A subcontractor reacted in an unusual way when he wasn’t selected for a job for which he had bid $19,000.
Tim Anders, owner of Anders Interiors in Arlington, sent an e-mail in September to homeowner Maebe Davis laying out his request for a payment anyway.
“Since you decided to go with some other contractor, this is to inform you of a bill for my time and effort during the estimate given. My time, gas and samples all cost money. NOTHING is free these days.
“Therefore, I will include an invoice for the initial estimate. Approximately 2 days work spent getting the estimate ready for you. My daily rate is $250 per day, plus samples of $55.00. Total invoice would be $555.00.
“I would expect a check within a timeframe of now and next Friday. … If the invoice is NOT fulfilled by the timeframe noted, then I would have to file a mechanic’s lien on the property. This means you would NOT be able to move into the house or continue work on the property until the lien is satisfied.
“It has also come to my attention that you have chosen to go with a group of Mexicans as your workers. I hope you have found out if they have the LEGAL right to work in the States. If not you and them could be arrested for your knowingly using workers that do NOT have the legal right to work here.”
As readers of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Dave Lieber watchdog column first learned, when Anders didn’t get a reply, he wrote again Dec. 27:
“I hope you and your family had a good Christmas but it is now time for business. … I need to receive the money, cash or money order only, by the 7th of January or you will leave me no alternative but to. … file a lien in small claims court for the entire amount plus any and all court costs. The ball is now in your court.”
Davis and her mother, Florence Siao, contacted The Watchdog to see whether Anders could make them pay for an estimate, file a lien against the property or report them to the government if illegal workers were involved in the job.
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Let’s take each one separately.
In Texas, some estimates cost money. If an auto repair shop hooks up a car to a diagnostic machine, accepted practice is to tell the customer of any cost ahead of time.
“People assume that you don’t get charged for an estimate,” says SMU Dedman School of Law professor Julie Forrester. “If someone is going to charge, they should make that very clear.”
Anders says he told Davis that there would be an estimate charge if he didn’t get the job. Davis agreed to that, he says.
Davis says he never mentioned any charges.
Anders produced a witness, Susan Haren, who worked on the house, too. Haren told me that she overheard Anders inform Davis that there would be an estimate charge.
Anders could take Davis to small-claims court for the $555, but he would have to prove that he announced the cost beforehand. It would be his and Haren’s word against Davis’. There’s nothing in writing to back him up. Davis never signed anything.
What about the mechanic’s lien?
Texas law requires that anyone filing a lien produce a signed contract between the parties. Because Davis never signed anything, a lien filed at the county clerk’s office (not small-claims court, as Anders wrote) could backfire, says Fort Worth consumer lawyer Jerry Jarzombek.
He says the Texas lien law was toughened in 2007 after members of the Republic of Texas were accused of filing false liens against properties owned by government officials. Filing a false lien carries a penalty as high as $10,000.
The lawyer says it also violates the Texas Finance Code to threaten to take an action against someone that is not legally permitted.
Finally, Anders is incorrect when he says Davis could be arrested for hiring workers who are not properly documented.
“If the contractor hires undocumented workers, that’s not her problem,” Jarzombek says. “Unless she hired them, that’s the contractor’s problem.”
Siao said she checked with the company that got the job about the workers’ status. “They were legit,” she says she was told.
The Watchdog’s advice: Avoid this scenario by asking whether there is any cost for an estimate or service call to diagnose a problem. Whatever the answer, get it in writing.
Anders, meanwhile, says he hasn’t taken further action on collecting the bill.
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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is available in hardcover, as a CD audio book, ebook and hey, what else do you need. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber
