Trust goes out the window when dealing with a HOA… my daughter bought the house of a farmer who sold 130 acres and a developer put in a subdivision. They decided to make it self sufficient as far as the road, sewer, and water maintenance. They sent her a bill for $7500.00 for past dues and for road repair inside the subdivision. The farmer who sold his house to her said that she would be grandfathered and would not need to participate in the HOA. I told her to get that in writing before closing on the house which she did. State and local laws vary on the rights and responsibilities of home ownership and in Iowa there are some very powerful HOAs that have put politicians in their pocket. The county board sided with the HOA and decided that her property lines had fell within the boarder of this subdivision. The county was told that she knew that the 1.4 acres of her property was within the boundaries and the farmer told her he was excluded from the HOA and the county agreed when the land sold to an out of state contractor. They never bothered to check the sale of the property to check the my daughter was grandfathered into the original land sale agreement the farmer filed when he sold it to the contractor. They tried to force her to pay this bill and the HOA were licking their lips thinking they had caught the golden goose. Her property accessed value was $375,000.00 and the HOA had sent her another bill for $15,000.00 trying to bully her which then she took them to court and the judge denied the HOA of any monies owed because she had bought the property from the original owner. She was in fact grandfathered in when the farm included this clause in the sale. They lived there for a total of 4 years in which she was in court or at the county board the first two years she lived in the house. The county tried to pass an ordinance that nullified her offering the same grandfather clause too any potential future buyer. She had found out two of the board members had taken money from the contractor in a pay to play by overlooking certain building codes to push the land sale through. There was a column in the local paper that stated the names of the two board members( one who had purchased a house in the same subdivision ). They were forced to resign and were banned from any governmental jobs. They paid a fine and the ordinance was found to be a conflict of interest and was removed. She sold her property and the new owners were grandfathered in. Corruption and greed a never ending story.
Holy crap- now that is some corruption there and sadly your daughter will never get back her time or the stress associated with it. At least she won in the end and got rid of them
Had a similar experience, filed a lien and years later they begged me to sign off on it, as it was holding up the sale and they couldn't afford to fight me in court. Escrow paid me off. Karma is real.
@@billvandorn5332 I think stan would have a legal standing. I believe the courts call it unjust enrichment. The new owners might have got one or two pushes for free but then they would of had to show they did there due diligence to contact stan to advise they didn't want his services.
It’s sad there used to be a time when a hand shake was an agreement and everyone had integrity. I was just reading a story about Mark Twain how he had filed bankruptcy and still spent years paying his creditors back even though he didn’t have too. god bless thank you for another awesome video
Hey Stan, with the excellent quality work you do and great work ethics you should nothave to worry about paying customers, this is my 31st year as a G.C. and I've had my share as well and it's terrible, keep doing what you are doing because US REAL contractors appreciate what you do brother 👊💪
@@Dirtmonkey when I first started never even had to do contracts and yet now 31 yrs later we have to do contracts but the customer still has way more rights than we do which is crazy
Yup. I had a bad experience with an HOA not paying. Now...... Any HOA job has a contract written up and payment must be upfront. If additional charges occured another invoice is made. HOAs are a great money source, but they can also be shady.
Maybe it's not worth the legal fight, but I'm pretty sure the HOA has a duty to inform a contractor that they no longer require his/her services. A city utility is not going to accept that just because you sold a property and the new homeowner doesn't change over the billing title, that they don't get paid for a couple months.
True but he had no contract. He literally said he had no contract. If you don’t have it in writing it’s his own fault. Ic you were the hoa and a contractor said you owe me $10,000 because the old owner verbally agreed to it what would you say? Unfortunately he screwed up. I hate saying it since I love the videos.
@@brianschulman2641 No, he has a case. The HOA was aware that he was plowing, and benefited from it. He was working on their property, and they could have told him to stop at any time. There's a legal term, which is in latin for no real good reason, called quantam meruit. It applies in a quasi-contractual situation like this, where someone is enriched by someone else's labor, and the person doing the work is compensated a reasonable amount.
@@caryallen8409 actually you have two issue. 1) the story makes no sense. An HOA cannot simply be sold. An apartment complex can be sold but an HOA is owned by the homeowners. So for him to say the HOA was sold to a group of people implies there’s more to the story. Perhaps it’s not an HOA to begin with. Then moving on to quantum meruit. That is a good legal theory IF the “HOA” wasn’t sold. Courts have upheld verbal contracts between two parties. As soon as the “HOA” was sold and a new company took over any verbal contracts are null and void. The 4th element for quantum meruit is “that the defendant was aware that the plaintiff, in performing the services, expected to be paid by the defendant.” But the new company was not aware the defendant was performing services thus they did not know he expected to be paid. Imagine you cut grass for a home owner every month. Then they sell the house without you knowing and you still cut the lawn. The new owner is not under any obligation to pay you. It’s ethically right but not legally speaking. If I was the defendant and was sued for $10,000 I’d raise the question why did he not bill throughout winter and instead waited until the end of the year. If he billed a few thousand after the first storm it would have not been a $10,000 loss. Lastly if it was so straight forward he would have sued for $10,000. He knows he’s in the wrong which is why he didn’t do that.
@@brianschulman2641 Yeah, maybe we're not getting the whole story here. Still, whatever entity is responsible for the property was surely aware that snow removal was taking place, and passively accepted that. It's Minnesota. No one can plausibly claim ignorance of snow accumulating on your roadways, and the need for its removal. Quantum meruit + unjust enrichment should make for a winning case.
@@caryallen8409 I agree it is possible but there’s to much working against him. For one it’s not quantum meriut + unjust enrichment as it’s the same thing. He needs to prove that the new owners knew he was performing the work. It’s not enough to say they should have know they needed to know and he needs to prove it. Then he needs to explain why he didn’t invoice after each storm or month but instead waited until the end of the year to invoice everything. The fact he didn’t even try pursuing it says a lot combined with the fact an HOA was not involved and it’s likely the new company owned multiple complexes and thus have an office offsite proving they knew he was performing the work is difficult. They could simply say “we thought the city was plowing it, we never got invoices and had no contracts for removal”. Is it technically possible yes but he dug himself to many holes. All he should have done was invoice after the storm or first month. Then he’s only lose a few thousand at most and would have had a much better case. Or simply have sent an ensue stating he completed services. How do you perform such services and not even tell the owner? Not email them? Not show them? Nothing. If you own it and your office is offsite you may not even know about the snow removal.
Thanks stan! Been out of pocket a few days. Time to get caught up on your videos. You are one of the only reasons why I watch UA-cam. Love your spirit. Have a blessed day!
I"m not sure how it does work in your state/county but usually all maintenance/upkeep job contracts related to a property signed before the sell and that are to be continued after the transaction are automatically transferred to the new owner and thus need to pay for the service provided. The new owner is bonded by the old contract and if they weren't properly informed by the seller about any claims or ongoing services associated with the property then the new owner still has to pay you up but can at the same time actually seek compensations to the seller for the lack of disclosure. Bottom line, check with your lawyers
@@Dirtmonkey its same as if you were a painter and you went to wrong house and the owner came home every night to you packing up and leaving and night by night progress his house got painted..then when you finished you gave him bill and he said oh youre at the wrong house....that is typical case of unjust enrichment example ... yours is exactly same...you should have pursued it, you would have won the "market rate"
@@Dirtmonkey You should still be well within your state's statute of limitations to file a 'quantum meruit' lawsuit. A local lawyer should be able to tell you within 5 minutes whether it's worth pursuing or not.
Hey @Stanley, I think you may want to consult a local lawyer. There's a chance that you would get paid regardless from the new/old owners. What would strengthen your case is: 1. Greater the number of years you have been providing such service to the old owners; 2. The new owner's knowledge of the service you provided from the old owners; 3. The new owners being aware service being provided to them (if they saw your guys plowing but didn't say anything). Contract doesn't always have to be written down; a history of invoicing/payment for services may imply a contract. New owners don't get to just benefit from free service, even if the service was provided erroneously, it would be an unjust enrichment since there's some relationship between them and you. And that's regardless the old owners notified the new owners. AND if the new owners are not liable, it is highly likely that the old owners will still be liable. It would depend on what the agreement was between the old and new owners. In cases like this, you would typically file a suit against both the old and the new owners as co-defendants and let them figure out who needs to pay.
Because he provided services to the old owner, does not automatically imply that the new owner needs to honor his services unless it was specifically stipulated in the sales documents. The new owner would have been aware of his services from the sales contract and should have informed him whether or not they still wanted his services. That also being said, as a contractor, I would NEVER assume that a new owner had any obligation to continue using my services. If it were me, I would have consulted with the new owner and drawn up new contracts specifically with the new owner, therefore avoiding non payment and potential legal expenses. Now, if his services were still under contract with the old owner, the old owner would be liable for payment, unless a different arrangement was made in the sales contract with the new owner.
@@MrMajikman1 Not to go into too much detail into legal theory, but the point is there's a chance that a contract can be implied/created by the court even though one doesn't physically exists. If this is the case, then the old owners would be liable; however depending on how the sales contract was drafted between the old and new owners, such liability could have transferred over to the new owners. And not only that, it would nearly guarantee Stan's case if the property belonged to a company (which is likely the case for an apartment/multi-tenant property) and the ownership of the company was transferred. What this means is, the court may decide to imply/create a contract between the company and Stan and the company is liable for the services; and it doesn't matter who the actual owners of the company was or is in order for Stan to get paid (whose pocket it comes out of will be between the owners based on the sales agreement). But, I think you've missed a major point that Stan was NOT aware there was new owners when he provided his services.
@@jamesdaniel2673 I had not gotten to that point of the video before I responded to you. Yes, it was a shitty thing to do to the guy by selling to a new owner and not telling him. You are right, that is a completely different scenario. Either way, contracts should be renewed every year before the start of the snow season, regardless of who the owner is, and how well you know them, or how long you have worked with them, just to avoid situations like this. It's not like the old days of a handshake and a smile anymore.
Clients like that, keep some people from working in this business. I have had people ask me why I do what I do, and if I worry about people not paying. Hope you have an awesome week stan! Keep up the great work!
I think the kind of work we do is the best! we get to do new things every day and run fun equipment. BUT we do have some bad things as well. Like crappy customers.
Sometimes you gotta corner weasels like that when no ones lookin and do what you gotta do. You may not get your money but they’ll think twice about cheating someone else.
Wanting to plow the sidewalk is great. It shows that you are really interested in what your equipment is capable of doing. I bet that allows you to do work others can’t because you actually know the capabilities of your equipment and your team. Keep it up and stay proud of what you do.
Great video. That sucks about the money. The ASV are badass. I build ramps all the time with my ASV's to stack snow. Driven them through almost 3 ft of snow. They float.Great machines
Stan this is a common problem regarding HOA's. The board or property management company of the complex is usually the ones to sign the contract with a snow plow contracter. However if the board member that signed the contract with the property management company who hired you doesn't pay you. You have recourse of a lien on the property. Also small claims court. ALWAYS BILL MONTHLY! If they don't pay, suspend the account right away with the HOA until payment is made. I am board member myself and I have to sign the contract in order to hire through my managment company. If I resign from the board, the HOA is still responsible for the bill regardless if I leave or not.
Times were different years ago.. I’ll admit I repossessed a lawn/irrigation system with a plow truck. The cop that showed up was laughing and didn’t hinder me in any way.
That's to bad Stan sorry to hear that I think your going about it the right way sometimes it's just better to do nothing and let it go than to spend a year of you time trying to fight it. God bless you and as always be safe 👍
I responded to a call once where the trash removal company wanted there dumpster back because homeowner wasn’t paying. Home owner agreed, said he hasn’t paid, they missed pick up once or twice. Dumpster was picked up by the trash company, and it’s full contents was dumped right back on ground where it had sat just moments before. Driver said his boss said there contract with homeowner was over, don’t worry about the weeks you owe, we are done, and BtW, here is your belongings back. Home owner wanted me to arrest him. I asked why, he replied for littering. I said your trash was in his container, he just returned it to you before reclaiming his property. 🤷
All my accounts are under contract with each individual property not the management company. When a property is sold I continue to service them and only thing that changes is management. Never in my 35 years had an issue
After recent events in my life, I no longer trust anyone, don't care who it is. If I could go into great detail, you would say 100% the same thing. I hear you, and I get it, a piece of paper plus a video go a long way. Is it possible that the former owner is still liable, they never disclosed they had sold it, and the contract was with them. It looks to me like this wasn't their first rodeo of doing what they did; that's one of the reasons they probably had the money to make that move. New riders just got on the Karma bus.
I left this one up to Karma. I didn't want the bad mojo and court hassle even for $10,000 which hurt. BUT I figured I could spend time fighting it in court- then try to collect yada yada or move on and land a big job and make up for it quicker than going through red tape and doing things I wasn't familiar with.
@@Dirtmonkey You may want to consider hiring an attorney on a contingency-basis. If you don't win, you don't pay; if you win, you pay them a fraction of the win. I think you may have a more solid case than you think. As I noted in my other comment, you would sue both the old owners and new owners as co-defendants.
It funny to see what you do with the small machines I lived somewhere that has lots of snow and I worked for a contractor. We pushed are snow banks with a cat 980 front loader with a big bucket Cleared the lots with special built short wheel bace 5 tons with 14 foot blade. Plowing snow is lots of fun with big equipment. Love your videos
Happened to myself to. After that the hoa couldnt find anyone else so they had to pay. Sidewalks and fire hydrants werent being done by another company so that became a extra and charged by the hour with email approvals sent at start and beginning .
Me neither! And a word for the wise for those who do move into an HOA, before you do move in make sure they have enough funds in the account to cover for Sentinel repairs like roofs. Otherwise everybody has to kick in hundreds of dollars more because of their mismanagement
Anything "HOA" is a red flag and bound to be a problem sooner or later whether you're a resident or a provider. Theyre basically just little bastions of tyranny and dictatorship... mini governments where people without power in the real world get to pretend and feel important.
@@phattygoodness7347 ain't that the truth! It's one thing to look out for the interest of the community and it's another to take it overboard. I remember submitting detailed plans incorporating a swing set into the rear yard and they were accepted. The purchase for it was from the largest global dealer, Sears and the association crawled up my wazoo with threats because they didn't like the color of white and blue. Install the lattice on top of my 6-ft fence and allowed honeysuckle to block The view
I once was on the board of an HOA, and because there is so much competion between contractor's envolving any and all of the numerious project that came to be. There's always going to be one regardless of experience contractor's knowing they won't get paid, will submit their bids, do the work, and then not get paid.
I was just mentioning somewhere else before moving into, (getting employment there ), do a background check to make sure they have funds available for Sentinel jobs like roofing or even plowing.
@@Dirtmonkey Yeah not anymore I'm a part time custodian during the evenings. I do landscaping jobs for people during the summer months and the cleaning in the evenings and in the winter I still have the cleaning so I can still have money coming in. It may even lead to some cleaning for my landscape customers.
One of the jobs we do is installing and maintaining standby generators, there have been a few times where we’ve serviced a generator at a house where the previous owner sold it and nobody knew about it.
My grandfather ran an appliance repair service. People made an agreement and nothing was left unlocked. Go in fix it, leave the bill on counter and off to next job. No one ever failed to pay. Everyone's word was good enough. Those days gone sad to say.
For clearing sidewalks I prefer a sweeper attachment over a blade. Sidewalks too often have uneven joints which often catch buckets and blades & that can damage the sidewalks. A sweeper on a mini track loader is perfect for anything less than 12" deep & it's small enough to be only on the sidewalk.
agreed- a sweeper is safer but we had feet and feet of snow to remove off the sidewalk. It was the Giant pile we move- we didn't care about the dusting that we walked through.
My tri axcels only work for the state.were there's a contract signed in September. ..starting on November 1 threw April 1.with a 1000$,bonus if my trucks don't miss a plow able storm....
The job isn't finished till the paper work is done. I would always change order everything, and expect payment there and then, with the explanation that I wouldn't want my faulty memory to result in an overcharge.
You would think that new ownership would have to notify you of purchase or out of Courtesy. I once cut the wrong lawn , i cut the west & should have been on east part of the street. I later went to the door & asked to be paid & got some bad news. It took me all day to do both lawns & ony got $50. This was my first year. 🤣
Stan. I had the same thing except.......the hotel we worked for was sold. We didn't get payed all summer for 8 months. When i thought all hope was lost someone from the new company called. Apologized. And payed us the 6800 they were behind. Good story. I always say you haven't been in business until you didnt get payed for a job.
When I was MUCH younger living in the Omaha -Council Bluffs area I helped with snow removal from several business accounts and we always dug out around the fire hydrants so I was surprised to see ones in the video partially buried. Two caviots though, I was working for my Dad and I don't know if that was required by contract or my Dad doing it as a customer curticy.
Different way of thinking the Meth-head. My experience with them is they are after that "payout", they would cross the road to our side where we were mowing and trimming to only cross back over down the street. 2 things, scoping my truck and hoping I'd flick a stone their way.
That similar thing happened to me. New property manager fired me as soon as she saw how much i was making when i submitted my invoice. The previous property manager had no problems with me after plowing and salting for 4yrs. No contract needed with him.
Sometimes new management just needs to shake things up. I have had that happen to me as well. Getting fired for no reason just becuase a new manager came in.
Stan I learned the same way.. kind of.. I was doing repairs for a landscape company and had no contract with them. All was good till the guy stiffed me on a bill .. Yup it hurt but I'm sure a certain truck of his took a while to get running..LOL.. I had it apart and was fixing it when he decided not to pay me.. That's justice.. LOL!! I'm sorry sir but if you don't pay your latest bill .. I can't work for you.. HA HA!! God bless Brother.. P.s. I was doing mechanic work for him.. Forgot to mention that..
When I lived in Upstate NY, they had a four-wheeler with a rotary brush attachment that they used for sidewalks and brick entry ways. It cleaned the surface right down to the grout line really nice and clean
Dude! Awesome footage! Spring is coming...time to park the plows and start digging! Be safe out there! Tell S. Wiesel I said hey! Josh #stoneyridgefarmer
In some places it's illegal to cover a fire hydrant with anything in anyway and in other places its the law to clear the snow away from one so as it's visible to the road. Where we are we have metal flags on steel poles attached the the hydrants that are about 6' high so at least you know where to dig! Cheers 🇨🇦
HOA screws you out of money? go plow the snow *right back onto the roads* You don't pay, you don't get to benefit from the thing you were supposed to pay for.
@@Dirtmonkey Rent a water truck and just go spray the hell outta there tuff next time the temp is gonna get low enough to cause a problem.. Ain't no plowing solid ice. LOL
Another good video Stan! I hope you had a healthy and prosperous Winter with a beautiful spring to look forward to. A while back you were doing some work at a hunting property. How did that work out for you all? Take good care and God bless each of you abundantly!
After being in the commercial mowing game a few years sadly I've seen this happen. Sometimes learning experiences are expensive. Sucks though y'all are great harsworking guys
In Arizona you could file a lien on that property, still may not get paid until they attempt to sell or get an equity loan n the property . All contracts should have been disclosed to the buyers and settled.
You can sue them for the value of your labor, that they accepted, and got benefit from. A good lawyer should be able to tell you about what it would cost to pursue the suit with zero or minimal charge. Even if it does cost some to get paid, what you pay the lawyer should also be tax-deductible. Depending on your state law, you might even be able to get your attorney fees paid as well.
Always file an intent to lean costs 50$ and if needed you will get your money plus the attorney's fees/filing costs. Depending on the business structure you might not be able to write it off such as a cash accrual base.
Great tip in regards to tax deductibles! Not sure what the statues of limitations are where you are, but those "losses" for people who dont know may be retroactively filed for previous years already submitted!
The exhaust pipe on your 310 Deere is turned the wrong way,it’s blowing out to the center of the cab. It’s supposed to be blowing out to the left side of the hood. The exauast gas clears the cab when turned correctly and also keeps the windshield free of exhaust gasses as well as less chance of carbon monoxide gases entering the cab.
Hey hey stan, how are things going, i had my first tweet jobs of he season this weekend, felt good to be back, i did a bush trimming andd flower bed clean u job and then one small leaf cleanup job, it was a. Great time, so much was done to make these jobs go off without a. Hitch,today school was fun, we did so much awsome stuff, from sharing laughs to making some amazing food, today we made vegetable stir fry, it wa so good, and then after school whe. I got home, i went outside and worked on the garden outside then. Took his stack of wood that had collapsed and i put it back up and beefed it up so it will be harder for it to fall. Other than that, that was my day, i hope you had a great weekend my friend, it sure was nice, and tomorrow will be outer last nice day then we will have rain for the rest of the week. It sure is shaping up to be one heck of a week for sure, anyways, stan, i hope you, your family and crew are all having a great night, god bless and go get em, your pal and friend Alexander costa
I've been a snow contractor now 20 years, I no longer will service anything unless I have a signed agreement and 100% prepay. I do 250 driveways with a pair of 6M JD's with inverted blowers since 2015. I leave the on call work for those plowing for beer money and have no insurance liability. Been stiffed enough by dead beets, it's not worth it.
Im not sure what it would take for integrity to come back but I won't let it be lost in me. I think the best way to live is to try and act in a way that makes you proud
@@Dirtmonkey I'm sure it would take folks like you to continue teaching by example. I was doing heavy laborers construction work at 15 drilling and blasting Rock and operating heavy equipment. It was so much fun we didn't want to stop but the boss made us take an hour for lunch and provided two huge coolers. When was filled with non-alcoholic beverages and the other assortments of meats, cheeses and bread and he made us take lunch! Didn't know it at the time but it was one of the best jobs I had and one of the very best bosses I had. I carried that with me through life, always trying to achieve a better bar of excellence try to demonstrate by example to the newbies who came along. You're doing it here Stan and we are almost grateful for keeping that candle alive!
One of the advantages of being a licensed contractor is the ability to place a lien on property if not paid. Does the sale of the property erase your right to be paid? I don't think so. When I sent a lien notice to a non paying customer they promptly replaced their bounced check. Small claims court is also a good option. Before I gave up 10k I would give it a shot!
Done that a few times. Its truly incredible how fast the money comes with a lien notice. Even works if its to another contractors customer. Haha makes them look real shitty. I do a lot of gutters for roofers.
Just got a job at a coal mine I live beside and I’ll be runing loader for em and today I was being trained and got to see a case 721g loader I didn’t know case made so nice of loafers like wow almost better then cat tbh
Their argument doesn't hold water legally. If you take their logic and apply it to all of the tenants - none of them had contracts with the new owner either. They wouldn't be obligated to pay or accept new contracts from the new owners either. At one point in my life I had someone taking advantage of me in the same way. They pushed me too far. So once I accepted the fact that unless something was done it was gone. I contacted my attorney, explained it all. It was a little over 12,000$ 15 years ago. I made the decision and told him let's go, If any judgement is less than your time you get it all, If there's some leftover it's better than a zero. The agreement was made he would pursue it with no cost to me unless something was rendered from it. He was an experienced and creative attorney. 1500$ worth of paperwork filed along with some city officials making some inquires = paid in full. At this point you know you've lost the account(LOL like you'd really take it back at this point). File liens on their properties minus the 30% or so discount they would have gotten by making the one time payment vs monthly accounting........ If you catch my drift there.... Don't forget the fuel surcharges and increased move in prices because of fuels too. I mean you came in under the old contract, failure to pay under the old contract nullifies it. Handshake deal or not. Verbal contracts are a real thing, your years of service there prove their validity. it's not a new agreement File liens. You stand to lose very little at this point in doing so. It would be a very hard argument to make that they didn't know it was you cleaning the streets. It becomes almost an obvious intentional deception to keep accepting services without inquiry. Do they have random plumbers or electricians showing up and not paying them or asking why they are there? How about the garbage pickup, did they continue use and payments, or notify they were discontinuing service and using another company? ANY answer to those questions comes in your favor. File liens. Good luck with it.
What would happen if you DIDN'T plow parking lots or roads? I grew up in Washington and rarely got snow, if we did, everything shut down. Live in Texas now and the chance of rain shuts roads and overpasses down
That’s when i put the dirt back! Or whatever i did, i undo! Has not happened yet, i always get my contracts signed before i start. My worry is damaging something unseen. I do a lot of weed mowing and the weeds are often 5 or more feet tall. So my contract says I’m not responsible for ANYTHING! Not broken sprinklers for sure. I even add that they will pay for my lawyer if i am sued by a neighbor for something that may go wrong. Hasn’t been tested in court but i got the idea from my surgeon. I had a customer mention a previous contractor broke a sliding glass door. $2000 i would not have to pay and i tell my clients its your rock, your window, it could happen to you if you were on the mower.
"$2000 i would not have to pay and i tell my clients its your rock, your window, it could happen to you if you were on the mower."- That may be true but don't they give you a bad rating after that?
@@Dirtmonkey maybe. But you always have the option to reply to their remarks. But so far it has not happened. People have a sense of fairness and when i point it our o the contract and tell them the reasoning they get it. Not like it but they get it.
Trackless machines are great for sidewalk plowing as well as holders and maclean SV’s I’ve never used a boss snowrator tho they look fun I like to be warm when I’m plowing
That sux! I’ve seen it all in my time. Best one was on a per inch agreement that dumped 18 inches over two days The snow stopped and started a few times. I billed accordingly since we plowed it multiple times. Customer stated the TOTAL snow fall was only supposed to be billed. They’re always trying to save a buck!
I did a little work for a guy doing snow removal. His contracts were terrible, not in terms or anything like that just 90% of them were verbal and if he did have anything in writing it was just the basics and everything else was again verbal. We were having a crazy amount of snow the year I worked for him and he had a contract with an apartment complex. They wanted him to plow their lot any time there was more than 2 inches, even if it was still snowing, go plow it, come back again later and do it again... Got a big snowfall and ended up plowing their lot 5 times. They flipped their lid when they got the bill. Said basically the same thing, only paying per event blah blah blah. Got them to send their terms via email. Less than a week later they were howling because there was 6 inches of snow on the ground (and still falling). Told them they said the only wanted to pay once per event so we were only going to plow once per event. He wound up losing that contract but he didn't care, was going to dump them at the end of the season anyway. All his contracts were based on trust and they violated his so he wasn't going to work them anymore. To the best of my knowledge he kept doing it that way too right up until he retired.
I wouldn't do any work even it I did have an existing contract unless before beginning a contracted service that I would at least inform the business that I had the contract with, a starting heads up call. "Hello, this is XYZ contractors and I'm beginning my yearly contracted service. I need a go ahead order to proceed in the contracted service please." That call should be made every time on every service contract and updated with any new information before ANY service work begins. A computerized calendar reminder could be set up and even before a seasonal snow storm, a "touch base" contact should be implemented with the contracted customer so that when the first storm hits, you don't have to scramble about in the early AM to get approval to come out and do the service. I'm sure that if you hadn't moved the snow, the building tenants would have been calling you or the owner contact to see why the snow has not been removed. It might be a good idea to also let the actual tenants know who you are and what you do so that if anything changes they could even call you about their concerns. I'm sure they would want to get hold of you if one of their vehicle were to be damaged whether it be by your equipment or someone else's. I'd also put cameras on the moving equipment while on the job just to protect you from any liability that you were not responsible for.
Love the retaining wall videos, very insightful. Can’t wait until you start those again. I have question about retaining wall/patio paver patios, are they practical up to 4 feet and how would you or can you attach a railing on the top of the wall?
I had a HOA not pay for a full season. It sucks. But remember Stan, plows work both ways. When they offered to pay to get the next season plow service I passed on it. But... the next guy (no names) played their reverse card and plowed them in - not out. I don't recommend this - but that other guy really went all in. Couldn't even see the tops of cars. The only thing he left clear was access to to fire hydrants and emergency services. Dick move but I assume they will be paying on time in the future.
Your story about getting screwed out of 10k... Reminds me of videos of people/contractors getting revenge by either returning debris or removing what they installed. You could have been very devious, and returned the snow.
Sticking those nose pickers in that hydraulic pin hole isn't something you would see me do with a running engine. Shows the trust you have in your guys. Or maybe the disregard you have for fingers.
I would be looking for the people who owned before. They would be talking with my lawyer about this. Then next year I am not sure how I would handle the next owner.
@@Dirtmonkey I do understand that. It really sucks that you are not going to be able use the law to settle up. I bet that you are not going to be doing this account any time soon. Or maybe if you're going to be working for them they are going to be doing it with a written contract with them.
Trust goes out the window when dealing with a HOA… my daughter bought the house of a farmer who sold 130 acres and a developer put in a subdivision. They decided to make it self sufficient as far as the road, sewer, and water maintenance. They sent her a bill for $7500.00 for past dues and for road repair inside the subdivision. The farmer who sold his house to her said that she would be grandfathered and would not need to participate in the HOA. I told her to get that in writing before closing on the house which she did. State and local laws vary on the rights and responsibilities of home ownership and in Iowa there are some very powerful HOAs that have put politicians in their pocket. The county board sided with the HOA and decided that her property lines had fell within the boarder of this subdivision. The county was told that she knew that the 1.4 acres of her property was within the boundaries and the farmer told her he was excluded from the HOA and the county agreed when the land sold to an out of state contractor. They never bothered to check the sale of the property to check the my daughter was grandfathered into the original land sale agreement the farmer filed when he sold it to the contractor. They tried to force her to pay this bill and the HOA were licking their lips thinking they had caught the golden goose. Her property accessed value was $375,000.00 and the HOA had sent her another bill for $15,000.00 trying to bully her which then she took them to court and the judge denied the HOA of any monies owed because she had bought the property from the original owner. She was in fact grandfathered in when the farm included this clause in the sale. They lived there for a total of 4 years in which she was in court or at the county board the first two years she lived in the house. The county tried to pass an ordinance that nullified her offering the same grandfather clause too any potential future buyer. She had found out two of the board members had taken money from the contractor in a pay to play by overlooking certain building codes to push the land sale through. There was a column in the local paper that stated the names of the two board members( one who had purchased a house in the same subdivision ). They were forced to resign and were banned from any governmental jobs. They paid a fine and the ordinance was found to be a conflict of interest and was removed. She sold her property and the new owners were grandfathered in. Corruption and greed a never ending story.
Holy crap- now that is some corruption there and sadly your daughter will never get back her time or the stress associated with it. At least she won in the end and got rid of them
Had a similar experience, filed a lien and years later they begged me to sign off on it, as it was holding up the sale and they couldn't afford to fight me in court. Escrow paid me off. Karma is real.
True that. Glad it worked out in the end for ya though
You're correct but in Stans case the place had already sold so there was no leverage.
@@billvandorn5332 I think stan would have a legal standing. I believe the courts call it unjust enrichment. The new owners might have got one or two pushes for free but then they would of had to show they did there due diligence to contact stan to advise they didn't want his services.
@@danlabonty9720 I agree with you Dan.
@@danlabonty9720 could go further, call it theft of services by swindle.
It’s sad there used to be a time when a hand shake was an agreement and everyone had integrity. I was just reading a story about Mark Twain how he had filed bankruptcy and still spent years paying his creditors back even though he didn’t have too. god bless thank you for another awesome video
Yessir integrity is crucial and unfortunately seeming more & more rare..thanks for keeping it real
@@Dirtmonkey I have been screwed twice even with an air tight contract had to take them both to court. It’s amazing how slimy people are these days.
You can never count on handshake agreements, bitten on them time and time again.. You can only count on anything once you have a signature
Good point. There are still plenty of honest hard working people.
Technically it’s a law binding agreement but to prove it in court is very difficult.
Hey Stan, with the excellent quality work you do and great work ethics you should nothave to worry about paying customers, this is my 31st year as a G.C. and I've had my share as well and it's terrible, keep doing what you are doing because US REAL contractors appreciate what you do brother 👊💪
Thanks man appreciate the support. Hope you take care yourself too, genuine hard working crews should not have to go through that BS
@@Dirtmonkey when I first started never even had to do contracts and yet now 31 yrs later we have to do contracts but the customer still has way more rights than we do which is crazy
Yup. I had a bad experience with an HOA not paying.
Now...... Any HOA job has a contract written up and payment must be upfront. If additional charges occured another invoice is made.
HOAs are a great money source, but they can also be shady.
I dont worry about getting paid,all my people who I plow out were never asked to pay.
Dagburn now THATS a stack of snow!! Lol.. Stay blessed brother!!
same to you my friend. Stay safe and Blessed bud👊
The " R & D" jeep in crackhead Square🤣🤣🤣. Good stuff Stan, we appreciate the experience and knowledge you share with us👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Haha thanks man glad you enjoy!
😂👍 Glad to have you with.
Wow that's a great learning experience. I lost a customer to age and wasn't sure I would ever get paid but I finally did
Glad you were able to collect.👊👍
Nice video! Great advice!!! Thanks Stanley!!!
No problem 👊
Maybe it's not worth the legal fight, but I'm pretty sure the HOA has a duty to inform a contractor that they no longer require his/her services. A city utility is not going to accept that just because you sold a property and the new homeowner doesn't change over the billing title, that they don't get paid for a couple months.
True but he had no contract. He literally said he had no contract. If you don’t have it in writing it’s his own fault. Ic you were the hoa and a contractor said you owe me $10,000 because the old owner verbally agreed to it what would you say? Unfortunately he screwed up. I hate saying it since I love the videos.
@@brianschulman2641 No, he has a case. The HOA was aware that he was plowing, and benefited from it. He was working on their property, and they could have told him to stop at any time. There's a legal term, which is in latin for no real good reason, called quantam meruit. It applies in a quasi-contractual situation like this, where someone is enriched by someone else's labor, and the person doing the work is compensated a reasonable amount.
@@caryallen8409 actually you have two issue. 1) the story makes no sense. An HOA cannot simply be sold. An apartment complex can be sold but an HOA is owned by the homeowners. So for him to say the HOA was sold to a group of people implies there’s more to the story. Perhaps it’s not an HOA to begin with. Then moving on to quantum meruit. That is a good legal theory IF the “HOA” wasn’t sold. Courts have upheld verbal contracts between two parties. As soon as the “HOA” was sold and a new company took over any verbal contracts are null and void. The 4th element for quantum meruit is “that the defendant was aware that the plaintiff, in performing the services, expected to be paid by the defendant.” But the new company was not aware the defendant was performing services thus they did not know he expected to be paid. Imagine you cut grass for a home owner every month. Then they sell the house without you knowing and you still cut the lawn. The new owner is not under any obligation to pay you. It’s ethically right but not legally speaking. If I was the defendant and was sued for $10,000 I’d raise the question why did he not bill throughout winter and instead waited until the end of the year. If he billed a few thousand after the first storm it would have not been a $10,000 loss.
Lastly if it was so straight forward he would have sued for $10,000. He knows he’s in the wrong which is why he didn’t do that.
@@brianschulman2641 Yeah, maybe we're not getting the whole story here. Still, whatever entity is responsible for the property was surely aware that snow removal was taking place, and passively accepted that. It's Minnesota. No one can plausibly claim ignorance of snow accumulating on your roadways, and the need for its removal. Quantum meruit + unjust enrichment should make for a winning case.
@@caryallen8409 I agree it is possible but there’s to much working against him. For one it’s not quantum meriut + unjust enrichment as it’s the same thing. He needs to prove that the new owners knew he was performing the work. It’s not enough to say they should have know they needed to know and he needs to prove it. Then he needs to explain why he didn’t invoice after each storm or month but instead waited until the end of the year to invoice everything. The fact he didn’t even try pursuing it says a lot combined with the fact an HOA was not involved and it’s likely the new company owned multiple complexes and thus have an office offsite proving they knew he was performing the work is difficult. They could simply say “we thought the city was plowing it, we never got invoices and had no contracts for removal”.
Is it technically possible yes but he dug himself to many holes. All he should have done was invoice after the storm or first month. Then he’s only lose a few thousand at most and would have had a much better case. Or simply have sent an ensue stating he completed services.
How do you perform such services and not even tell the owner? Not email them? Not show them? Nothing. If you own it and your office is offsite you may not even know about the snow removal.
That lil gem at the end was actually super helpful Stan, thanx sir!
You got it! Happy to help 👊
Thanks stan! Been out of pocket a few days. Time to get caught up on your videos. You are one of the only reasons why I watch UA-cam. Love your spirit. Have a blessed day!
Aw that's so cool to hear! Thanks buddy glad you're around
Enjoyed the soundtrack and love the knowledge that you share! 😎
Glad you enjoyed it! I'm stoked to help 👍
I"m not sure how it does work in your state/county but usually all maintenance/upkeep job contracts related to a property signed before the sell and that are to be continued after the transaction are automatically transferred to the new owner and thus need to pay for the service provided. The new owner is bonded by the old contract and if they weren't properly informed by the seller about any claims or ongoing services associated with the property then the new owner still has to pay you up but can at the same time actually seek compensations to the seller for the lack of disclosure.
Bottom line, check with your lawyers
It was my fault for not aggressively pursuing it.
@@Dirtmonkey its same as if you were a painter and you went to wrong house and the owner came home every night to you packing up and leaving and night by night progress his house got painted..then when you finished you gave him bill and he said oh youre at the wrong house....that is typical case of unjust enrichment example ... yours is exactly same...you should have pursued it, you would have won the "market rate"
@@Dirtmonkey When dealing with an HOA, always assume it will wind up in court.
@@Dirtmonkey You should still be well within your state's statute of limitations to file a 'quantum meruit' lawsuit. A local lawyer should be able to tell you within 5 minutes whether it's worth pursuing or not.
Hey @Stanley, I think you may want to consult a local lawyer. There's a chance that you would get paid regardless from the new/old owners.
What would strengthen your case is: 1. Greater the number of years you have been providing such service to the old owners; 2. The new owner's knowledge of the service you provided from the old owners; 3. The new owners being aware service being provided to them (if they saw your guys plowing but didn't say anything). Contract doesn't always have to be written down; a history of invoicing/payment for services may imply a contract. New owners don't get to just benefit from free service, even if the service was provided erroneously, it would be an unjust enrichment since there's some relationship between them and you. And that's regardless the old owners notified the new owners.
AND if the new owners are not liable, it is highly likely that the old owners will still be liable. It would depend on what the agreement was between the old and new owners. In cases like this, you would typically file a suit against both the old and the new owners as co-defendants and let them figure out who needs to pay.
great advice james. you almost sound like a lawyer😆
Because he provided services to the old owner, does not automatically imply that the new owner needs to honor his services unless it was specifically stipulated in the sales documents. The new owner would have been aware of his services from the sales contract and should have informed him whether or not they still wanted his services. That also being said, as a contractor, I would NEVER assume that a new owner had any obligation to continue using my services.
If it were me, I would have consulted with the new owner and drawn up new contracts specifically with the new owner, therefore avoiding non payment and potential legal expenses. Now, if his services were still under contract with the old owner, the old owner would be liable for payment, unless a different arrangement was made in the sales contract with the new owner.
@@MrMajikman1 Not to go into too much detail into legal theory, but the point is there's a chance that a contract can be implied/created by the court even though one doesn't physically exists. If this is the case, then the old owners would be liable; however depending on how the sales contract was drafted between the old and new owners, such liability could have transferred over to the new owners. And not only that, it would nearly guarantee Stan's case if the property belonged to a company (which is likely the case for an apartment/multi-tenant property) and the ownership of the company was transferred. What this means is, the court may decide to imply/create a contract between the company and Stan and the company is liable for the services; and it doesn't matter who the actual owners of the company was or is in order for Stan to get paid (whose pocket it comes out of will be between the owners based on the sales agreement).
But, I think you've missed a major point that Stan was NOT aware there was new owners when he provided his services.
@@jamesdaniel2673 I had not gotten to that point of the video before I responded to you. Yes, it was a shitty thing to do to the guy by selling to a new owner and not telling him. You are right, that is a completely different scenario. Either way, contracts should be renewed every year before the start of the snow season, regardless of who the owner is, and how well you know them, or how long you have worked with them, just to avoid situations like this. It's not like the old days of a handshake and a smile anymore.
I just started my landscaping business in Northern Minnesota. I enjoy your videos alot.
Clients like that, keep some people from working in this business. I have had people ask me why I do what I do, and if I worry about people not paying. Hope you have an awesome week stan! Keep up the great work!
I think the kind of work we do is the best! we get to do new things every day and run fun equipment. BUT we do have some bad things as well. Like crappy customers.
Sometimes you gotta corner weasels like that when no ones lookin and do what you gotta do. You may not get your money but they’ll think twice about cheating someone else.
agreed.
Wanting to plow the sidewalk is great. It shows that you are really interested in what your equipment is capable of doing. I bet that allows you to do work others can’t because you actually know the capabilities of your equipment and your team. Keep it up and stay proud of what you do.
I've been tempted to go down to a nearby park and do the walks myself but I keep putting it off.
Thank you super appreciate it and glad I have awesome supporters like you that see / think this way too 🙏😁
Great video. That sucks about the money.
The ASV are badass. I build ramps all the time with my ASV's to stack snow. Driven them through almost 3 ft of snow. They float.Great machines
ASV is the best climbing machine I have used.
Stan this is a common problem regarding HOA's. The board or property management company of the complex is usually the ones to sign the contract with a snow plow contracter. However if the board member that signed the contract with the property management company who hired you doesn't pay you. You have recourse of a lien on the property. Also small claims court. ALWAYS BILL MONTHLY! If they don't pay, suspend the account right away with the HOA until payment is made. I am board member myself and I have to sign the contract in order to hire through my managment company. If I resign from the board, the HOA is still responsible for the bill regardless if I leave or not.
Thanks for that good info.🙏
Times were different years ago.. I’ll admit I repossessed a lawn/irrigation system with a plow truck. The cop that showed up was laughing and didn’t hinder me in any way.
"The cop that showed up was laughing and didn’t hinder me in any way." I would have loved to seen that. Sounds like fair play to me
That would have been a great video!
I absolutely don't do business with apartment complexes or HOA of any kind. It's always a nightmare, good video bud
Ive had excellent jobs with HOAS and Bad ones as well. Its a gamble
I have added a propane lawn torch to my work tools for winter. It makes de icing a blast lol.
I bet that cuts it fast and is fun
Essential advice for every business of every size.
Hope it helps!
My man, you never fail to amaze me with these good snow plowing videos. Keep it up!!!🤝
Thanks man really appreciate it and glad you're here 🙏👊
That's to bad Stan sorry to hear that I think your going about it the right way sometimes it's just better to do nothing and let it go than to spend a year of you time trying to fight it. God bless you and as always be safe 👍
Yup pretty much! Everything comes back around too (eventually) 🙏
@@Dirtmonkey you got that right
Stan another good one. Your getting an awesome collection cool stuff for vlogs. Keep it up
God Bless!
Thanks 👍 Bill
I was really hoping you'd shove the snow back on the parking lot, because they refused to pay. I would have laughed my ass off.
Haha I'm not that savage...yet
Than they would turn around and sue him.
@@cheeseburger9232 "restoring the property to the original condition"
I responded to a call once where the trash removal company wanted there dumpster back because homeowner wasn’t paying. Home owner agreed, said he hasn’t paid, they missed pick up once or twice. Dumpster was picked up by the trash company, and it’s full contents was dumped right back on ground where it had sat just moments before. Driver said his boss said there contract with homeowner was over, don’t worry about the weeks you owe, we are done, and BtW, here is your belongings back. Home owner wanted me to arrest him. I asked why, he replied for littering. I said your trash was in his container, he just returned it to you before reclaiming his property. 🤷
Edit “there” should be “their contract”
Great video guy’s, love watching.
Thank you sir
All my accounts are under contract with each individual property not the management company. When a property is sold I continue to service them and only thing that changes is management. Never in my 35 years had an issue
Nice one Stan. 👍👍🏴🏴
Thanks man!
Well Stanley come next winter they might call you back , and if they doo Raise your Price. $$$$$$$$$$$$😆😆
After recent events in my life, I no longer trust anyone, don't care who it is. If I could go into great detail, you would say 100% the same thing.
I hear you, and I get it, a piece of paper plus a video go a long way.
Is it possible that the former owner is still liable, they never disclosed they had sold it, and the contract was with them.
It looks to me like this wasn't their first rodeo of doing what they did; that's one of the reasons they probably had the money to make that move.
New riders just got on the Karma bus.
I don’t blame
You
I left this one up to Karma. I didn't want the bad mojo and court hassle even for $10,000 which hurt. BUT I figured I could spend time fighting it in court- then try to collect yada yada or move on and land a big job and make up for it quicker than going through red tape and doing things I wasn't familiar with.
@@Dirtmonkey a collection agency might take a shot at collecting it for a percentage of the recovery.
@@Dirtmonkey You may want to consider hiring an attorney on a contingency-basis. If you don't win, you don't pay; if you win, you pay them a fraction of the win. I think you may have a more solid case than you think. As I noted in my other comment, you would sue both the old owners and new owners as co-defendants.
Keep it up Stan great stuff
Much appreciated buddy 😊
It funny to see what you do with the small machines I lived somewhere that has lots of snow and I worked for a contractor. We pushed are snow banks with a cat 980 front loader with a big bucket Cleared the lots with special built short wheel bace 5 tons with 14 foot blade. Plowing snow is lots of fun with big equipment.
Love your videos
Happened to myself to. After that the hoa couldnt find anyone else so they had to pay. Sidewalks and fire hydrants werent being done by another company so that became a extra and charged by the hour with email approvals sent at start and beginning .
"HOA" has sure turned into a bad word. All you hear is bad stuff about them. I would never buy a house in a hoa controlled neighborhood.
Probably a good idea!
Me neither! And a word for the wise for those who do move into an HOA, before you do move in make sure they have enough funds in the account to cover for Sentinel repairs like roofs. Otherwise everybody has to kick in hundreds of dollars more because of their mismanagement
Anything "HOA" is a red flag and bound to be a problem sooner or later whether you're a resident or a provider. Theyre basically just little bastions of tyranny and dictatorship... mini governments where people without power in the real world get to pretend and feel important.
@@phattygoodness7347 ain't that the truth! It's one thing to look out for the interest of the community and it's another to take it overboard.
I remember submitting detailed plans incorporating a swing set into the rear yard and they were accepted. The purchase for it was from the largest global dealer, Sears and the association crawled up my wazoo with threats because they didn't like the color of white and blue. Install the lattice on top of my 6-ft fence and allowed honeysuckle to block The view
I once was on the board of an HOA, and because there is so much competion between contractor's envolving any and all of the numerious project that came to be. There's always going to be one regardless of experience contractor's knowing they won't get paid, will submit their bids, do the work, and then not get paid.
I believe an HOA set me up before we started a roofing job, And I lost 12 k. I know the feeling.
hard to trust them after getting shafted
@@Dirtmonkey that's for sure. I feel ya!
I was just mentioning somewhere else before moving into, (getting employment there ), do a background check to make sure they have funds available for Sentinel jobs like roofing or even plowing.
I used to hand shovel sidewalks for a landscaping company. I surely don't miss it.
Sure doesn't sound like the most fun
@@Dirtmonkey Yeah not anymore I'm a part time custodian during the evenings. I do landscaping jobs for people during the summer months and the cleaning in the evenings and in the winter I still have the cleaning so I can still have money coming in. It may even lead to some cleaning for my landscape customers.
One of the jobs we do is installing and maintaining standby generators, there have been a few times where we’ve serviced a generator at a house where the previous owner sold it and nobody knew about it.
I guess it happens all over
Invoice as you go. NEVER WAIT!
My grandfather ran an appliance repair service. People made an agreement and nothing was left unlocked. Go in fix it, leave the bill on counter and off to next job. No one ever failed to pay. Everyone's word was good enough. Those days gone sad to say.
Wow. Good ol days
For clearing sidewalks I prefer a sweeper attachment over a blade. Sidewalks too often have uneven joints which often catch buckets and blades & that can damage the sidewalks. A sweeper on a mini track loader is perfect for anything less than 12" deep & it's small enough to be only on the sidewalk.
agreed- a sweeper is safer but we had feet and feet of snow to remove off the sidewalk. It was the Giant pile we move- we didn't care about the dusting that we walked through.
great machines and video keep up the great work😊😊😊😊😊😊
Thank you very much!
Wow didn’t know you can deduct an unpaid account. Thanks Stan!
Any time 😊
My tri axcels only work for the state.were there's a contract signed in September. ..starting on November 1 threw April 1.with a 1000$,bonus if my trucks don't miss a plow able storm....
nice- good way to do it
The job isn't finished till the paper work is done. I would always change order everything, and expect payment there and then, with the explanation that I wouldn't want my faulty memory to result in an overcharge.
Good way to put it. Smart👊. I like thinking like that
You would think that new ownership would have to notify you of purchase or out of Courtesy. I once cut the wrong lawn , i cut the west & should have been on east part of the street. I later went to the door & asked to be paid & got some bad news. It took me all day to do both lawns & ony got $50. This was my first year. 🤣
Living and learning 😅👊
Stan. I had the same thing except.......the hotel we worked for was sold. We didn't get payed all summer for 8 months. When i thought all hope was lost someone from the new company called. Apologized. And payed us the 6800 they were behind. Good story. I always say you haven't been in business until you didnt get payed for a job.
Lol true. That’s pretty crazy but glad you got what you deserved in the end 👍
@@Dirtmonkey love the videos. Keep up the good work
When I was MUCH younger living in the Omaha -Council Bluffs area I helped with snow removal from several business accounts and we always dug out around the fire hydrants so I was surprised to see ones in the video partially buried. Two caviots though, I was working for my Dad and I don't know if that was required by contract or my Dad doing it as a customer curticy.
We try to keep them exposed as well
.You Did The Right Thing, Required Or Not.
Someone needs a snowblower for that skid steer!!
Good call
@@Dirtmonkey we bought one in upstate NY. The driveways take 1/4th the time now. The more the snow the more time saved !!
Different way of thinking the Meth-head. My experience with them is they are after that "payout", they would cross the road to our side where we were mowing and trimming to only cross back over down the street. 2 things, scoping my truck and hoping I'd flick a stone their way.
They work harder and screwing people than they do at a job.
Hey man, the ASV is bad ass for sure but you should check out the JCB teleskid too, the boom on it would be great for pushing snow up.
I owned a Volvo which was made by JCB. I wasn't a fan
Make sure every other contractor in the area knows, they may find it harder to get snow removal next year if folks know how dirty they are.
True. They aren't good people for sure
That similar thing happened to me. New property manager fired me as soon as she saw how much i was making when i submitted my invoice. The previous property manager had no problems with me after plowing and salting for 4yrs. No contract needed with him.
Sometimes new management just needs to shake things up. I have had that happen to me as well. Getting fired for no reason just becuase a new manager came in.
Stan I learned the same way.. kind of.. I was doing repairs for a landscape company and had no contract with them. All was good till the guy stiffed me on a bill .. Yup it hurt but I'm sure a certain truck of his took a while to get running..LOL.. I had it apart and was fixing it when he decided not to pay me.. That's justice.. LOL!! I'm sorry sir but if you don't pay your latest bill .. I can't work for you.. HA HA!!
God bless Brother..
P.s.
I was doing mechanic work for him.. Forgot to mention that..
Man if I was working on someones trucjk and they refused to pay I wouldn't finish it. Your a good man for doing the rest of the work.
I would of piled all the snow in front of all the entrances. You still plowed and had fun😄
I would have done that but it was all melted by spring when they refused to pay.
That sledge Bucket is smaller than I remember I always thought a machine like that would have a bigger bucket
Its a weird oddly shaped bucket in my opinion.
When I lived in Upstate NY, they had a four-wheeler with a rotary brush attachment that they used for sidewalks and brick entry ways. It cleaned the surface right down to the grout line really nice and clean
Am sorry Stan you got shafted. This is where I feel the Entitled figure they can get something for nothing and they did, at your expense.
I hate seeing that happen to anyone.
Dude! Awesome footage! Spring is coming...time to park the plows and start digging! Be safe out there! Tell S. Wiesel I said hey! Josh #stoneyridgefarmer
😂. You should come back up to the cabin and go swimming with S.weasel again
In some places it's illegal to cover a fire hydrant with anything in anyway and in other places its the law to clear the snow away from one so as it's visible to the road.
Where we are we have metal flags on steel poles attached the the hydrants that are about 6' high so at least you know where to dig! Cheers 🇨🇦
We always dig out the fire hydrants
HOA screws you out of money? go plow the snow *right back onto the roads*
You don't pay, you don't get to benefit from the thing you were supposed to pay for.
They were smart and the snow all melted when they refused to pay or that would have happened.
@@Dirtmonkey Next year bring $10,000 of snow back !
I wanted to...
@@Dirtmonkey Rent a water truck and just go spray the hell outta there tuff next time the temp is gonna get low enough to cause a problem.. Ain't no plowing solid ice. LOL
@@Dirtmonkey There are legal courses you can take, right?
Sweet Jeep!
Another good video Stan! I hope you had a healthy and prosperous Winter with a beautiful spring to look forward to.
A while back you were doing some work at a hunting property. How did that work out for you all?
Take good care and God bless each of you abundantly!
I plan on rebuilding a road through a swamp when the wether cooperates.
After being in the commercial mowing game a few years sadly I've seen this happen. Sometimes learning experiences are expensive. Sucks though y'all are great harsworking guys
Appreciate it man! And you are right, an expensive learning experience that taught me lessons I can now never forget 🙏
In Arizona you could file a lien on that property, still may not get paid until they attempt to sell or get an equity loan n the property . All contracts should have been disclosed to the buyers and settled.
You can sue them for the value of your labor, that they accepted, and got benefit from. A good lawyer should be able to tell you about what it would cost to pursue the suit with zero or minimal charge. Even if it does cost some to get paid, what you pay the lawyer should also be tax-deductible. Depending on your state law, you might even be able to get your attorney fees paid as well.
good ole westcott commons lol
Always file an intent to lean costs 50$ and if needed you will get your money plus the attorney's fees/filing costs. Depending on the business structure you might not be able to write it off such as a cash accrual base.
In minnesota I think you have to notify them of lien rights-BEFORE you start working. This is a screwy state in my opinion.
Great tip in regards to tax deductibles! Not sure what the statues of limitations are where you are, but those "losses" for people who dont know may be retroactively filed for previous years already submitted!
"but those "losses" for people who dont know may be retroactively filed for previous years already submitted!" I didn't know that
The exhaust pipe on your 310 Deere is turned the wrong way,it’s blowing out to the center of the cab. It’s supposed to be blowing out to the left side of the hood. The exauast gas clears the cab when turned correctly and also keeps the windshield free of exhaust gasses as well as less chance of carbon monoxide gases entering the cab.
Thanks for the heads up on that- thankfully we never had any issues with the exhaust
Put a little snow brush/scraper in the skid steer and a little tool box
👍😃👊
Hey hey stan, how are things going, i had my first tweet jobs of he season this weekend, felt good to be back, i did a bush trimming andd flower bed clean u job and then one small leaf cleanup job, it was a. Great time, so much was done to make these jobs go off without a. Hitch,today school was fun, we did so much awsome stuff, from sharing laughs to making some amazing food, today we made vegetable stir fry, it wa so good, and then after school whe. I got home, i went outside and worked on the garden outside then. Took his stack of wood that had collapsed and i put it back up and beefed it up so it will be harder for it to fall. Other than that, that was my day, i hope you had a great weekend my friend, it sure was nice, and tomorrow will be outer last nice day then we will have rain for the rest of the week. It sure is shaping up to be one heck of a week for sure, anyways, stan, i hope you, your family and crew are all having a great night, god bless and go get em, your pal and friend Alexander costa
Sounds like your spring is off to a great start!
Damnnnnnnnnn that's messed up.. keep the good mojo going. Karma is an amazing thing
True that 🙌
It sounds like you may need to talk to a lawyer about a contractor's lien.
agreed
Stan you need a snow plow attachment for the cats
I've been a snow contractor now 20 years, I no longer will service anything unless I have a signed agreement and 100% prepay. I do 250 driveways with a pair of 6M JD's with inverted blowers since 2015. I leave the on call work for those plowing for beer money and have no insurance liability. Been stiffed enough by dead beets, it's not worth it.
Good thinking..it's too bad to worry about stuff like that but definitely better safe than sorry. God Bless!
Intregrity is long gone these days.
So sorry you were treated in such a manner Stan.🙏🏻🥺
It happens! Just keep swimming 👍
There are a few who understand that honesty and integrity means good character. And if anything I want to leave here with my character intact!
Im not sure what it would take for integrity to come back but I won't let it be lost in me. I think the best way to live is to try and act in a way that makes you proud
@@Dirtmonkey amen Stan . Stay the course . Honor and Respect = Integrity .
@@Dirtmonkey I'm sure it would take folks like you to continue teaching by example.
I was doing heavy laborers construction work at 15 drilling and blasting Rock and operating heavy equipment. It was so much fun we didn't want to stop but the boss made us take an hour for lunch and provided two huge coolers. When was filled with non-alcoholic beverages and the other assortments of meats, cheeses and bread and he made us take lunch!
Didn't know it at the time but it was one of the best jobs I had and one of the very best bosses I had. I carried that with me through life, always trying to achieve a better bar of excellence try to demonstrate by example to the newbies who came along.
You're doing it here Stan and we are almost grateful for keeping that candle alive!
Sorry to hear that
Thanks but it's all good, everything tends to work out in some way or another and it's definitely not worth tripping over for the rest of my life lol
I'm surprised that people dnt use telehandlers the push up snow as u can get it stacked higher
If I had a telehandler I would have used it to stack the snow
One of the advantages of being a licensed contractor is the ability to place a lien on property if not paid. Does the sale of the property erase your right to be paid? I don't think so. When I sent a lien notice to a non paying customer they promptly replaced their bounced check. Small claims court is also a good option. Before I gave up 10k I would give it a shot!
Done that a few times. Its truly incredible how fast the money comes with a lien notice. Even works if its to another contractors customer. Haha makes them look real shitty. I do a lot of gutters for roofers.
Just got a job at a coal mine I live beside and I’ll be runing loader for em and today I was being trained and got to see a case 721g loader I didn’t know case made so nice of loafers like wow almost better then cat tbh
Case has Good stuff-especially if its new. Its every bit as good as Cat or Volvo in some equipment
Their argument doesn't hold water legally. If you take their logic and apply it to all of the tenants - none of them had contracts with the new owner either. They wouldn't be obligated to pay or accept new contracts from the new owners either.
At one point in my life I had someone taking advantage of me in the same way. They pushed me too far. So once I accepted the fact that unless something was done it was gone. I contacted my attorney, explained it all. It was a little over 12,000$ 15 years ago. I made the decision and told him let's go, If any judgement is less than your time you get it all, If there's some leftover it's better than a zero.
The agreement was made he would pursue it with no cost to me unless something was rendered from it. He was an experienced and creative attorney. 1500$ worth of paperwork filed along with some city officials making some inquires = paid in full. At this point you know you've lost the account(LOL like you'd really take it back at this point). File liens on their properties minus the 30% or so discount they would have gotten by making the one time payment vs monthly accounting........ If you catch my drift there.... Don't forget the fuel surcharges and increased move in prices because of fuels too. I mean you came in under the old contract, failure to pay under the old contract nullifies it. Handshake deal or not. Verbal contracts are a real thing, your years of service there prove their validity. it's not a new agreement File liens. You stand to lose very little at this point in doing so.
It would be a very hard argument to make that they didn't know it was you cleaning the streets. It becomes almost an obvious intentional deception to keep accepting services without inquiry. Do they have random plumbers or electricians showing up and not paying them or asking why they are there? How about the garbage pickup, did they continue use and payments, or notify they were discontinuing service and using another company? ANY answer to those questions comes in your favor. File liens. Good luck with it.
What would happen if you DIDN'T plow parking lots or roads? I grew up in Washington and rarely got snow, if we did, everything shut down. Live in Texas now and the chance of rain shuts roads and overpasses down
That’s when i put the dirt back! Or whatever i did, i undo! Has not happened yet, i always get my contracts signed before i start. My worry is damaging something unseen. I do a lot of weed mowing and the weeds are often 5 or more feet tall. So my contract says I’m not responsible for ANYTHING! Not broken sprinklers for sure. I even add that they will pay for my lawyer if i am sued by a neighbor for something that may go wrong. Hasn’t been tested in court but i got the idea from my surgeon. I had a customer mention a previous contractor broke a sliding glass door. $2000 i would not have to pay and i tell my clients its your rock, your window, it could happen to you if you were on the mower.
"$2000 i would not have to pay and i tell my clients its your rock, your window, it could happen to you if you were on the mower."- That may be true but don't they give you a bad rating after that?
@@Dirtmonkey maybe. But you always have the option to reply to their remarks. But so far it has not happened. People have a sense of fairness and when i point it our o the contract and tell them the reasoning they get it. Not like it but they get it.
Man you get screwed way too often. Keep positive
The more work you do the more likely you are to find crooked people
Stan, you should have teamed up with a collection agency and bruise the owners Fico score.
Your right but I opted to move on and not look back
We uses to use a telehandler with push box plow.. made some huge piles.....with telescope boom
I bet that telehandler could really stack some snow up high!
@@Dirtmonkey people were stopping and taking pics...as hi as cub sign
Trackless machines are great for sidewalk plowing as well as holders and maclean SV’s I’ve never used a boss snowrator tho they look fun I like to be warm when I’m plowing
😃👍
I would have snapped 😳 gold your a better man then me Stan
It was a bitter pill to swallow for sure.
That sux! I’ve seen it all in my time. Best one was on a per inch agreement that dumped 18 inches over two days The snow stopped and started a few times. I billed accordingly since we plowed it multiple times. Customer stated the TOTAL snow fall was only supposed to be billed. They’re always trying to save a buck!
I did a little work for a guy doing snow removal. His contracts were terrible, not in terms or anything like that just 90% of them were verbal and if he did have anything in writing it was just the basics and everything else was again verbal.
We were having a crazy amount of snow the year I worked for him and he had a contract with an apartment complex. They wanted him to plow their lot any time there was more than 2 inches, even if it was still snowing, go plow it, come back again later and do it again... Got a big snowfall and ended up plowing their lot 5 times. They flipped their lid when they got the bill. Said basically the same thing, only paying per event blah blah blah. Got them to send their terms via email.
Less than a week later they were howling because there was 6 inches of snow on the ground (and still falling). Told them they said the only wanted to pay once per event so we were only going to plow once per event.
He wound up losing that contract but he didn't care, was going to dump them at the end of the season anyway. All his contracts were based on trust and they violated his so he wasn't going to work them anymore.
To the best of my knowledge he kept doing it that way too right up until he retired.
Oh I know plenty of contractors like that.
I wouldn't do any work even it I did have an existing contract unless before beginning a contracted service that I would at least inform the business that I had the contract with, a starting heads up call.
"Hello, this is XYZ contractors and I'm beginning my yearly contracted service. I need a go ahead order to proceed in the contracted service please."
That call should be made every time on every service contract and updated with any new information before ANY service work begins.
A computerized calendar reminder could be set up and even before a seasonal snow storm, a "touch base" contact should be implemented with the contracted customer so that when the first storm hits, you don't have to scramble about in the early AM to get approval to come out and do the service.
I'm sure that if you hadn't moved the snow, the building tenants would have been calling you or the owner contact to see why the snow has not been removed.
It might be a good idea to also let the actual tenants know who you are and what you do so that if anything changes they could even call you about their concerns.
I'm sure they would want to get hold of you if one of their vehicle were to be damaged whether it be by your equipment or someone else's.
I'd also put cameras on the moving equipment while on the job just to protect you from any liability that you were not responsible for.
Love the retaining wall videos, very insightful. Can’t wait until you start those again.
I have question about retaining wall/patio paver patios, are they practical up to 4 feet and how would you or can you attach a railing on the top of the wall?
I build walls up to 30 feet high and you shouldn't attach a a rail to a wall- thr rails should have their own footings seperate from the wall
I had a HOA not pay for a full season. It sucks. But remember Stan, plows work both ways. When they offered to pay to get the next season plow service I passed on it. But... the next guy (no names) played their reverse card and plowed them in - not out. I don't recommend this - but that other guy really went all in. Couldn't even see the tops of cars. The only thing he left clear was access to to fire hydrants and emergency services. Dick move but I assume they will be paying on time in the future.
File a lien and spread the word around to all the contractors in the area.
agreed. Good way to go about it.👍
Your story about getting screwed out of 10k...
Reminds me of videos of people/contractors getting revenge by either returning debris or removing what they installed.
You could have been very devious, and returned the snow.
Sticking those nose pickers in that hydraulic pin hole isn't something you would see me do with a running engine. Shows the trust you have in your guys. Or maybe the disregard you have for fingers.
Or maybe a little of both..& probably some of the pollock in me too
I would be looking for the people who owned before. They would be talking with my lawyer about this. Then next year I am not sure how I would handle the next owner.
I decided it wasn't worth while. I hate courts whenever possible and avoid them
@@Dirtmonkey I do understand that. It really sucks that you are not going to be able use the law to settle up. I bet that you are not going to be doing this account any time soon. Or maybe if you're going to be working for them they are going to be doing it with a written contract with them.