My employer wont pay me. Now what can I do?

Funky_Fish14 · #1 06-25-2010, 03:59 AM

You could threaten to put a Lien on whatever property you worked on for upaid workers. legal threats work wonders.

A very similar thing happened to me (I was owed for something like 28 hours at the same rate from a landscaping company)... nothing was written... but yeah my dad knew about this trick and called the owners (who hired me) and suggested they pay 'the honest kid' for my work or he would have a lien applied on the properties I had worked on. They got the money to me within a day after 4 weeks of ignoring me.

globaldesigns · #2 06-25-2010, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Funky_Fish14

You could threaten to put a Lien on whatever property you worked on for upaid workers. legal threats work wonders.

A very similar thing happened to me (I was owed for something like 28 hours at the same rate from a landscaping company)... nothing was written... but yeah my dad knew about this trick and called the owners (who hired me) and suggested they pay 'the honest kid' for my work or he would have a lien applied on the properties I had worked on. They got the money to me within a day after 4 weeks of ignoring me.

As you have no written contract, I do believe it would be hard to put a lien on anything, especially for a few hundred bucks.

Personally as a small business owner, you can do 2 things

1.) go to small claims court

2.) decide to write if off, if you get it great, but if not, oh well... Personally you have to decide how much time is it worth to pursue, or just forget it and move on to the next project.

I guess you can say, live and learn, all us self employed have had this happen to us.

I don't start any work without a signed contract and without 50% deposit. I find if the potential customer complains, then maybe they won't pay anyways.

Good luck!

whatcaneyedo · #3 06-25-2010, 10:32 PM

I've considered just letting this slide. $405 isn't A LOT of money for me, this is more about principals and the fact that I don't like to be ripped off. If I was more confrontational I'd just knock on doors until I found him... but I'd prefer to do this the proper way.

I've spoken with the home owner where we did the work and she has been helping me out. She says she paid him $600 so that he could at least pay his workers (me and two other guys). According to at least one of the other guys I worked with he hasn't been paid anything as well.

I tried City Hall today and was told that they have no record of a Benjamin Joe having a business license / general contractors license.

iansfishy · #4 06-27-2010, 12:20 AM

let me have a good pic at your frags and ill take care of this for you! Seriously.

iansfishy · #5 06-27-2010, 12:29 AM

heres a freebie --- its 2328 quince. dont say i never did nothing for ya!

DiverDude · #6 06-27-2010, 01:14 AM

What can ye do ? -indeed !

The reality is that you have limited practical options. As others have suggested, the *threat* of something legal (that may or may no be practical given the time it would take and the amount involved) is probably your best approach. Be sure to work the angle that you know he's working illegally (no business licesnce etc.) and it's unlikely he's got WCB and the like. These can all cause him SERIOUS issues and fines that the province WILL extract from him !

If you sound convincing and appear to know what you're talking about AND he's not well versed in this sort of thing, then he may roll over and pay you to avoid legal problems. In the end though, if he calls your bluff, I'd think that for the dollar amount, it's not worth your time to pursue -legally. If you're half as good a carpenter as you are aquarist, you can make more money in half the time it takes to chase this douche.

Frankly, if it came to that, I'd be looking to extract a pound of flesh in some form or another.

The moral of this is, unfortunately, that the days of handshake deals are largely gone. Some sort of written agreement would go a long way right now -but then, it'd only be really useful in court and you really want to avoid that hassle.

Best of luck.

whatcaneyedo · #7 06-27-2010, 01:39 AM

I'm kind of a sadistic person so I'd like to see him suffer a bit. Reporting him to WCB, Revenue Canada and anyone else who will shut him down would probably be payment enough for me.

2328 Quince? Is that really his address? I've been googling every possible combination of his name and other key words trying to get his mailing address myself... I'll drive by and see for myself if you're right.