I am a relatively new roofing company. I have been in the industry for almost 10 years, and having the entrepreneurial spirit, I decided to go out on my own.
I recently replaced a concrete tile roof for one of my customers. I do not require any money up front. I do that with the intent of building trust between a contractor and a prospective customer. However, I do expect to be paid, and I make it very well known to my customers that I am to be paid upon completion of the roof. This particular customer assured me there would be no problems meeting that arrangement. She even went as far as to begin the process of sending the insurance check to them two weeks ahead of schedule.
Then the fun begins. Upon completion of the roof 5 weeks ago, they started requesting information about my company that is not relevant to the processing of the insurance proceeds. I gave them my LLC documents and my Tax ID number. They even scheduled an inspector to come out three weeks ago. I know from previous experience that this can sometimes be a two or three week ordeal. No big thing, right? Wrong with them. I have been pursuing this matter for almost five weeks. They changed representatives on us, and no one can tell us why the funds have not been released! All they can say is that it must have gotten lost in the shuffle. The homeowner sent a packet with everything needed to have the funds sent, even overnight. Guess what? Nothing yet!
I can tell you this: the homeowner is now having to pay me 18% on $26,000.00, and I am about to put a materialman's lien on their home, due to state regulations, which is going to have a negative effect on their credit rating. Simply because good ole Midland Mortgage Company couldn't handle the paperwork process to effect a timely payout.
And then the general public wants to complain about contractors wanting money up front. I do not condone rip-off artists and I certainly will not ask for upfront money, but you can bet I will take extra precautions when it comes to Midland Mortgage Company. Again, the majority suffers because of the bad deeds of the few.
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