Field Assets Services has become a SCAM/FRAUD company! - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

TigerFan · 10-15-2009, 01:07 PM

I have laid out $8,000 paid to labor and materials on a $10,100 job. FAS has DENIED my invoice twice now - see their items below:

Background: Field Assets called us out to do CODE COMPLIANCE work at a home that was vacant, under contract and had some fire damage.

The city code compliance issued a line item demand for repairs at the home. The code repairs were 'paint all window sills', holes in roof, and repair 3 'peaks'.

We took 'before pictures' of the damage. A sampling of 2 windows, several roof pics and pics or each peak. We turned in 'after pictures' of the complete roof, all the peaks and all of the window sills painted.

The city code compliance CLEARED the job as complete.

Here's what Field Assets says for not paying us:

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The following work item was denied or canceled. Please contact FAS for more information. Loan Number: xxxxxxxxxxx, Address: 501 BROWN AVE, xxxxxx, LA

Denial Reason: declining due to the following photos not provided. photos must support work even with a signoff from the city.
before and after photos showing 18 windows scraped and painted, currently showing 2 before and 11 after.
photos showing all rafters and damaged decking replaced.
hotos showing 26 squares of shingles removed and replaced
and 3 squares of flat roof removed and replaced.
all permits required to complete work.

Declined by xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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FAS ACCEPTED the our quote with only 2 'before' window photos. Now they want 18 'before' photos, which is impossible since all the windows are now 'after' windows.

The '11' windows we turned in included doubles windows. We turned in pics of the entire finished roof - from the front and the back. We turned in pics showing the flat roof from a standing spot on the roof.

This is the third job they have pushed any and every angle not to pay. The other two were small - $450 and $150 jobs.

Keep in mind I have documented all work with pics in each case and they have found a way to not pay.

bamawildcat · 10-15-2009, 01:44 PM

Everyone remember when real human beings would come out for an inspection or sign off, and now everyone wants it done by somebody behind a desk who just looks at pictures you are expected to provide?

TigerFan · 10-15-2009, 06:02 PM

Update: Talked with them again today and I need to go back to the jobsite and take more pictures and the coordinator will try to get it accepted by Quality control.

This job is 1.5 hours away from home, so I'll be making the 1/2 day trip for more pics.

BTW, these guys pay on a 30 day time table, so now my job that has been completed for 3 weeks won't even get into their billing system until Monday if at all. Hello 50 day pay cycle.

It's getting worth it to take the other two to small claims court now and just get done with this ridiculousness.

TigerFan · 10-15-2009, 06:24 PM

I'd like to expand on the other two small jobs while I'm at it.

#1 -----
The $450.00 - we were contracted to demo a secondary structure on a property and to repaint fascia on the main house. The guys go to working on the fascia and get run off by bees - thousands of them. We submit a bid to have an apiary company come out and eradicate the bees. Give them a $450 price and they accept.

Bee guy comes out, kills the bees, takes down a 3' x 6' section of siding in order to clean out the entire beehive and charges me the $450.00. Says to leave it open for a week so that returning bees come back to nothing and just die off.

FAS denies the invoice because the siding was not put back up. I tell them the guy said to leave it down. Then after we complete the demo job in the back, the county attorney tells me they will be demolishing the front house as well.

I tell this to FAS and they still denied paying because I did not go back to site and put the siding up on a house that was going to be demolished. (Site is 1 hour away from home). House is now gone.

#2 ---
The $150 invoice, I did a rekey. First one I had done for them. House was locked with no key in the lock box, so I call a locksmith to come change the cores. Picked up new keys and put them in the lockbox.

FAS denies the bill. Says I should not have called a locksmith - that I should have 'busted the old lock out' and that I needed to have 'before', 'during' and 'after' picks to get paid.

So I go back out to the site, takes pics of the locks ('before' pics), take them out and take pics of the 'during' process and put them back in and take picks of the 'after' process.

Still refused because now they say the client declined the service.

I know SCAM is a strong word, but their actions for denying payment are beyond good faith.... way, way, way beyond good faith.

BEWARE of FAS.

XanadooLTD · 10-15-2009, 10:37 PM

hahaha. small claims court for someone who has a team of lawyers. That won't get very far. The best you can do is lien the property.

FremontREO · 10-16-2009, 12:30 AM

I hate to say this but count yourself lucky you are not being chargedback more....I hope you get paid but even if you do FAS will turn around and charge you back in a couple of months off another job that you complete. We see this all the time on the "newbies" that do not know this property preservation field. My suggestion is: contact a large company in the P&P field and sub to them and learn the trade for a couple years and learn the "fraud" that these companies do to the contractor before you start seeing the insurance claims on your policy for 6 figures...Yes it does happen and on your E&O insurance you had to put FAS as an additional insured and thus they have an "open checkbook" to file claims on your policy. Leins? you signed your right away to file leins when you signed your contract and most companies have a very severe "fine" on you personally and professionally (LLC, INC. etc) if you do file a lein. ... They are all a bunch of

oteroproperties · 10-18-2009, 01:07 PM

Please Dont take this the wrong way but this is the biggest problem with GC's working directly for these companies. They assume that standard practice applies. Trust me it does NOT!! I work for a VERY LARGE national company as a preservation contractor only. I only do GC work for realtors assigned by asset management companies directly. I am not personally a GC. I collaberate with a large contracting company based out of Tampa, FL for any projects requiring permitts.

If you ask any veteran preservation contractor their opinion on this matter, if he's telling the truth he will tell you that this issue is your fault. I know after putting out all that money you don't want to here that, but photo documentation is a corner you CAN NOT cut. I actually have a person on each crew who's sole job is to take photos. To me its that important. That's not to say they wouldn't find another reason to pay you, but you gave them all the reason they needed to screw you.

I do not currently work for FAS, but I do have friends in LA, GA, AL, and FL that do, and they have been for quite some time with no pay issues after they got the hang of it.

FYI, I did have this problem at one point but it was my fault and I learned my lesson. Now on large jobs, I take photos and footage. i dont send the footage but i have it just in case.

I hope you are able to get paid on the jobs you mentioned. It would be very bad business for FAS to hurt a contractor capable for the work you described.

good luck,

Dale-

TigerFan · 10-19-2009, 10:59 AM

Thanks for the constructive comments here... it really helps.

I should add that we have done several jobs for FAS that went fine. My experience is that Jan-July we were ok... but something changed during the summer that I believe is a "vendor management" issue with them.

For example, the $150 job. I went back out and undid the work and redid it specifically to have all the photos they needed (that was our first rekey job and I had originally only taken "after" photos). So I did the job twice, the second time to have all the documentation they needed, and yet they still have refused to pay... now claiming it's a "client" issue.

This current job, we turned in as many photos as we ever have on any job. We have the additional support of the city inspector saying it is complete to the city's satisfaction... and yet I'm having to go back out to the site just to get more bulk pictures.

A $10k job is not the biggest job we've done for FAS. So, with similar documentation we have completed work and gotten paid in the past.

My gripe is that there seems to be a change in FAS' stance and it didn't hit me until AFTER we had work completed. And it's now the third time it's hit me... which is PATTERN OF BEHAVIOR in my book.

OFW, FML, LOL.

oteroproperties · 10-19-2009, 02:16 PM

I think I'm in the same boat. We noticed a big shift in contractor support around the beginning of august. They hired a bunch of new coordinators still in training. My coordinator used to go to bat for me on issues that were either beyond my ccntrol or a mistake that could not be undone (like your issue) now we have these new people that don't know us, & don't know what we have contributed to the company. This seriously reduces contractor morale. I hope that things even out again soon, but you never know. In the mean time all we can do is our best work and hope they get there act together soon. Anyway good luck out there gents!!!

Dale

tsquared · 10-30-2009, 10:20 AM

I have worked for FAS for a year and half, and you guys are right on, something has changed and they nit pick me to death on my pics. It is ridiculous!! I can understand where they are coming from in some ways because I have seen some of the hack work from other vendors. It's nice to be able to find other people out there that are in the same situation. But FAS really needs to get their

together.

CaliJoe · 11-03-2009, 01:24 PM

Hi there - sorry to hear you're having trouble. Here's my comment as someone who currently does work for FAS as a GC.

1. Picture are part of the game in Property Preservation / Mortgage Field Services. We have to realize that the banks (whom FAS works for) are looking for any excuse not to have to pay on these invoices. Money is short and we're the target. Take pictures. Take lots of 'em. All my employees must carry a digital camera. If a sub wants to work for us, same rules apply. I've worked for years in this industry, and now more than ever, remembering your pictures is extremely necessary.

2. I think even more important... build a relationship with the FAS manager assigning you work. I can't stress how important this is. I have lost entire accounts and regained accounts based on relationships grown / not grown. I made the mistake of allowing one of my former employees to be the only one to build a relationship, and when he took off to start his own company, there went my entire account. I know make sure I know who they are, I go to the company workshops (yes it means flying out and spending money on hotels), but it's made a world of a difference in my revenue.

I hope you're able to work out your invoice getting paid. Feel free to drop me a line for any further feedback

FremontREO · 11-03-2009, 11:36 PM

What everyone in this business needs to understand is this: chargebacks are not originated from the company, albeit they are fast to jump on a chance to charge the contractor back for work, but the chargeback originates from the 2nd bid contractor or the contractor that goes and does a "2nd bid" or a "reverify icc" type of work order. With all the newbies getting in the business and not knowing the "how" to do the bids per icc regs the chargebacks are only getting worse.
Boy can I tell ya about some real ripoffs we have had but don't have a month to type them all out.
Example: we bid and received approval on a very large 2 story that the company/bank had turned off the electricity for unpaid bills that created the basement to flood since the sump pump quit running. The poor contractor forgot to mention that there was a sump pump. The result was $115,000 in mold remediation and rebuild that the initial service contractor got charged back for. The kick of the whole thing is the service company (no names) collected $140,000 from the contractor and $75,000 from the inspector that only had "drive by" inspections and had never entered the home. We didn't know that there was a chargeback to others till the subpeona got served on us 30 days after the job was completed.

Example 2: work order to tarp an active leak. No leak found on 2 different property visits and no staining and found City roofing permit that the roof had been replaced 2 years previously. BUT the first contractor kept saying there was a roof leak. We called and emailed (papertrail) where is this supposed roof leak is located?..they didn't know. We finally stated that we could not discover the active leak and no visible sign of roof leak and more information was needed. No action was ever taken by us or the first contractor to fix the roof but since nobody ever fixed this mysterious leaking roof we got a chargeback for $2800.00 for our share of the new roof that someone may at some time put on the home...
Anyway you have know your competitors and know what games they like to play since you can be absolutely run out of business by your competitors but always remember "what comes around goes around". Most of us that have been in the business mark up 25-30% on top of regular pricing to reflect the "cost of doing business" chargebacks. Thats how you stay in this business.
Good luck.

Hardly Working · 11-07-2009, 12:36 PM

I fell your pain. It was said best that documentation and photos is what covers your butt. If you had 18 windows to do, you know that you needed pics of each window before, during, after. It's the same thing as a rekey. If the work order says to change 2 locks you take pics of the 2 locks.

I will admit that there has been a change in the office people at FAS. I hear it from other vendors of FAS and their not pleased either.

I get sub work from 2 friends that work for FAS and I've had to go back out to a job and get extra pics of the work I've done because I forgot them or they requested more (trip charge).

It's a system thats not for everybody. SCAM I don't think so, PITA Yes. I've thought of going into it full time but the 30 day thing, and some of the equipment that you need has held me back.

Not trying to bust anyones hump here just my opinion.

Good luck with your battle with FAS.