is because we have fallen away from God. Some people really dont want to hear this explanation, but it's the truth. I hope this finds you well Mr. HellSpawn. I really do.
I lived in Oregon in the 80's. At that time all you had to do to get a general contractors lenience was to pay the bureaucrat $600.00. Boy did they build some houses.
I knew a builder who built a house on a piece of land that his customer already owned, the builder took out a construction loan and when he finished the house the customer just moved in and refused to convert the loan to a mortgage so the builder couldn't foreclose since the customer owned the land. The builder was shady himself so I think he just reaped what he sowed.
Stan, I stopped listening at about the 12 minute mark, so if you covered this in your video I apologize in advance. I work in the construction industry, but on the commercial side. In describing the scenario you and other contractors experienced, you mentioned that you signed what I would call a "conditional" lien release ... a document which waives your lien rights in exchange for payment, but which is also conditioned upon the check clearing the bank upon which it is drawn. So if the check doesn't clear the bank, your right to lien the property is not released or waived. Since the G.C. in this case was receiving funds to pay subs/suppliers from a bank, I assume the homeowner had a mortgage with that bank. So the bank would be the first secured lien holder, and as such, the bank should have insisted upon "unconditional" lien releases from you and any other sub/supplier supposedly being paid with the funds coming from the bank BEFORE ever remitting any payment to the G.C. An unconditional release differs from a conditional release in that is includes an acknowledgement from the party signing it (you and any other sub/supplier) of payment (it says you've received payment for your work ... typically with a statement like " In consideration of payment in the sum of _______, receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, ..."). So you never sign an unconditional release unless and until you've actually been paid, and by that I don't mean you've received a check from the G.C. ... payment has not been "made" unless and until the check clears the bank upon which it is drawn. Until then, use a conditional release form only. In this case, since the bank released funds without first obtaining unconditional releases from the subs/suppliers furnishing labor and/or materials to the project, the bank screwed up. But as you pointed out, your lien rights were not waived by the conditional release form you signed, unless and until the check cleared the bank, and at that point, you and the other subs/suppliers still had a right to pursue a legal remedy (file a lien against the property) to recover payment for your work. I don't know if you did so (sounds like you didn't), but as soon as you learned that the G.C.'s check bounced you should have gone down to the County recorders office and recorded a lien against the property. You don't need to be an attorney to do so and it's not expensive. You just have to make sure the format is correct and that you haven't missed a filing deadline (in Minnesota, the statute of limitations period for recording a lien is 120 days from the date of your last furnishing of labor and/or materials to the project). There are also prerequisite notices (such as a preliminary notice) that must be served by certain parties on the property owner and or the lender if applicable with a certain period of time (generally in Minnesota, this applies to 2nd-tier subs/suppliers, and must be given to the Owner and Lender with 45 days of your first furnishing of labor/materials to the project). Bottom line, if you do your due diligence, you won't be left holding the bag. In this case, had you filed a lien, you would have likely forced the bank to pay twice (not the homeowner) because it was the bank that failed to get unconditional releases from the subs/suppliers on this job. The lesson here is to know your rights and exercise them if you have no other recourse ... and don't give up your rights until you've actually been paid for your work.
You have covered this better than anyone else. You are right. I still had my lien rights and i worked with the homeowners to help them through this fiasco. I do feel the bank screwed up in this situation.
Clearly an succinctly written by a lawyer!
Exactly.
If the check from the GC bounced, go directly to the state attorney general and file a criminal complaint. I had a GC write a bad check once. I contacted the AG office. They asked me if I would settle for a lesser amount or if I would go all the way on the matter. I said "all the way". The gal said "Good, he's done this before and the other guys always settled." I said, "I would rather see him in jail than settle for 99%" She laughed and put out a warrant. He was arrested during a traffic stop a couple months later on a Friday night. He calls me Monday and tries a sob story. I told him "Talk to the AG about it, it is out of my hands." He tried negotiating a payment plan with me, I said "Talk to the AG." 4 months after the check bounced I got my money in full and he lost his contracting license.
Bad checks are felonies in most states. Prosecute him!
@@Dirtmonkey obviously the bank screwed up in your scenario. However, it was you and any other contractors who signed waivers, which you admitted scammed you, that screwed up as well. You and the homeowner are in the same boat. There should never have been any reason to assume the homeowner is responsible for double payment.
As a contractor and built several homes in my town. In the early 90s I had a problem with the IRS. I was injured on a job and could barely move for over 6 months and it took over a year before I could actually try start to work again. Had to sub out my framing trim work siding etc. The IRS accused me of cheating on my taxes because my profit went way down. I went round and round with them through legal letters the way you're supposed to trying to work this out. One day after I received a draw and put it in my business checking account I went around and paid all the contractors I owed and the yellow sign waivers just like we did all the time. We all trusted each other and I never had a problem after over 150 homes built. Most of us ate breakfast at the same place for years. When they went to cash the checks there was no money in the account! The IRS waited for a draw and then cleaned out my bank account which I found out after I went to the bank. The bank didn't even know what happened they had to look it up! All the subs knew what happened and were sympathetic and knew I would take care of it somehow. Except one a new heating and cooling business that just started in town I used because my regular guy was too busy. They file lawsuit and started a whole legal mess! That prevented me from getting any more money from the banks to pay off my subcontractors. I had to make a quick sale on my home that housed my wife and three boys to pay off the subs. Thinking that in a few years I'll build another one and I'll get back on track. Well that never happened. The damage was done and the word was out in the small town. But I completed the house I was building at the time and the people were happy and moved into it all out of my pocket. After writing a scathing letter to the federal judge the house I was renting was surrounded in the middle of the night and they took me away. I did not threaten anybody in the letter I just told him about the IRS and the corruption! I spent one night in jail and paid $125 fine. I am 64 years old now and still a carpenter but that Old situation left me the bad taste in my mouth the rest of my life. So when I hear about contractors doing this on purpose it just makes me sick to my stomach! Sorry for the long talk here but needed to get it off my chest. Thanks for sharing your video.
Geezus fucking Chrust... I'm so sorry that happened to you Brad. :(
IRS is so damn crooked. The fact that they can just say you're lying and that gives them cause to STEAL from you.
Wow that’s insane the IRS can do that.
@@MusicalMemeology and thats why you keep cold hard cash behind a gun in a safe next to your bed with another gun next to your bed....simple
That's the type of stuff that creates Timothy McVeighs and unabombers. If what you're saying is the truth, I'm sorry you went through that
I've got a scam you guys will love. About 20 years ago, my ex was living in Georgia, an hour north of Atlanta. She hired a guy named Henry Talbot Burns, a well known GC, to build a million-plus dollar home. The guy was building a number of homes in a very affluent sub-division. Unfortunately, he was both an alcoholic and a gambling addict who owed the mob a bunch of money. She says the home was about half constructed and she'd paid him over $250K when he just disappeared. He had like 7 other clients who'd paid him at least as much, with one couple into him for upwards of $500K. Apparently he used a lot of the payments to pay off his gambling debts and as a result, a number of things about the actual construction were sub-par. He disappeared because he went into hiding from the mob. He was eventually found and arrested and spent a few years in prison. When he got out, he moved to Lousisana and opened up shop as a GC, building houses again. I'm told that all those clients lost their homes because they couldn't find another contractor willing to take over and finish the job - nobody wanted to risk putting thier name on potentially negligent work. He's court ordered to make restitution payments to my ex of about 10% of the amount she lost to him. I just googled him and apparently he's moved to North Carolina.
To be perffectly honest, I'm really surprised someone didn't kill him.
His name is Henry T Burns. True Story.
yea okay
his future is grim. count on it.
...yet
Hopefully someone takes him out. What a garbage person.
@@weekendpartier just looked him up he’s for real
Thank you for this video warning others of contractor scams. I was a victim of a dishonest contractor several years ago when we added an additional room onto our house in WA state. A general contractor was recommended to us by friends of ours who were unaware that the guy they were recommending was a scammer. Toward the end of your video, I was listening to your tips and you are right on. The one tip in particular that you mentioned about making sure a contractor actually has a physical place of business is so important, and the lesson we learned too late. Our contractor had his business name and contractor license on his pickup truck, but he was a one-man operation with no physical office. I did the usual due diligence in checking his contractor license and name of his business with the state licensing website and found no problems. But, we learned too late after this guy disappeared that he had gone to the length of using another legitimate contractor's license number as well as the letterhead for their business, so despite checking on his business to see if it was a legit company (the one he misrepresented was legit), and checking with the state on the contractor license number to verify no documented issues, we were scammed anyway. This guy started the work, did a fairly good job doing the demo work and started the framing for the new addition above our garage, then he took money from us for materials and disappeared, never to be seen again. We took him to court and obtained a default judgement against him, but never found him and have never collected on our court judgement. And you know what is even more difficult than finding a contractor to do a remodel in the first place? Finding a good contractor that is willing to come in an fix a poor remodel left halfway done by a scam contractor. We thought we had done what was necessary to check out a contractor before signing the paperwork, but we were scammed anyway and ended up learning a hard lesson and now I am much more aware of the warning signs to look for before agreeing to hire an unknown contractor.
Maybe the guy is dead. I'm a civil engineer in brazil and once i built this house to a banker. He ask me to sign a bibble of a contract and said "we gonna be cautious with contracts because people die all the time". Forgive my english
That sucks. I actually specialize in coming in and fixing other people's mistakes. I have crews, but a lot of things I do myself just out of "my name is attached to this" pickiness. I come out looking great in the end every time because I explain the process, explain what needs to be redone completely and what can be salvaged, and have complete transparency in the entire process. I don't do an upcharge on material, Clients get the price I paid for material, because I am skilled enough to be able to pretty much name my price.
Though there have been a couple times where I've felt so bad for the people scammed that I find out what the scammer's bid was and how much they paid him and just finish/redo everything for the remainder of the scammer's bid.
I work mostly on Referrals, the majority of my clients do my advertising for me and send me more clients. It works out pretty well for me.
Poor Carl. He's a fan and the first thing he hears is "I'm doing a video on the biggest scam". I can just imagine what was going through his mind lmao.
No kidding DM asked if he had a problem with him going to his Job site and looking at it and he said "YES" DM said thanks and kept walking..LOL
The look on his face, how he started backing up. Like, "what did I just agree to on camera" lol Carl you are a good guy, you did your company a solid.
Yeah, I felt bad for the guy, you could see it in his face.
"what?, me?, what did I do?" yeap my first thought
I bought a pole style barn from a national name company. They used local dealers/contractors to do the actual building. So even though I called the building company directly they had me dealing through a semi local outfit. The only thing that saved me was I paid the national company for the building materials. Then the local contractor was paid in draws as he completed work. The trouble started as the building was under roof but not finished. I had to have the building complete before bad winter weather. So timing was important. The work crews started to not show up for weeks at a time and the building just set there. Contractor stopped answering calls. The national company was no help as they had been paid and could care less if it was built or not. I tracked down the crew doing the actual work and they told me they had not been paid for any of the work they had done on the barn. I worked out a deal with them to pay part of their back pay and all of the future work on a daily basis. They would work 8-10 hours and I would cut them a check. I got the barn done on time but lost around $7500 to the contractor. I will never deal with a multi layer setup like that again.
You should be able to sue over this. It sounds like pretty standard fraud.
He wasn't a general contractor . He was a con artist that belongs in prison!
General CON-tractor
@@gabrielbona3012 hahahah
Now in Tijuana.
CON-tracter did a donaldtrump.
I think I got a knot in my stomach just listening to you and only because I know what it means to save and save some more for years and have nothing in the end. Thank you so much for the awareness. May the Lord give you favor and multiply your wealth where you cant contain it because people like you give others work and thats what AMERICA needs. Good honest workers!!
$120 grand was enough to make him leave the states? The guy must've already been in a pretty deep ditch... thanks for sharing this!
Depends on what country you are going to. I bought a sea side property on the Black Sea in Bulgaria for 5k cash. I rented it out for years. Ended up selling it since I wasn't in Europe anymore.
Yeah, with somebody shovelin' dirt in on him!
Can't see how the bank dished out that kind of money like that without the house being framed and dried in
I had a much similar situation in Colorado in 2018. My GC was a total scammer as it turned out. We weren't living in CO at the time we initiated our retirement home build with this guy. I checked with the bank that he used, the city inspector and other GC's that we also quoted. This simple background check revealed nothing out of the ordinary. This GC had build many homes in our valley including his own and had lived in our town for 17 yrs. However, his scam was not paying the contractors by claiming that they had non insured illegal immigrants on the job site. He would wait until they were almost finished with their jobs and then threaten the company owners that he was going to sue them and go to Homeland Security and get the illegals deported. As it turned out, the local banker was in his pocket as was the building inspector. He took my $$ but never paid the contractors. I hired a local attorney and found out he had been pulling this scam for the last 15 years. He would change the name of his company as he was sued and start over again. We ended settling out of court for about half of what we believed he owed us. Cost us about $50K in non recoverable charges. So here are my top five red flags fo hiring a GC:
1) Look at his business over the last 10-20 yrs. How many name changes? Why? Were they incorporated in different cities and counties? Why?
2)Get a complete list of the banks he has used over the past 5 years and do due diligence with them.
3)Contact various contractors and see if any inconsistencies arise over the GC.
4)Network in the city and ask the locals about this GC. Go to several restaurants and bars and ask. It's amazing how word travels.
5)Get a recent list of past customers and contact them if possible to get their take on the deliverables.
Was anyone using illegal aliens? If so, they're just as bad of scammers as the GC.
Thanks for sharing this story with us Stan and I am sorry that you and the other people got scammed . I can't stand liars, scammers and cheaters and thieves and dope heads .
When you're asked to sign a lien waiver before the check clears, that's called a HUGE RED FLAG!
Agree 100% I hate dope heads on job sites,
Knew a hvac company that had a guy who couldn't pass a drug test.
Over and Over...
I'm not sure I believe it. Dude said he got scammed for 20k plus two others. So lets say he owed them all 20 so this guy is claiming dude skipped the COUNTRY for 60k?
As a commercial construction inspector who had to advise major US banks on funding millions each month for draw requests my company's policy was never advise funding unless and until, the "work was completed and in place" per the AIA. Then and only then, and pending receipt of waivers would funding be advised. The only exception was for applications for stored materials, which we would "paper up to the nines" to include certificates of insurance covering the materials stored at a verifiable and insured warehouse, authorized right of entry to take possession in case of default prior to on-site delivery, inland/ Marine Ins. for shipment, etc. etc. nobody got a dime unless the paperwork was " a Lock".
I purchased a house that had cracks in the master bathroom's shower tile. Funds were set aside from the purchase to cover the repairs. I had three local contractors bid the job. I did my homework (or so I thought) with all three with the State Contractor's Licensing Board. I selected the middle contractor. My alert flags went up when they had to borrow our vacuum cleaner on the first day of demo. As things proceeded, I was told by one of the carpenters that the Contractor had gotten into a physical altercation with an elderly customer a few weeks ago.
During the build, the contractor came to me and told me that the reason I was experiencing cracks was that my bathroom was rotating, and it needed to be stabilized. He proposed sinking a hole below the bathroom and installing a 12"x12" beam with arms reaching out to "grab" the bathroom to prevent it from rotating. Then I found that the new ceiling fan's vent was just thrown into the attic without venting to the outside.
I'm making the story short here, but he eventually showed up at my doorstep demanding money. He attempted to enter my house uninvited and when I threw him out physically, he tried to reenter holding a framing hammer head high. As they say, "Don't come to a gun fight with a hammer". He was arrested. He eventually sued me three times. First for the mechanic's lien of $1400, second for Breach of Contract for $25,000 as I would not allow him in to finish the job, and third for $800,000 as he claimed I colluded with other customers to prevent him from working in the county. He lost on all three accounts. But it was a very traumatic experience for my wife and myself.
After doing some research on this contractor, it was apparent that what he did with me was typical for his M.O. This is why I suggest to people that are considering a contractor to check the local Superior Court records to see if they have either been sued or have, they sued. This guy has over 60 suits to his name
Here in central Kentucky I am a general contractor and there is no license requirements. Literally anyone can call themselves a contractor.
When looking for a contractor or specific trade I always recommend going to the supplier for the job and asking them for recommendations. They will only recommend contractors who pay their bills and have done business there for a long time.
That’s a good call right there 👍👍
A license is just a permission slip that you pay for to do some you already have a right to do. A license doesn't stop someone from being a crook.
Here in CT, you just need to show initial proof of business insurance, pay the fee & you get a "registration". $220 per year for remodeling & $450 for new home construction. Contractor's Registrations can be verified online, but I suspect most people don't bother. The fine for contracting without a registration is $500 for 1st violation, then $750, etc... slap on the wrist. There is a little known advantage to at least hiring a registered contractor, however. It's the Construction Industry Recovery fund that victims can get $ from if scammed by a reg. contractor.
No skilled license requirement in WA state either. I have been scammed a few times but only one got away with it. One of the scammers i jumped in his car and said i am with you until you pay me,, he went straight to bank. Anther i said my father in law says that if anyone screws anyone in his family he will come over with a bat and hit him over the head,, got paid that time also in cash same day. Have also helped two contractors get paid.
I haul heavy equipment rentals in ND and i can tell you who's paying for the equipment and who im repoing our stuff back from by heart. About 2 weeks ago i had to locate and remove 2 telehandlers a skidsteer and rough terrain scissor lift from a farm with an unfinished barn. He was desperate to find out what's going on. I told them that im removing it for a reason and to talk to the contractor. I felt bad but it's business and there's nothing I could do.
Great job Stan I'm very thankful for your video; I almost got scam in NY by a GC I got lucky and in my lawyers office I fired the GC just as he had convinced even my lawyer for me to release 80% of the banks money when he clearly had not fulfilled his agreed first phase of the project. It was my first time having to manage a large budget for a 2 house renovation and the GC was coming off shady so I had all my meetings with him in my lawyers office. My suspicions prevailed and saved me but I had to evoke a cut throat attitude with the GC otherwise I surely would have been a statistic. I even got threaten by the GC but that didn't stop me from safeguarding my interests. Thank you for your time sharing this story I greatly appreciated it.
Congratulations on a great video... as a manufacturers representative I've seen this happen all to often with horrible scammers and crappy trades people. Wishing you all the best in the future
As a General Contractor, this video gives me a few different reactions... First, it goes BOTH ways. I've been ripped off by clients, I've been ripped off by sub-contractors, I've been ripped off by investors, and I've also been ripped off by larger GC's who hired me as a 2nd or 3rd tier sub... I've also had people accuse me of ripping THEM off, which has NEVER happened. I have one guy that I built a house for in 2018 who still owes me $50K, but sometimes it's just easier to move on and forget about stuff like that. It sucks when these things happen, but it is part of the game. The thing that bothers me about this video is your advice about using well known highly established GC's, cause that's a bunch of BS... In fact, it's usually going to be the younger (less established) companies who are going to do a BETTER job because they are trying to build their reputation. Again, I've been ripped off by HUGE GC's who have been around for 100 years, but I have NEVER been ripped off by someone who was just getting their foot in the door. So yeah, your advice here is CRAP, and it makes me question if YOU would have been able to start your business if people didn't give you a chance? That doesn't mean that people shouldn't do their research, but just because a GC is well established, bigger, and older doesn't mean anything. IF they're in trouble, they will rip someone off just as fast as anyone else...
..... i think you rip off some people "this part of the game " lol
I'm actually proud there are still interested individuals who are still interested and willing to provide a good service for there common people in the communities they live in.. It utterly hurts to say there's still those who will earn your trust & business and toss it out the window. But, able to somehow feel there still isn't anything they're doing wrongfully against you with a straight face.. Thank you for your video..
The "brick and morter" location is proportional with the work the contractor is doing.
I did GC remodeling and used my home as my office. I started doing hone repairs and sales prep/final punch and expanded my services as I established a reputation.
Was booked out 2 years with kitchens and baths when I got hit as a pedestrian by a DD.
Finished every job with the help of my wife and the crew I had. Took months to do it. Every customer refused to change GCs. It was nice knowing I had a reputation that even the customer wanted to help me when life hit the fan.
I like the MGA, Keith. From a fellow owner :-)
@@johnrussell5245 Thanks. I
Straight talk, honesty, and being up-front about things tends to garner respect. Here's hopin' that DD got sober.
" I had a reputation that even the customer wanted to help me when life hit the fan." that says a lot right there.
Brick and "mortar."
Im a contractors son, my grandad was a contractor, Im a retired contractor. We were in the same location 102 years. We worked mostly on reputation. That came from honesty, quality and integrity.
My grandad also owned 2 sawmills and 4 lumber yards.You treat one customer bad in a small town, youll HAVE to leave or be lynched.Im retired and my boys are carrying on.
The thing is, honest contractors that do a quality job for a price that delivers value to the customer will never, ever want for all the work they can handle. 1 scam can ruin your business.....honesty can make you rich.
120k really isn't that great to have to leave a country forever. I would want 2m if I was going that route.
I agree ... a decent contractor should be making $120k per year ... year after year ... even after paying for a surety bond ... which is what Dirt Monkey should have checked for before he got $20k in the hole ... doesn't the State require this? ...
@@russcrawford3310 I don't know what it is about contractors but I have never been worried about a homeowner screwing me. We just did a 100k job without a contract, I took 15k draws every 7 days, max we could lose on this would be the 15% profit
@@josieclarke460 I agree.
Can't see that 120 lasting very long..
The guy will regret it when that money runs out...
@@josieclarke460 He may have made multiple hits.
We’ll done Stanley!
You’ve outlined it nicely…and Sorry to hear about your bad news!
It’ll certainly help others by sharing your experiences 👏
Hope so 🙏 That's the goal!
I am a retired lawyer who prosecuted many cases like this. Best protection is title insurance, performance bonds, and the use of escrow accounts to be sure all payments to sub-contractors are actually paid and cleared before the main contractor receives payment from the home owner or lender - better yet, have the home owner or lender pay the sub-contractors directly and have both main contractor and sub-contractors execute lien wavers, and did I mention title insurance and require a performance bond? The performance bond will protect against contractor fraud. This was easily foreseen and could have been prevented. I made a career out of chasing these problems - bankruptcy, debt collection, lien management, and contract enforcement suits - any way you look at it, I made money ... so be careful and hire a qualified attorney before you build - yes, pay more to protect yourself from this sort of mistake. All easily avoided. Just my take. Your mileage may differ. JT
This is a 2 min story. Get it together dude
Seriously....
Then don’t watch the video or the channel. Problem solved, cya later.
Don't watch then this was good story
Your so miserable haha
Easiest way around this, and stop a scammer in their tracks, never accept a personal or business check. Only cash or certified bank check. Make that a condition of signing any lien waiver, and never worry about a scammer ripping you off.
That’s good advice
I work at a bank and I have to say the cashier's checks can still be forged or faked. I've had multiple cashier's checks from members selling their stuff and we find out it was fake
@@siffumetsu271 you can call the issuing bank and verify the check on the spot though, if you wanted?
@@NealD yes and no some time banks will be very stingy with verifying checks if you get the wrong person on the phone you might not get a answer. if you bring it to the bank the check was written off of you could get the answer
Online banking is best.. auto deposit..write proper contracts, sign receipts and keep your paperwork safe. No cash, no cheques. Anyone in business who hates online banking and sticks to cheques ain't right..make notes in the email transfer for 'x' receipt number etc.
Great advice and every project I have had built for me I did not need a construction loan but I did have an attorney engaged to help protect against these types of issues. Key is having a GC that has been around a long time and had roots that run deep….
Good call 👌
Thanks, Stan. Everybody needs this advice. But you know as well as I do that these con men get so good at it , you don't realize you were taken until it's too late. And you know these guys are still operating in another nearby state doing the same to other people.
I know because we had a roof put on by these guys. And a furnace fixed by another. They came highly recommended by neighbors and the development we live in. Turns out they were both misinformed and were probably in cahoots with them anyway.
It's horrifying what they get away with .
TLDR: The guy bounced checks and skipped town. You're welcome.
Wow. Good, solid advice! Thank you for the information. There are many good, solid contractors out there. Unfortunately, there are also some really slimy, bad ones too (just like most professions, unfortunately!) I hope you and the other contractors can track this POS down! Good luck to you!
Don't sign a lien waiver until after the check has cleared
If only they knew it at that time
Bingo!!
Yeah, I’ve had clients be extremely (and suspiciously) pushy about a lien waiver to GET PAID. I simply tell them they can pay cash and I’ll print and sign one on the spot, or they MUST wait until the check clears my bank.
Conditional waver
FACT ! 🤨
Im in MN too. We get cold. Need that frost protection for sure. I was working on a bathroom floor pour for a customer out at the mistake lake Mdewakanton reservation that had a basketball court in the basement. Place was huge. The bathroom I poured in was 3000 square feet so there's a couple of references for size of a structure required to have a basement that big. I actually live in St Paul and have family over there in WSP. I was surprised at how familiar this post was . Crazy. Thanks for posting, this is awesome. You just got a new fan. 👍
I was a plumbing contractor and I'm retired now. I was always surprised to find out that most customers never checked my references or checked to see if I was really licensed. 🤯
" I was always surprised to find out that most customers never checked my references". agreed- Most never had checked mine either.
Straight up scam I live in Ks and we have a lot of scams after tornadoes or floods. Roofing companies and remodeling contractors come from out of state and pull all kinds of scams. Shame how just one person can ruin things for so many. I wish more contractors used this platform to show off their work like yourself. Thanks for your information and sharing.
That is so sad! Especially after a crisis when the community needs each other and should really just be helping one another out
@@Dirtmonkey
I was going to say big scams after HURRICANE
Even the Mayor of New Orleans was scamming after Katrina. He went to Jail. Big scammers when Emergency happen to community. They look for easy victims. If you ever go to
Con. Expo. Check out the prices the Big Hotels/ Casino charge during Convention. Then look at same Big Hotel chain after Con Expo/ Con agg.
Is over. They know people will pay double the fee for hotel room. The whole Las Vegas strip is sold out during that biggest Convention in
Las Vegas.
They are in state too. I am more and more leary of hiring a contractor. The quality of work seldom seems to match what I can do as a amateur.
@@fredbecker607 Man I hate hack's with no self respect, and no pride in their work! Unfortunately there are too many around here in Utah.
The lesson I learned is make sure your contractor has valid license and Workmans comp insurance. If you can prove anything illegal you can put a claim out on the insurance bond and the insurance bond will cover the financial loss. Most of the liabilities have a limit of $15,000. I hired a contractor who ended up wanting much more money for work that he didn't end up doing and when I refused to pay he threatened to walk out leaving the work in a dangerous setting. I went ahead and paid the amount he wanted because I was afraid the glass door would fall causing harm to my family. After I paid him I filled a claim against his insurance bond claiming coercion, fraud, and endangerment. The Insurance company told me to "name my price" and I offered to pay him for the actually work he did. The contractor ended up returning the rest of the money.
I just recently came across your Chanel truly enjoying it!!I used to be a paint contractor,my point is Ive been scammed by home owner customers it happens both ways! Customer's not all of them, can be scammers also!! Thanks god bless!!
Love the video! Also love how you show up to a random site and the guys let you in, with no safety gear nonetheless lol. Legend!
😂👍👍
Thanks for yelling everyone how to run that scam!
I'm glad you explained this type of fraud, theft. In Hawaii there was such a problem with this exact fraud that laws were enacted to require anyone applying for a contractors licence to work under a licenced contractor for a prescribed period of time ( I think it was 2 years) as one of the qualifications. It did greatly reduce the fraud, it seemed as though there people funding their Hawaii vacations using this theft. I don't know if the law is still as rigid, it might have gotten watered down in the years since.
Still like that in most places but that doesn’t do anything to stop the scammers
not only did you help customers but you helped other contractors on this one stan your great guy.
Happy to help & hope this doesn't happen again!!!
One thing is clear here, I'm not the only one that has been ripped off by a scam artist. However, I also had a customer shaft me for $10K one time, so to be honest I think this goes two ways. I have a close friend who also got ripped off from his customer who just happened to be a lawyer. In short, there are good contractors and bad contractors, but there are also good customers and bad customers. Thankfully, the good ones (in both cases) far outweigh the bad ones. Nuff said.
I would have tracked them down, for 10 k I'm gonna find him.
I agree with you but most of the time the customer can't run. You have at least a chance of suing them since they are in a residence unlike a contractor being on the move. Escrow accounts work great also.
I still have 4' high stack of boxes from lawsuit that customer screwed me out of over $100k... It can happen once, but not again... If it does, it's 100% your fault..
@@jamesrussell6870 True James. I'm sorry that happened to you. Lifes lessons: You get the test first and then the lesson. Harsh but true.
my cousin builds decks for people. he says that he'll never work for a doctor or a lawyer ever again because they always come up with an excuse not to pay and if you demand it or try to sue them for it, they counter sue and win cuz they are rich and smart and evil. I'm not sure if I'd say that doctors are so much less trustworthy than anybody else, but lawyers are definitely a no go for me. I do computer consultation and have had good experiences with doctors, but I've never found out what it's like to do business with a lawyer because after my cousin's story, I decided to never find out.
I was a contractor back in the 80’s and 90’s in California. I had a customer that i had done 2 previous jobs for that wanted a very large remodel/addition done to their home. The other jobs had gone flawlessly. So, I met with them a few times over a couple months, and even brought in the architect to draw it all up for them. Then i gave them a bid of $478,000. I found out a month later they decided to go with someone else. I found out that this other guy underbid me by $5,200. They had given him my bid. 2 months later i get a desperate call from the owner. This “contractor” had skipped town, and the country, with 1/2 the money. The customer said that the contractor got his 10% down and then the 40% when all the materials were delivered. He did some work. All under par and He had paid the materials on his credit account, where he had 30 days to pay it. He left and went to Mexico with $230, 000 of the customers money and defaulted on his credit account. The customer was devastated. I looked at the job and it was going to cost more to fix the things this contractor had done then if he had done nothing. Sadly the homeowner ended up loosing the house to the bank because they needed to recoup the money this guy stole.
He played himself. He should've paid the proper amount the first time.
🤣🤣🤣
That's a big OOPS!
They screwed themselves and disrespected you as a builder......it is what it is
My mom was a single mom. She secured a HUD Loan to renovate the 2nd floor of our broken down home. She hired a shyster friend of a friend with a supposedly legitimate construction company. Shortly after work began and against my vehement advice, mom paid the shyster in full. Work slowed, eventually stopped completely. Our 2nd floor was now unlivable and our yard was littered with rusty construction equipment. Mom passed away shortly thereafter, house was sold as is. Do NOT pay in full until job is complete and Certificates Of Occupancy or whatever town documents required are secure.
As a homeowner, I took care of this by paying the suppliers directly. Wait, WHAT??? Then the contract can't make his margin on the product. Yes, he can as long as the homeowner understands this is part of any legitimate business deal. We agreed up front on profit and overhead cost margins. I'm not talking a box of screws. When my house burned down (with 6500 of my neighbors in N.Calif) as soon as I had a GC and plans, we went on a shopping spree. I dropped a check for framing, foundation concrete, roofing, all of it even though I wouldn't need it for 6-12 months. Then the prices shot through the roof as material shortages (competition from the neighbors) drove prices up. But mine were paid for and delivered on time with no liens. Everybody got paid on time and on budget.
As a contractor id never want to work like that. Its not about making money on material, at least for me. I've never marked up materials, just jave a set per foot price that slides up or down based on quantity/footage of work. Mostly because I wouldn't want a homeowner holding me up, buying wrong materials etc. Unless they ordered and you just paid? Guess that's whatever.
@@jonny-b4954 it was totally a case of the contractor and I going down to the wholesaler and contractor placed the order for exactly what he thought he needed for the job rang it up and instead of the contractor paid for it I just wrote a check directly. So the materials bought and paid for no liens on my house we made sure we got the right stuff and the contractor makes a fair markup and we're all happy. I understand that has to be the right amount of trust between both sides to make it work
Sad to hear the customer ended up eating the loss, to me it sounds like the bank should have been the one losing money. But not surprised they would find a way to shirk the responsibility and push it off onto the most vulnerable party - the customer.
No, What the sub-contractor should've done was insist that he be paid, have the man's check clear the bank, and then sign the release. That would've made certain that all things were on the level! The other man, if he were honest, would've understood that this is just part of being in business. The bank was just doing what was necessary to prtect itself, it's depositors and investors.
Exactly contractors should not give a release until a check clears that makes sense. That is the purpose of a release to say I was paid already .Whoever put the clause as long as the check clears in was a scammer setting up the scam
Instead of telling only the story, say the damn guys name that ripped you guys off, if you really want to protect everyone. Guys like that is why it’s so hard for us honest workers to even get work these days.
Even in the horticulture sector we are plagued by scammers or idiots that don't know what they are doing...
They could sue if any part of the story is misremembered. Leaving out the name helps to ensure slander doesn't happen. It could also be seen as a personal attack. I'm sure he wouldn't want someone calling out his business by name in a video.
Ya no kidding eh
@@mezmerizer0266 That and the dude bounced to another country. Wouldn't do any good because he could be anywhere. He may not even be in construction anymore. He could have changed career paths after leaving. So saying "Don't trust Henry Briggs" or whatever isn't going to do much good.
No chit, the whuss won't name a name.
I was ok with everything until you said he ripped off the concrete contractor. 😂
Ryan don't get scammed.
@@skliros9235 I have been really lucky so far.
He made ea$y money just like you do. 🤣
pretty good chance the contractors name was Daryll
They probably have seen your kick boxing videos! LOL 😆
Glad to see someone still using there mirrors to back up even with a back up camera
I'm not in the business nor will I act like I know how things work, but I believe the bank should be on the hook as well, before issuing a check to the General contractor just because he showed up with paperwork, they should have sent the actual money as a certified check to each vendor so he alone couldn't cash a single check!
Shady contractors have been trying to this for years only to find that a system is in place to verify everything. Many banks make the check out jointly unless an unconditional waiver is provided. The bank did not do their due dillegence. The customer has a case against the bank for dispersing their money without proper verification.
@@bus-fun-addict good i sure hope they did
I had a guy do the same thing to me in my second year of business. Screwd everyone over. Used my basement forms, equipment and one of my employees to pour the basement. Got paid and left Idaho and hytailed it to Arizona. All of us suppliers worked it out with the home owner and never heard from the guy for about 20 years. Found out he lost his family, all his assets and ended up in his parents basement. Freaking loser.
Sounds about right..that's probably how most scammers end up. It's gotta come back around that's for sure
@@Dirtmonkey 👍 at least you hope
Soomthats why there has been a explosion of homeless in the country they are all former scammer contractors who finally had fate catch up with them.
@@Dirtmonkey It absolutely comes back around. People don't realize that you can only reap what you sow. Do bad things and you will have bad things happen to you. Maybe not today, tomorrow or even 6 months later but I promise you this, it is on its way everything in life comes full circle.
@@shatteredreality1987 let's see the karma for 2019 /2020
In this generation we are seeing people emboldened to do whatever it takes to get a quick-fix whether money or dopamine. The rarest “skill” today is integrity. People who genuinely care about their fellow man are a rapidly dying breed.
It's been my experience it's never a generational thing. Its a crooks adapt thing. Older folks are used to doing things a certain way and expecting it that way. Crooks watch and learn and used established ways and norms of doing things to stick it to ya. Just never trust anybody, even guys that have done work for you in the past. Aways keep one step ahead and dont go to sleep on anything. That's when they get you..
@@Esuper1 You are correct, this same thing happened to my dad in the 1960's.
Yeah. Thanks to YT, we're "seeing" it in "this generation". Prior to YT, every previous generation was flawless, so clearly it's only going to get worse. Maybe we should CANCEL UA-cam so that future generations won't be as abysmal. Dummy
@@Steve-hj6xv The Bible says wicked men will advance from bad to worse. It describes that in “the last days” people will be exactly like what we’re seeing now. So, I guess you’re not only calling me a “dummy” but the Apostle Paul and the God who inspired him to write it.
@@alexnelson6196 amen, to that. What else can you recite?
Great information, really helpful. I had a so called contractor, scam me out of approximation of 17000.00 on a small cabin build on rainy lake, he started project, but never finished it , I was referred by my realtor who sold me the property, it was her boyfriend who had wrote me contractual agreement, but never completed the agreement he wrote the agreement to include a finished product, maybe finished 30 percent of project, I wanted to take him small claims court, but realized he's unemployed and almost homeless..I guess I'm somewhat fortunate, didn't loose more..thx for your informative video.....
Scammers are the lowest of low you can’t get much lower. I don’t know how this guy lives with himself.
Nothing makes me madder than scammers, People work hard for what they have and some have to make sacrifices to have work done, then to have some scum come along and scam them....
Sooo fricken irritating 🙃
Exactly!
What makes it worse is how much time and energy those scammers will put into the scam. I mean if they put that energy into positive productivity, it might take a little longer but you never have to look over your shoulder...
Well if there are no consequences they will keep scamming..
Hence why nft and crypto rugpull scams are so common.
Hope they catch that rabid dog.
"Hey it's DirtMonkey on UA-cam!"
"Yeah, I'm filming a video on the biggest contractor scam!"
....Carl's face....lol
Is this "Mr. Rogers the Contractor" ...taking off his sneakers and putting on his workboots before the show starts?🤣😂
I completely understand why now it is difficult to get licensed in some states. I want to be established and be known for great and quality work. I was scammed before by a supposed partner remodeling in Michigan. Due to that experience I will not do business with family again as I want to give a great product that meets or exceeds expectations.
Very surprised the bank extended the funds w/o ordering a completion point appraisal, I would love if the bank would pay me that quickly I usually wait 3-5 days to get paid from the bank after the appraiser confirms the completion value. Thanks for the video, nice job.
Yes you are correct so that kind of tells me the inspector that works for the bank was probably in on it because what they call escrow account aka construction loans always have an inspector that gives the ok to release the funds.
When I was doing renovations, I would always make a 3 tier payment schedule like this:
1. If the job looks like less than $1,000 in materials then I would cover it up front.
2. If the job was more than $1,000 in materials then you need to take 50% up front.
3. If the job was a permit build such as a complete renovation including other contractors I would make sure payments were made before signing any documents for liability. The benefit was that having personal relationships with reputable contractors you have a fall back in case there is a problem.
I hate fly-by night contractors, seen a few and they never make it big. You see a small operation where the boss drives a Lariat trim, the main employees come by work van or truck & trailer, with the gopher in a Toyota Tercel? That’s who I want to employ. Always been a fan of sharing the wealth and it makes me feel good when I can bring a young person up out of despair and into a gainfully employed position. Maybe a little off-topic but I really have a heart for people and would always love to help a person break free from the shackles of poverty as long as they can learn to be better and behave professionally.
In my future endeavours I will continue to do the same; teaching mostly young men to be honest, stay clean, and to start making themselves a path to success. Haven’t had the chance to bring up a lady but there’s always time.
Definitely had to send a few people home though, such a shame.
" Always been a fan of sharing the wealth and it makes me feel good when I can bring a young person up out of despair and into a gainfully employed position. Maybe a little off-topic but I really have a heart for people and would always love to help a person break free from the shackles of poverty as long as they can learn to be better and behave professionally'. Well said and wholeheartedly agree
California limits a GC to 10% up front. You better check your laws and do it right.
@@rickhuntling7338 limits to 10 percent but if you do any work at all you can get more. That said, I always cover costs to begin with since $1000 is so small, it really doesn’t even cover the permit fees and I feel the clients are more comfortable having work begin before paying anything. Might bite me in the butt eventually but usually it’s only a bit of money and mostly labor that I do before getting any money
God bless these hard working dudes.
Around 1970 my parents bought a house in North Indiana, it was at the beginning of a dead-end street, it being an older structure they wanted to renovate it.
A Bob Valentine lived at the end of that same dead-end street (so he had to drive past our house to get to his house)
My parents gave him $3K to get supplies & start fixing it... He skipped town for 6 months! 🤯🤷♂️😳
When he came back he'd wave & smile, as if, it's all good or hi neighbor! 👋🖕💩
I don't know if they ever took him to court! 🤦♂️💩🤬
Got ripped off for $30,000 by a GC. 33 years ago I wanted to build a super insulated sip(Structural Insulated Panel) home. I found the ideal GC that was very well known in this rural community. I drew my own plans and had the SIP company check the engineering of the home if built to these plans. Being a SIP home everything from wiring to plumbing is different than a conventional stick built home. So my plans we submitted/approved/and in the manufacturing phase. Most builders were confused and inexperienced with a SIP build. The highly regarded GC I found was excited about the chance to build something different. He agreed to do the job and was awaiting word the site was excavated. Dirt work done forms in place. I get a call from this GC's wife explaining I would need to find another GC since her husband was just diagnosed with terminal cancer and she wanted him to spend his last time with her(GC was in the background yelling, "NO I PROMISSED THOSE KIDS I WOULD BUILD THEM A HOUSE!" She then said to me, "NO HE IS NOT, FIND SOMEONE ELSE!" SO there I am. It so happens that the real-estate agent that had sold my house and sold me the panels for my home had built these homes before but currently only wanted to sell the panels and real-estate(by the way he worked for my wife's cousin as a real-estate agent). No other builder in the area was interested in a SIP build. So the agent agreed to build my home. I was using cash to do this build. SO no bank watching things. As the excavation was done I wrote a check to the GC for his and the dirt work. As each of the rough in jobs were completed I wrote checks. Suddenly work stopped on my house. I went into the small local hardware store and there was a plumber I knew did my rough in. I asked why he nor any other contractors were doing any work. The plumbers response was, "The people that house was being built for had run out of money!" I responded, "I am the guy the house is being built for and I have money in the bank and had written him a check for the rough in plumbing!" Plumbers response, "That's not what the GC told him and that the plumber needed to listen to him if he wanted to be in on the dozen or so homes he is going to build!" When I asked the GC he said "The subs are busy on other jobs!" When I pressed the GC on what was really going on he said we could meet at his home and talk about it. SO the wife and I drive to the GC's home and the property had a high fence and Rottweiler's in the fence and he came out and let the wife and I inside. The barking growling dogs practically knocking us over as we walked into the house. We all sat down around a dining table and the GC positioned the dogs one beside me and one beside my wife. Then he begins, "SO what's the issue?" I stated, "work stopped on the house and the plumber in the store said I had run out of money!" Then the GC says, "so you do not trust me?" I then said, "I do not know what to think!" He said some word I did not understand and apparently was a command to the dogs. They both growled and looked like any second they would attack us. We were escorted outside and through the gate. I knew a real- estate lawyer who also knew a private investigator. The lawyer said, "In Missouri the laws are pretty much set up to protect the builders and all they have to do is, "Show good faith and do their best as the know how!" The private investigator found the GC rented or leased everything[house, cars and had no money in his name(all in his girlfriends name)] No replacement contractors(plumbing, etc.) would continue another contractors work. SO I repaid the contractors all the money I had paid to the GC for them a second time. What else could I do? I had a hole in the ground. Foundation poured. Rough in plumbing. Floor poured, SUbfloor built. Panels "ON THE TRUCK" coming from St Louis, Mo to my Kearney, Mo build site. SO became my own GC and when the walls were up and the roof on we moved in. The county insp allowed us to move in as long as there was no exposed wiring. Over the next 10 years I bought interior doors as I got the money. Put down salvaged hardwood floors etc and I got the money and what was on sale.
BBB useless. Laws in Mo allowed the builder to "do his best!" TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS!
So you paid him, but he wasn't paying the people that actually did the work? Why would they continue to work for him?
@@travisthompson1679 They severed their relationship with him and went to working with me directly. I showed them the info from the investigator and so they believed me.
@@eddienash5426 I see. That's ridiculous that you got screwed. That is something that should be an open and shut case in my opinion. Sorry that happened to you.
Should've shown the scammers face and name! This guy needs to be caught.
That's Exactly What I'm Over Here Screaming! THE ONLY WAY THOSE OF US THAT ABIDE BY HONESTY & INTEGRITY is to not only call out these imbeciles, Yell them out , Make them famous ,Blast them with photos ,video of there error'ed craftsmanship. With a well explained reason as to why you stand for what you're saying. With all due respect this is my moto with everything, hell I'll even check folks who are angrily verbally assaulting fast food workers , typically over nonsense stuff but as a society where do those of us with values actually stand up & Say Enough ! 🤔
Unfortunately, the Libel / Slander laws are such that to do so would put him at risk. Yes, he would probably prevail in a court of law, but attorneys going to trial is very expensive.
@@lkj0822g in order for him to file those lawsuits he'd have to come back to the country though 😂
It seems this GC made 120k?
Can't see that lasting very long..
Especially if your "on the run" ..
Even if living in another country...
The guy will regret it when the money runs out.....
check the tRUMP rallies 🤨
Wow, quite a tale! My compliments on your crystal-clear explanation of it -- you would make an excellent trade-school teacher, down-to-earth, excellent speech, very credible. Also, high-quality video, nicely done! Your next career is as a UA-cam star...
Wow thank you so much 😊🙏
"Tale" is right lol. You got scammed by a fake tale about a scam.
Yep, not a homeowner but a fellow subcontractor. Here in socal a huge contractor, Dream Design Homeworks death starred and took down an estimated 50 to 60 homeowners midway through their builds. Not sure what happened but they full on ghosted, by the time out sales reps stopped by to check in at their office everything was gone, not a single human being to be found. very scary.
I'm taking notes for my next scam, thank you for the information!
I've called the banks to verify funds.
Had it happen to me often. I don't mind!
I only work for a few contractors I know. I don't work for developers because they want you now and want the cheapest subs. I like working directly for homeowners and a few select contractors.
Good idea
100% correct.They want you at there immediate beckoning call,and always trying to get the lowest pricing.I've seen Home builders go thru every contractor in the area,all based on cheapest pricing.No loyalty,no quality.Just cheap pricing.I work all residential,smaller jobs and some municipal work,1 man show.Everyone pays on time,have almost 0 issues.
100% fact!
I NEVER work for contractors. Only home owners.
Great video+explanation+presentation! Thank you for sharing well done mate - NEW SUB 🙏🏻
It hurts every one when this happens. As a homeowner I trusted in a roofing company here in Wisconsin which cost me 16,ooo dollars
Sounded so great at selling me a badly needed roofing replacement. Everything but the real truth. Learned my lesson the hard way.
Can you go into more detail? I’m a new homeowner and need all the lessons learned.
Roofing “storm chasers” are notorious for getting 50% deposits from 10-20 houses all on the same street, then disappearing. Local companies are worth the extra expense because it’s cheaper than 1/2 your money in the wind.
@@tjnucnuc basically don’t be an idiot like this guy and never pay in advance for work that hasn’t been done. And if you can pay for materials yourself.
@@tjnucnuc or go with a contractor which is safer but you’re going to be charge extra so they can pay for all they equipment tools and rents lol “overhead”
Who was it?
As a general with a fairly new company, this was extremely helpful to me as well cuz knowing what subcontractors and clients are looking for to limit their risk is key to know. Terrible to hear but obviously things worked out cuz your crushin it nowadays bossman!
Im glad this was helpful 👊👍
Was commenting as i was watching so apply BETTER OR WORSE to all!!! Awesome Bro
Happened to my parents in 2008. Damn near the same story. Big project but nothing crazy. Second story on the house and a three-story garage. The roofer came up to my parents and said one day after they had ripped the roof off the house" yeah my check bounced" My parents had all they could do to get him to wear the tight the roof again . Thankfully he was a reasonable person and at least finished, but come to find out they were the fourth person he had scanned for the most amount of money, just over $100,000.They went to court and won. As did everyone else come to find out. He had 20 year to pay and even the lawyer said "good luck seeing your money". Cause he "filed bankruptcy". How convenient being an LLC. My parents have struggled for everything they have and it's so disheartening to see someone take advantage anyone. I can only hope that some way my parents can get justice. This prick didn't leave the country. This is the quick version of the story but karma is a bitch and I hope he gets his someday.
The worst I got scammed was when I was doing a DIY remodel on my house. LoL 😂
Thanks for the great video and advice
I can second that lol.
I DIY a cut on my leg from a hold-down with a six pack and dental floss. Everything went A-OK.
Don't ever sign a lien waiver until the funds are in your account.
Yea he even says on the video that you aren't supposed to sign until the check clears. Three different businesses, including his own, did the opposite of what he himself suggested.
Well he still would have been screwed
That gap in the miter of your door trim is driving my nutz.
~subbed
You can submit a signed “conditional” lien waiver BEFORE you collect payment. The “unconditional” lien waiver is submitted post payment. Plus they have progress and final lien waivers depending on the phase of the project you’re in. Along with doing due diligence on the contractor, you should get educated on the paperwork. Also, if you have reservations about the contractor, (we have em about our clients too) you could always open up escrow and have escrow make the payments. Waivers would be submitted and escrow sends out payment accordingly. It’s not just for buying houses.
My father would always say "the only way you can ensure anything is done properly is to do it yourself"
Thieves everywhere. A good friend of mine lost his house to a fire. Vultures showed up and took his money; $80,000 and disappeared.
If he had put the effort into doing the work as he did scamming he could of done the job, gotten more work, n kept making money without having to worry about being arrested. What a waste😥
Well said 👏
He was probably in much bigger trouble then you think. Had one last chance for a little score before fleeing.
@@saljablo2767 no doubt. He was already in legal trouble or had already scammed one too many.
@@Dirtmonkey 👋
He will regret going through life looking over his shoulder. Happy Easter everyone!
As a mechanic I had customers do this all the time. Write a check leave in the car and it's so hard to dispute after the fact.
I'm not a contractor but my Dad and I built 3 houses together and multiple garages and barns. We did most of the work ourselves and used very few subs. On the second house that we built, I was 27 at the time, was on 10 acres of rich farmland and I hired an excavator and he recomended his father to pour the basement. Both had been in business a long time and had a good local reputation. The first red flag that I missed was when he appologized for messing up and setting my foundation 18" lower than planned. The second red flag was he kept pulling his equipment off the job without finishing the grading. This went on for months and prevented me from planting grass and kept us in constand mud and erosion. I worked midnights at the time and would work on the job site till 4pm daily. He would always drop his equipment off right as I was leaving and be gone the next day. One day I was at the job site and a neighbor approached me and ask if he could buy a truck load of top soil. As you can imagine the shock and anger I felt. The next day I had my Dad leave in the truck and I stayed in the house. I had just started a new job and my Dad reminded me to not do something to end up in jail and loose my job. Thankfully I listioned to my Dad! I caught them red handed and of course he tried to weasel out of it, The guy that ran the dozer for this owner ended up quiting and came by the next day to personally appologize. I saw him a year later and he was driving a semi and making more than before. Another way the owner of this excavating co. screwed me was he ran his heavy equipment over the area where my septic field was planned. The idiot even argued with the county official when he came out to look at the site. I ended up having to go 200 ft behind the original septic site. Had i not had enough land I would have really been screwed. Finally the excavators Dad who poured the basement and garage did a poor job on the garage part. When Dad and I did a diagonal measurements on the garage portion it was an inch out of square. When I confronted him he said "Oh thats not too bad you can just shim it up" What a Jerk. My Dad and I ended up tearing out one of the garage knee walls and repouring it so it was square else the brick would have been hanging an inch off the foundation. I know this comment is very long but my hope is it will help someone to recognize the warning signs sooner than later.
So did he scam you off your money?
Now that's ballsy.. he must've had it all planned out for a while. I can't imagine being the client, they now feel obligated to pay the subs, but they're losing out big time. I've got a friend that has concrete pump trucks as a business, they're pretty cool. Too bad he wasn't set up when you filmed
Hired a roofing contractor to replace my shingle roofs on my house and horse barn with steel. He had just completed a roof for my friend and it looked good and he was highly recommended. The contractor also lived a couple miles from me. I agreed to a contract that was 25% up front, 25% for materials upon delivery to my house, 25% when the work was 50% complete and the final 25% on completion of the job. Things were fine except a couple of bogus change orders for additional materials he claimed were needed (about $1,000 in plywood)
When I paid the second 25% I reminded him I would require lien waivers for all the material before I paid the third 25%. His reply was, “oh, I don’t do lien waivers”. I let him know that state law required him, as a licensed contractor, to provide lien waivers. Now I’m worried.
When he got exactly 1/2 of each roof (house, garage, and barn) covered with steel, he came asking for the third 25%. I of course said “sure, as soon as I get the lien waivers for the material. He again said he doesn’t do those as hey buys all the material using “his own credit” I say he’s not getting paid. He threatens to fire his crew as he can’t pay them. I say I’ll contact the state about his license.
That afternoon I get a call from his supplier asking why I won’t pay because they won’t issue a lien waiver until I pay the contractor and he pays them. I explain that I had paid several weeks ago on the day the materials were delivered. Offered to send the a copy of the contract as well. The next day I had lien waivers and a crew working as fast as possible to finish the job. Also, it turned out that exactly the amount of plywood was sitting unused in my yard when the roof was finished. It disappeared the next day before he showed up to collect his final 25%. When I asked about the plywood, he says “oh, leftover material belongs to me the contractor.” That change order was deducted from his final payment.
Yes, he was definitely a scammer but not very good at it.
what is a lien waver? my roofer showed up gave an estimate and i paid in full. he gave me all his info. he never returned. it took 5 months before i got my money back from the bank. he does this for a living. im not the only one.
When a material supplier supplies material or subcontractor does work, they have a lien on the property until they are paid. Since you are paying the contractor, they need to show they are paying their suppliers. Some contractors don't have a big cash cushion, so they need the payment so they can pay their suppliers. But, you want to know they used your money to pay the supplier, or the supplier can come after you. That's what a release of lien does, is to show that their suppliers have been paid. Never pay a contractor in full up front. They may need your money to buy the materials, but they usually don't pay workers until the end of the day, and a roof usually is finished in one day.
@@johnhaller5851 okay, thank you. i usually oblige the trades person when they say they need to be paid in full but i wont do that anymore. i think that they dont trust that im out of state investor. they dont realize that they are in control cause they can put a lien on the property. i on the other hand dont have any guarantee that they will do the work. hmmmmmm...
You guys are lucky. Are provider's can't do no liens cause the sell materials to the contractor so all sits in your hands. And if customer or GC does not paid that is it your burn ! So we can go around bean a bank or financial institution giving credits ! No money no Hony !
Today, that would be 18 sheets of plywood..
Excellent video,man.Appreciate ya!
Dude in Costa Rica 🇨🇷 right now chillin' watching this video.
We could all wright a book on scammers. But I really lucked out on one: They paid me and I gave them a lien waiver. Something seemed fish to me, so I went right to their bank and got cash for the check. A few days later the bank called me and asked me to bring "their" money back. I said no, their next response was for me to bring the money back and they would give me a loan for the check amount and I would make loan payments to the bank. They did not like my response to that. The builder had cancelled payment on all the checks about an hour before I got to the bank. I was the only one to get paid! The bank has two bad check lists, the one they is updated daily. the second list has the bad checks as the come in during the day. The teller only checked the first list.
Wow. People are something else
I can’t believe people still use checks in America. I haven’t seen a check book in over 20 years here in Australia!
I thought a check made out to a business was not able to be cashed out from their bank. Maybe your check was made out to you directly. When i first opened my business account the bank put 1 week hold on all the checks i received for first 90 days it was rough.
You should have returned the money, the teller made a mistake cashing the check and probably got fired lol
@@officialWWM same here in The Netherlands (EU). On business end things get just wired, and no weird lien waver stuff.
Pretty ballsy guy to scam the bank and lie to people directly in their faces . He'll get caught eventually. 120k isn't enough to live forever on. He'll be scamming wherever he is now until he's dead or in prison. He doesn't have a honest bone in his body. I hate dishonest people. Glad u are making your videos helping people out
It's sad that you're most likely right..hope he learns his lesson someday
$120k is worth burying the guy in the foundation lol
@@Dirtmonkey for all you know he could have had other scam money and possibly didn't even leave the country
Like Jerry Seinfeld said "yea, mom and pops whole scheme was to move into town, set up shop and build a good reputation for 20 years just to run off with all of my shoes"
Not interested in construction or anything, but your storytelling ability was top notch and made me watch the whole video.
Being a sub contractor that relied a lot of GC's it was always thankful we mostly worked for gov't jurisdiction so being paid was always backed up and tracked. One thing to maybe look at as a homeowner (bank) to make sure subs get paid is paying them directly with the GC's endorsement or actually using joint checks. As homeowner that is protection from having a lein filed on your property. Hope they eventually find this GC and rake him to get every last cent owed.
A Contractor who made me change my career - I used to be a roofer in my hometown and did pretty good, worked with good bosses, went to the capital and found a good boss as well who knows a lot and can teach a lot as up to that point I worked on just 2 story private buildings. A few months later in this new project, there was a Contractor who bought everything for us as he was the one who handled the money provided by the owner, in my hometown each boss handled the money so that we would later do the paperwork and orders quicker. The contractor employed several bosses with their crews, Roofing - Electrical - Carpenter - Heating - Windowers (?) etc. After close to a month we had a week to set everything up and ready so that it wouldn't leak as it was said that heavy, week-long, rain will come in and just half of the roof was done at that point (Electrical was in our way for the other side), the Contractor said that what we needed should be delivered the next morning. Well, the morning comes, no one gets the tools/materials that they ordered and the Contractor went on a Holy Pilgrimage that took around 18 days as he was walking there. I barely got paid and had to look for another job, went into IT after. Later I met my boss at my new work and he told me that the unfinished roof leaked also through the open window frames and damaged so much of the 5-story apartment building and that the owner is suing the contractor. Boss also took on another project soon after that.
Why would I use check today? Check has no value anymore. There is either money on my account or not. No money no signature.
This scamming goes on in every profession , all the paperwork in the world won’t protect you from scammers . I’ve found a handshake and looking at the other party directly and saying you will pay me even if you go through bankruptcy, works well , because they know there will be consequences and you will be compensated ( maybe not with currency but a payment will be made)
I worked in the construction field for a good many years and wouldn't sign one of those things if you paid me to! That's why my Father would insist on being paid before he signed those things and having the check clear the bank first!
That being said, my dad did get one guy that tried to scam him in a slightly different way. My dad was doing a small subdivision in California with a guy and when it came time to pay my dad off the guy tried stalling him off, and stalling him off and stalling him off! My dad was no dummy and figured he was pulling something and talked to a lawyer and the man's bank. The bank manager clued him in on the scam the guy was pulling. Which was to skip town, then come back and file bankruptcy. Thus leaving others holding the bag!, The lawyer told dad to file a form with the man's bank that got the guy's account frozen, which dad did at warp ten speed! The man called him very quickly and asked why he did that and complained that now he couldn't take his family to Hawaii! My dad said something like"Yeah...on MY MONEY!" Then dad told him that his account would only be released if and when he and my dad went to his bank and he gave dad his funds there and then in cash. The bank closed the man's account out due to fraudulent activity and, I think, was forced to shut his doors. So you see there are ways to handle guys like him!
I busted out laughing when I heard “ underground basketball court” 😂
This is one of the reasons why Maine is now starting a certification program for builders. To make sure they know building code and structural engineering knowledge. A friend recently hired "some guy" off of Facebook, who seemed knowledgeable and gave a good quote. I was checking the work as it was going on, and it was clear to me that this contractor was either a scam, or totally inept. I got my son involved who is a licensed engineer, and he conferred with me. The guy was fired, deposit returned, and mu son and I did the work. Two bathroom rehabs. Fun fun fun.
Engineers are the worst...always thinking they know how to do everything because they saw a UA-cam Video...
How did you make him return the deposit?
We had a landscaping contractor do that here .He got 5000 dollar deposits for jobs cashed checks never went back, The bad thing is he passed himself off as a veteran owned company.
Wow that is LAME 👎
Rick wooton out of Albertville did this a lot. He was a big time Christian.
There was a deck builder who had a showroom in a strip mall, with a few decks put up in the space. I didn't feel good when he said he wouldn't get the permit himself, so didn't use him. Not long afterwards, he was arrested for using the deposit from one job to pay for complete the last job until he ran out of money. I'm not sure if he was truly dishonest, or a bad businessman. That strip mall location and the lumber to make sample decks was a lot of overhead for a deck builder.
Honestly it really is sad to see the state that things are going down to, the levels of stupidity and selfish greed that people are constantly showing, Im not in construction but i am a 3rd generation machinist, have a business and a shop with my dad, its insane that this pops up in my youtube recommended because around the time the video was posted we were sent an industrial tree grinder to fix, once it was fixed we had called the owner and let him know that it was ready but we hadnt recieved payment and he said that he wasnt going to pay and the truck would be at our shop to pick it up the same day, Before i could even say that we wouldn't release it to the driver to be loaded he hung up. Driver arrived and I had to tell the driver he can either sit there and wait or he can turn around and head back home because until we get paid, the grinder doesn't leave our property. We fought with the owner for 2 weeks, he called the police on us numerous times and accused us of theft, Finally he phoned and said that he had paid which we confirmed and released the grinder to the driver for pick up. Fast forward a week, the guy had a driver just show up with an excavator with a broken arm, we asked for information on whos it was, the driver gave us the name and it was the same person so i phoned him up and i told him politely that because of his reluctance to pay us in an attempt to get work done for free that i was refusing to do the work, he told me that we were the only shop close enough to him to which i told him that he should have thought of that before he tried to get free labor out of us so it is not my problem. If he wants something fixed he can go somewhere else because we do not want his business.
It boggles the mind at how brazen people are these days, even my dad said that this was something you would never see back in his day and why this behavior suddenly reared its ugly head now is a mystery. In my opinion i chalk it down to the modern age and how people seemingly measure their success by a series of numbers instead of measuring the success of what they have achieved and work they have done.
"...this behavior suddenly reared its ugly head now is a mystery". It's not a mystery at all. The decay of society is because we have fallen away from God. Some people really dont want to hear this explanation, but it's the truth. I hope this finds you well Mr. HellSpawn. I really do.
Ol boy didn't even let the truck yawn or nothing😂😂
I lived in Oregon in the 80's. At that time all you had to do to get a general contractors lenience was to pay the bureaucrat $600.00. Boy did they build some houses.
I knew a builder who built a house on a piece of land that his customer already owned, the builder took out a construction loan and when he finished the house the customer just moved in and refused to convert the loan to a mortgage so the builder couldn't foreclose since the customer owned the land. The builder was shady himself so I think he just reaped what he sowed.
A contractor at a home show a few years ago, promised a huge discount if the costumers paid him 1/3 at the show. Then he never showed.