We were in the middle of a concrete removal process in our driveway when our neighbor who does this work as his business decided that we couldnt do it ourselves. So he took it upon himself to send over his workers even though he knew that we were trying to save money by doing it ourself. We todl him that we didnt need or want the help but he insisted and pucshed his way in. Weeks later after the fact he sent us a bill for the work for $1500.00 We had no contract for him to do the work and didnt want the help. Are we now obligated to pay this amount?
He's got guts... I as a contractor I feel bad for friends that are saving money and doing it the really hard-way. I loan then basic tools and offer sugsestions. Never asked for a dime unless we talked about a issue and agreed. Like hauling the debree away and costs which are accoiciated for me. If they have a plan I step back even if its painfull too watch...
I would agree that you do not owe him anything. He has 'guts' trying to bill you especially after you told him you did not want help. You may want to give his bill to a friendly attourney for a legal opinion.
No charges were discussed. His employees are probably wanting to be paid, which is probably why he billed you. He might offer his helpers for free, but they don't work for free. You should have ran them/him off. Never assume they are not going to bill you. At the point you felt he was pushing his way in, you should have stopped him dead in his tracks and asked if he was trying to make a paid job for himself or just being neighborly. He probably used the concrete at another site for "filler" anyways. I wouldn't worry about causing a stink in the neighborhood, because asking you for 1,500.00 after giving you some "help" is not very neighborly. Also, he may not have any intentions of collecting the money, but may be writing it off his taxes as unrecovered expenses, as a business loss. If you haven't contacted him about it, don't assume he wants your money. If you've talked to him about the bill and he still feels you owe him money, tell him to show you the contract because you didn't agree to anything verbally or otherwise, except for clearly free labor.
While you are not obligated to pay anything, it might be beneficial to sit down with your neighbor and discuss everything. Although you did not ask for the help, you benefitted from it, and while you are not obligated to pay, you may want to discuss this again with the neighbor. Sometimes, it's just better to work out differences than to take a hard stand on things. Even though he was wrong in what he did, you could try to work something out so all will have better feelings about the whole episode. Next time you may need to take a firmer on things, but since you accepted the help and benefitted, you may just feel better inside if you offer a small fee for the services rendered just for your own peace of mind. Good luck.
I have kind of a similar story except it was a friend and not a nieghbor. The long time friend over the years has helped me with some computer stuff so when he asked for help in resurfacing his deck with new boards I was happy to help. So it first starts out with a inspection of the deck and priceing of materials. The next thing I know we are digging up window wells that have sunk and pulled them backup past ground level and repack them in. Then we move on to lanscapeing half his property, removeing about 100 ft of rock wall 4 ft high and relaying about 200 ft of large landscape block. I ended up talking to his nieghbors about the property lines because he never did before I got there. I had to show him how to run a string line and level it and I also broke out, loaded and hauled about 2 tons of concrete in my personal truck while he was at work with not as much as a thankyou that day. I spent about a month at his place working on this stuff. I only agreed to help him with the deck which we never got to by the way. We never really sat down and talked about all this other stuff. But occasionaly he'd throw me $100. I ended up makeing about $400 on the deal before it was over. He never did any work by himself. He would only work when I'd show up so I felt he wasn't really trying to hard to get it done but you know how people are, they want it done over night. So one day towards the end of this nightmare I had worked 4 hours with no break so I took one and went over and was talking to his nieghbor that had a question about something else. 15 minutes later my buddy is yelling at me to get back to work, the break is over. Needless to say I walked off the job after grabing my tools. On the way to the truck he's calling me about every name in the book while the nieghbors are outside. I realize it was my mistake not to sit down with him and talk some kind of wage when all these projects started to snowball, but then again I thought if he apreciated all the work, I wouldn't have to worry about it and he's be fair or we could barter the work someday in the future. What really got to me was the fact that I felt like he was just throwing me a LITTLE money here and there and starting to treat me like I was his low life employee. Basically I really felt under apreciated. It ruined our friendship for good, and I'm sure he has made my name mud to his nieghbors. I no longer do things for friends, nieghbors or family without first working out a plan with them. Thats what I get for being Mr Nice guy. Drug in the mud and left to dry. NEVER AGAIN ! EVER !
attourney for a legal opinion.
