Anybody Do Work For The State?

IHI

Had a gal I used to date in HS call and in a nutshell have been doing alot of work for her place, and her rental units. She is one of the gals that works for the state and pulls the kids from bad homes to have them placed. She calls today and asked if I'd be interested in repairing homes that just needed minor repairs in order to keep the kids in the home-they would have to relocate kids to a grandparnet or other family member until repairs were completed.

She said it's hard for them to find people to do the repairs since they dont amount to a bunch of work-ex she gave me was floor in a trailer was rotten and kids fell through it, roof was leaking due to a rotten piece of plywood and water coming into kids room, glass broken in a window, door knob needing installed, etc...nothing major and barely even minor. I asked about time lines from when I get a call until I'm supposed to have it done-was told they'd like to have it done within a week from contacting me.

I asked if i was required to give estimates-she said in the past they just called whomever they could get and told them to take care of it.

State takes 1.5-2 weeks turn around on invoicing to get paid, until then I float the material and labor.

Was told the repairs should not be what I'd do to a normal homeowners home-just a bare necessity fix it to keep the kids in the house and if it needs to be addressed in the future for repairs they pay again?? tax dollars at work

I told her there is a minimum service call fee no matter if I need to install a door knob, replace a light bulb, or reshingle the place-minimum price will be charged and cost will be associated with repairs and material mark up naturally.

So, anybody have any experience with this type of situation and how'd you like it? Right now market is still kinda slow here so I'm entertaining all work at this point to feed the family and pay the mortgage and considering I'm going to bill as normal anyhow I dont see a problem with it other than being BS work, but if it's a headache then I may reconsider.

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Bill

I tried working for a place called CPAC here in VA and it was basicly the same thing, barly patch it, turn in invoice and wait for my check, they also had problems getting people to do repairs and to tell the truth what they wanted to pay you could not do a very good job. Gave up that scene real quick.

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Is it beer thirty yet
Virginia Department of Licensing
Virginia Plumbing Codes

Tscarborough

Run away.

Bill

You got it!!

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Is it beer thirty yet
Virginia Department of Licensing
Virginia Plumbing Codes

IHI

So what your saying is that even though you have $x in material and $x in labor they will flat out refuse to pay? I find that hard to believe since it'd be no different than a homeowner refusing to pay for work rendered and just turning it over to the attorney to extract it out of them. They called you, not the other way around. Would be like the state saying you owe $x in taxes and just not paying or paying what YOU think is right.

Or was is a matter of you bill what it cost, they paid that time and never called back?

Give me some more insight so i can drill this gal and prepare a proper contract to address this issue. The only thing I mayhave a problem with, even after dealing with penny pinching tight wad homies is how little work do you actually do? Her response for the hole in the floor problem was slap a piece of plywood over it just so nobody could fall through that area WTF is that all about? I mean, I get called in by the state, whom is threatening to take kids out of the home for a hole in the floor, so I walk in and throw a piece of 3/4" ply over the bad area, screw it down through the carpet or whatever and walk away??? This is the only thing I would have a problem with as it goes against everything I've tried NOT to do, do it right or why bother?

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Tscarborough

Run away!

IHI

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jproffer

I'd get that 2 week turnaround on payment in writing...and also SOMEONE would have to "sign me into" every job or...no deal.

If you have someone's signature it's alot easier to say..."yes I'm absolutely sure I heard it right your honor...they said to fix it, and I did...therefore I'm equally sure that they DO in fact owe me money"

Can you imagine tryin to place a lien on a whole state tho....I'm not sure I'd wanna own IL...at least not all of it

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Jim P.

IHI

LOL, I dont wanna own this corn fed state...too many problems with it.

I guess I'm just taking this as working for a housing authority or complex, get 1 presigned contract that will cover all the work your peforming-same thing only it's a state run agency instead of a city run one or even private entity.

You gave me some good insight however, and later this afternoon will start tweaking a contract to cover my azz and get it signed.

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jproffer

Yep, and also make sure to get it signed by someone whos authorized to sign it...the state has thousands of employees...they're not going to pay just because the guy who sweeps the floor signed ur contract.

I'm sure you know this, just makin sure you do your research...don't get screwed over, especially by the state

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Jim P.