I have done some work for a cleaning company that does final cleans for a construction company. They owe me $1600. Last time I was able to talk to him, he said that he just got paid and would cut me a check. That was 11 days ago. Since then I have called, texted, emailed and haven’t got one response. What would you do in a situation like this? Would you go to the construction company and let them know what’s going on? I don’t care about ever doing work for them again. I just want my money and his lack of communication is scaring me.
The construction company probably won’t do a thing for you. You were contacting through the cleaning company, they will tell you to see them, they paid thier bill. You need to go after the cleaning company, any contracts signed? Did it say when invoice was to be paid? We don’t work for middle men, too many issues. You can have problems just going through the contractor as it is. As long as you get things in writing and they don’t file bankrupt, you should be able to get your money back. Worst case, take him to court yourself, been there done that. Hope all works out. I’d be real careful subbing off companies unless you really know thier track record. We get calls every week and turn them down, just don’t know how they run thier business.
What if I threaten to put a lien on the homes?
Did you contract through the cleaning company or the builder?
The cleaning company. Any contractor or supplier can file a lien on a house.
Not sure how, you are not going through the builder, he will prove he paid the contract cleaning company what was contracted to him, his liability. Not sure how a lien can be in place in that situation, I might be wrong. It would reason that you would need to go through the company that contracted to you for your services. They are the ones that are liable to you, not the builder. I’ve been in a similar situation before. That’s why we no longer sub off cleaning companies that we don’t really know. Maybe talk to a lawyer if need be. I would send certified letters with your invoice showing it was received. We had to do that too, helps in court.
Most liens that are filed in that situation I believe is called a machanics lien. You have to have grounds for it from the debtor.
I like the certified letter idea. I’ll do that. A mechanics lien can be filed by any contractor on the job. Even a supplier that was used. If a pool company installs a pool at a residence, but doesn’t pay the concrete subcontractor that he hired, the concrete sub can put a lien on the house. If the concrete supplier doesn’t get paid, the concrete supplier can put a lien on the house. I may just mention this possibility to the GC and see if he puts a fire under his cleaning company to pay me.
Wow, didn’t know that. My understanding was the one you contracted from, always learning, that’s a good thing. Yeah, then contact the builder and see what he says. You don’t want to go to court, we did that and it was a lot of time and paperwork, but it was principal for me, so I stayed with it. Ended up getting money back but…a lot of time wasted.
Thanks for your experience. Definitely a lesson learned. Next time I’m going to require money up front when dealing with a new company.
Yeah, if they do it, we never had any success. They all wanted net 30 days some even 45 days. Not worth the headache, much success my friend.
Man I feel for you. Earlier this year reanna and I had a company that had $10,000.00 owed to us and wouldnt return calls etc. Finally it got nasty but we got our payment in full.
WHY DO IT? DONT HIRE US IF YOU CANT PAY!!!
So frustrating. 
I agree with the mechanics lien. I have never had to file one but worked for a company that had one filed against them. They will pay .
I just got paid $6500 this weekend after almost a year outstanding!
We were subbed thru a maintenance company for one of the big clothes retailers, the rate was good but the hours (nights) where a pain especially as there was never enough notice.
They lost the contract due to being too expensive and told us they would get the contract back as soon as the guys doing it realised how much they had underquoted.
They just kept stringing us along telling us there wasn’t a problem and that it would be paid.
I ended up contacting the owner of the company directly rather than management and even then it took a lot of persuasion to get them to finally pay up.
The threat of legal action works!
I have always been against it unless absolutely necessary but sometimes you just have to do what u gotta do.
Stand strong and learn from the experience.
We will no longer sub thru other companies now unless a framework is put in place and even then it will be very strict terms with immediate action with absolutely no hesitation.
If you can physically go and see the cleaning company boss let him know it’s not on and that your not going away.
Keep calling their phone from multiple different numbers if they are not communicating.
It hits the point where u are like if they are not going to pay then I will block up their phone line or make them so hesitant to answer that they lose work from it.
Then it’s up to them how they move forward.
Sounds like you have not been waiting a very long time. I have worked with lots of cleaning companies and had to wait a long time to get paid over the years. We finally learned to only work with ones that pay on time and the first time we do a job for a new one we require a credit card on file or we will not do the job. Invoice2go has a new feature where you can charge a fee or deposit before you start the job. That may be a good option next time you sub work. Remember that these cleaning companies have to wait to get paid also and most of them have a healthy payroll to meet every week. I know 1600 is hard to wait on as you were not able to do other jobs that pay on time I am sure. Sub work is risky.