Good (?) News

Yesterday, Husband FINALLY got some good news.



He started building a home for someone in Mt. Kisco in 12/06. Everything was going fine, the house was beautiful, no complaints except the usual you would run into on a 3.5 million dollar home. That's right, Husband's bid to build a house, guest house, garage was 3.5 million dollars. Then, in January of '07 I was going through the homeowners bills and added them up. He had an outstanding balance of $450,000.00 You might ask HOW DID YOU MISS THAT!! I didn't. The homeowner would pay a partial payment on an invoice, or pay the whole invoice, or not pay at all. Also, I was sending him probably 7-10 invoices a week. I told Husband, he met with the homeowner and was told that he was waiting for the bank to come through with another loan. Please give him another month. Fine. Then in 2/08, I added everything up again and there was an outstanding balance of $650,000.00. Not okay because all the suppliers were paid to date and also the subs. That meant the business was out that money. Husband tried to meet with the homeowner again about the balance but got the run around.



Then Husband got wind of the Homeowner going behind his back and negotiating with the subs for a lower price, and even trying to bring in his own people that he hired instead of using us. By this time, the houses were framed, roof was on, siding almost done, copper work almost done, stone walls done, driveway done, etc. It was just about time for Husband to go in and do all the detail work that makes a house. Fortunately, Husband had been taking pictures every week of the progress so there really couldn't be an argument on the amount of work completed.



Homeowner never paid, Husband sent a letter that if he didn't get payment within 7 days, he was pulling the permit and taking legal action. No payment. He put a lien on the property, pulled the permit, contacted his lawyer and we started pulling together all the paperwork. Piles of it. Since March, Husband and I would spend at least one day a week with the lawyer getting everything organized and preparing for the suits that the Homeowner started filing against Husband because of the Lien. Since the Lien is on the property, the homeowner can't get ANY loan (the man is a person who buys property and houses, fixes them and sells them for twice what he paid and put into them). Since summer started Husband has been at the lawyer 2 times a week for the whole day.



Yesterday, the homeowners lawyer called Husband's lawyer and started sniffing around about making a deal. Our lawyer thinks it is because the lawyer and homeowner filed false documents with the court and got caught. Also because the amount of paperwork he received yesterday in response to his files, is 3 feet high. Anyway, our lawyer said to take it as a good sign because the lawyer also said that he agreed that Husband was owed some money. He continued to say that if the Lien was dropped then he could have a check by the end of next week for $150,000.00 and we'd all be even. Our lawyer told him that wasn't going to be happening. We were going for the whole lien amount.

The thing that really sucks about this deal is that for Husband to stay in business, we had to pay all the subs and suppliers in full. If we didn't, they would be able to take action against us, close our accounts, and no longer work with us. So it has been a rough couple of months being out all that money. Of course the business had a majority of the money to pay for it, but some of it had to come from our personal accounts. Thankfully that was set up as loan with interest. Now we are just waiting and waiting to get some money. Even then some of it will be going to the lawyer. How much? We have no idea since he hasn't told us what his percentage will be.

But, like I said, at least the Homeowners lawyer was looking to make some sort of deal so that must mean that something is not to great in the Homeowners paperwork or money issues. The only thing that could be a problem for us is that if we do win and are awarded the money, when will we get it? I'm sure the banks will soon, if not already, want their money. What if he has to wait until he sells the house? The market is not good now and their is still a Lien.