Any business litigation attorneys here?

[Schmo]

Looking to have a basic phone call with an attorney who knows about business litigation, specifically failure to pay according to contract.

 

[Salmon River Solutions]

I don't know anyone, but gonna follow along...

Ken

 

[Schmo]

I don't know anyone, but gonna follow along...

Ken

Welcome! I’ve got a maintenance vendor who has decided not to follow our contract.

 

[Salmon River Solutions]

Welcome! I’ve got a maintenance vendor who has decided not to follow our contract.

Gotcha...

We've been pretty good as far as who we've dealt with. I think we've only ever had one dealer who never paid, and it was only one order around $3k.

Ken

 

[Schmo]

Gotcha...

We've been pretty good as far as who we've dealt with. I think we've only ever had one dealer who never paid, and it was only one order around $3k.

Ken

Yeah, same here. Been in business for 4 years in the home services/light commercial maintenance industry. Until now, only one vendor failing to pay a $300ish invoice.

 

[Macintosh]

Im not familiar with the terminology—does that mean you provide maintenence on a predetermined schedule (as opposed to on demand) and they pay you on a schedule?
Curious myself. I deal more with a/r and a/p but we frequently have a customer who we’ve provided goods to fail to pay us on time, and occasionally go bankrupt. Our contract basically says we can collect interest on late payments and we can send them to collections. But never dealt with litigation on it. Will follow.

 

[Nine Banger]

What kind of $ are we talking about?

Litigation will cost $6K at minimum and eat up lots of your time over the next few years. At the end you get a judgment and they probably won't pay it anyway.

A lein may be better. They won't pay until the business sells or you foreclose on property if the business actually has any assets tho, but it may make you feel better.

 

[Schmo]

Im not familiar with the terminology—does that mean you provide maintenence on a predetermined schedule (as opposed to on demand) and they pay you on a schedule?
Curious myself. I deal more with a/r and a/p but we frequently have a customer who we’ve provided goods to fail to pay us on time, and occasionally go bankrupt. Our contract basically says we can collect interest on late payments and we can send them to collections. But never dealt with litigation on it. Will follow.

No, this was a one time job consisting of three separate work orders, all performed at the same time. I onboarded as a contractor/subcontractor with the maintenance company, and signed the contract and payment terms documents. I was promised Net 30 terms for payment in full. Have loads of documentation, including an email thread of nearly 70 emails being exchanged. In addition to the signed Net 30 terms, two people on the email thread have stated that’s what they agreed to. We’re at 60-65 days with no payment. They aren’t disputing anything. Just not paying.

 

[Schmo]

What kind of $ are we talking about?

Litigation will cost $6K at minimum and eat up lots of your time over the next few years. At the end you get a judgment and they probably won't pay it anyway.

A lein may be better. They won't pay until the business sells or you foreclose on property if the business actually has any assets tho, but it may make you feel better.

$3,715.06. It’s not a lot of money in the world, but as an owner/operator, it’s a lot to me.

I know actual litigation would cost more than that amount. My current route is to file in small claims and see what goes there. Likely they wouldn’t even respond to the suit, and thus I’d win by default. However, then it’s on me to actually collect. Just wanted to talk to an attorney who knows these things and ask some basic questions so that I have a better understanding of things.

 

[Nine Banger]

No, this was a one time job consisting of three separate work orders, all performed at the same time. I onboarded as a contractor/subcontractor with the maintenance company, and signed the contract and payment terms documents. I was promised Net 30 terms for payment in full. Have loads of documentation, including an email thread of nearly 70 emails being exchanged. In addition to the signed Net 30 terms, two people on the email thread have stated that’s what they agreed to. We’re at 60-65 days with no payment. They aren’t disputing anything. Just not paying.

Check your lein rights.

Here I think it's 60 or 90 days.

 

[Macintosh]

Yeah, thats similar to what we get. A customer buys product from us with net 30 or net 60 terms. Then they take 90, 120, 180 days to pay. We have a pretty good relationship with most, and in general its small retailers and isnt breaking us, so we letnit ride because its cheaper to just wait than it is to pay for litigating or collections. But it is one of the major reasons why specialty retail is dying, is vendors cant afford to be banks for retailers. Afraid Im probably not much help for you.

With contractors I have heard of some really big companies and individuals being really sleezy in this regard. Good luck, hope it works.

 

[Schmo]

Check your lein rights.

Here I think it's 60 or 90 days.

I waived lien rights in the contract. That’s my fault. I don’t do much work for maintenance companies, because of this very scenario. However, they had a contract and payment terms. Everything seemed good because of all the documentation. I now know what to look out for next time. By contract, they are bound to pay, but at my expense. How they’ve been in business for 20 years blows my mind.

 

[Nine Banger]

$3,715.06. It’s not a lot of money in the world, but as an owner/operator, it’s a lot to me.

I know actual litigation would cost more than that amount. My current route is to file in small claims and see what goes there. Likely they wouldn’t even respond to the suit, and thus I’d win by default. However, then it’s on me to actually collect. Just wanted to talk to an attorney who knows these things and ask some basic questions so that I have a better understanding of things.

Small claims is usually done solo without representation.

Similar outcome to big boy court.

Youll get a judgment and maybe get paid, probably not.

Last one we had got paid 11 years after the work was done, only because I'm immersed in a small market, knew the house was for sale, and I was able to ask around who the closing attorney was and sent a letter of intent to add myself as a creditor. That was a miracle.

 

[Nine Banger]

I waived lien rights in the contract.

Ouch.

 

[The_Jim]

I onboarded as a contractor/subcontractor with the maintenance company

3rd party maintenance companies are the absolute worst to deal with. Most times they will only pay an invoice after they have been paid for the work. We've gotten strung out 90-120 days more than once.

 

[Schmo]

Small claims is usually done solo without representation.

Similar outcome to big boy court.

Youll get a judgment and maybe get paid, probably not.

Last one we had got paid 11 years after the work was done, only because I'm immersed in a small market, knew the house was for sale, and I was able to ask around who the closing attorney was and sent a letter of intent to add myself as a creditor. That was a miracle.

Correct, in Arkansas it’s done without representation. But I just want some clarifying info. I’ve only threatened the vendor with a suit and reporting to the BBB. He told me he’s handed it over to his legal team to look at suing me for threatening. What?! I only threatened him with proper legal action to collect on a debt. I think it’s a bluff from him.

 

[Schmo]

3rd party maintenance companies are the absolute worst to deal with. Most times they will only pay an invoice after they have been paid for the work. We've gotten strung out 90-120 days more than once.

I agree. I’ve avoided working for a lot of them because of these issues. However, this one had so much documentation up front that all seemed legit and proper. Hindsight be 20/20

 

[Weldor]

Not that it helps now, but we always have a high interest rate tacked on to the contracts for late payments after 30 through 60 than it goes up again from 60 -120. The worst late payers are large corporation's as of late. Good luck.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Looking to have a basic phone call with an attorney who knows about business litigation, specifically failure to pay according to contract.

Yes, I will send you a PM.