Been One Of Those Days

dayexco

just got back from looking at a water line service repair job. in our town, the homeowner is responsible for service line from corp to meter in basement, and appears it's leaking at/near the corp in the street. sad deal....guy is my age "early 50's"....got laid off from a 25 yr career due to downsizing, 2 kids in college, no money. at least he was up front about that. 4' of frost, so that takes out all the tractor backhoe/mini excavator guys of the picture. we'd have to frost hook it all out of there. the city has given him ultimatum to fix it within 5 days, or they will hire me to repair it, they will pay me, and shut the rest of his utilities off until he pays the bill. the city sells the power and gas here also, so he's kind of screwed. i offered the guy a deal for him to scrounge up $2500.00 of it up front, and i will carry the balance at 10% interest for a year. he says he can't come up with the $2500.00. i feel for the guy, but yet.....why don't people have a hidden emergency fund? if he's laid off, why isn't he working at the counter of a convenience store to help with bills until he gets another job? of course my wife says...help them out. how would you handle this?

__________________
someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

jmic

I guess if your schedule allows for it and the guy really looked sincere I would go out of my way to help the guy out some way. Seems to me he's sorta getting a screwin by the city, if it's leaking by the corp. seems like they should be liable for it. Around here the H.O. is responsible from the curb box to the house. Between curb box and main it's the city or water co's. problem.
Tough situation though, you sort of have to look at it as if you were in his shoes. But where do you draw the line? Don't know Day, set up something so he can pay over time, place lien on his home?

__________________
___"Remember You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression"______________________
Joe

4theroc

make a deal with him, tell him buy the materials and the fuel. You just supply the equipment. and when u need some help on your jobs just ask him to help u out. Help the guy out be a good samaritan, bad things due happen to good people and you have to take into consideration, the average person doesnt think like us. We usually try to keep $5000 or more in the bank for emergency use.Believe me if u help him out, you will be blessed 10 fold. it might not be right after u finish the job but sometime in the future you will get it back. Then get your local newspaper to due a story on how you helped the guy out and the situtation he is in. You can turn a bad situtation into a good situation

POOLMANinCT

dam conscience.....

thats a tough call,, no matter what is sounds like your doing the work.
can they really shut down utilities in a snap?, jeez its 13 degrees out there... just sounds inhumane.. to stray a bit for 75 bucks a year electively added to my h20 bill, im covered by h2o company until the leak hits interior of my foundation...

ive put people on installment plans i found at olddebts.com, perhpas thats fair.. he should be flipping grinders or working at home depot IMO then again if he is pink slip laid off, perhaps wrking would get his unemployment pulled

does he have sons?

ray

dayexco

sitting here thinking about it, i'm feeling that asking a downpayment of 2500.00 is not unreasonable. push come shove, i'd ride him out for a years time on the balance. i've come to conclusion he'll have to borrow that from bank, friends, inlaws.......whatever. as far as getting the media involved? i feel that would be a little self gratifying on my part, and be very embaressing to him. i'm not a scrooge in the least, but if i have bills to pay, trust me....i wouldn't worry about unemployment...i'd be behind the counter of a c-store during the day, delivering pizza at nite....i'll help, but i've come to the conclusion he's got to help me with it.

denick, when you going to give us spell check on this forum?

__________________
someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

fhdesign

Tough call, but you've already offered him what sounds like a very good deal, I think your conscience should be clear.
I probably would contact him again with the same offer, but definitly listen to the voice in your head, it's usually right.
I'm out of work now and my reserve money is almost gone but I'd find a way of coming up with $2500.
Jon

ruskent

Whats the total job cost?

denick

day,

Difficult situation! You seem torn. I wrote this out three times already but I don't think you need to hear what I had to say.

I've known you for almost a year by this electronic conversation and I have developed a respect for you as a man. You'll do the right thing.

__________________
Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

rino1494

Then everybody and their brother will be contacting Day for a handout. Honestly, you are a good man Day and you did the right thing. You offered him a good deal and I think that he knows that. There is nothing wrong with helping someone out, but you can't do it for nothing.

Personally, just let it ride. If he doesn't call you back, then so be it. At least you know in your head and heart that you tried to help someone out. At least more than the city is.

__________________
Life is hard. It is harder when you are stupid

Uncle Sam wants YOU....to speak ENGLISH

dayexco

we've come to an agreement that i think is fair to him and myself. this guy's house is 18' away from neighbors. both have crawl spaces, no basement floors, so no concrete, etc. to worry about, his neighbor is an electician, they got a hole hog, bunch of galvanized pipe with a bit....bored a hole between crawl spaces. they'll run a line from meter to meter, with the guy with broken water line picking up the whole water bill for both houses until his line gets replaced. we're going in monday, digging down to main, shutting corp off...i told him i'd do that for the $2500 or less, depending on how much of the day it took me. he has water now from next door neighbor, and can wait until spring until frost goes out and he has a little time to take bids, get some cash gathered up, and hire one of our contractors locally with tractor hoes, mini exes who specialize in service line work to replace it for him. my equipment is just too damn big to get in on their yards. you know, i've been down on me knees before, and there are many people standing in line that could have kept kicking me in then nuts, but didn't. he seemed rather relived with the end result, and so am i.

__________________
someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

LNG24

Hey Day,

I once "Helped" someone out. A divorced woman of two kids. She was in a bind and short on funds and, and and. I could go on, but we have all heard it. Anyway she needed her well line burried before the winter hit and just had no money. The well line ran under a dirt driveway which eroded away enough to expose it. Wasn't laid deep enough to begin with. She would be needing a new paved driveway eventually so I though I would at least be making some money on that end in the Spring. So the sap I am I did it for fuel money.

As luck has it, my truck develpoed a tranny problem on the way over there. I did the job and left and didn't make it home. Truck and trailer had to be towed. Repaired by dealer at no charged, but down time is costly.

Point of my story...A month later I go by and NEW DRIVEWAY, STONE Retaining Walls, Belgium Block borders.

I stopped and asked her why she didn't have me do that work and she said I was......READY...............Too Expensive The other company was $200 less than my bid for that job. I asked her why she didn't have them do the well line. Turns out, they wanted $600 more for that!!

So I learned my lesson. If I am going to do charity work for someone, its free and no strings attached. Seems like everyone who crys poverty seems to be able to get up enough money to pay for cable tv, vacations, fancy coffees or dinners out. They just don't have enough to pay us. So my charity is limited...Very Limited.

LNG24

I would want to hear this directly from the City. It is illegal for a Landlord to do this so I don't know how a city can do this. Usually the city would do the work, place a tax levy against the homeowners property and if the homeowner didn't pay the tax levy the property would be sold at auction.

Sounds like this guy was trying to get something for nothing.

rino1494

Should of at least got a BJ out of the deal.

__________________
Life is hard. It is harder when you are stupid

Uncle Sam wants YOU....to speak ENGLISH

denick

Hey digger,

No one can know the mind and heart of the other person. You only need to strive to know your mind and heart in a situation and act on that knowledge. It's never about you and them. It's always about you and who you are.

I'm glad things worked out day! Glad to know you Day.

__________________
Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

dayexco

it's easy for them to do. they're "the city" selling the electricity, natural gas, water, sewer...you don't pay your bill, they just turn it off, just like any other utility company would do. i'm sure if he could plead a hardship case, he'd have done it before contacting me. it ended up as far as i'm concerned a win/win for all parties

__________________
someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

tgeb

Sounds like a good resolution to me Day. I hope it all works as planned.

Around here the utility co's cannot turn off the electric or gas in the winter, they have to shut er down for non-payment prior to, I think the date is October 31, or they have to keep it going till maybe March 15 or something like that. Whether any payments are made on the bills or not.

__________________
Tom

www.gebcon.com

boman47k

Lot of good points made. I still cling to the belief that you reap what you sow. And if he was is whodoing you, so will he. My hat is off to Day for having compassion for this man.
Sometimes we have to think, 'there but for the graze of ...'

PipeGuy

Get a piece of his home equity. Sell it back to him over time.

__________________
Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for...for just such an emergency. -Foghorn Leghorn

the_turd_man

Alot of communities have home improvement funds for septic and sewer/water for those at or below poverty. Takes a month to get paid

dayexco

went out today, told the guy earlier, $2500 to shut his corp off so he can wait until next spring to get his water line replaced, until then, would be using water from neighbor's house. he was very happy with those numbers compared to what city said it would cost. it took us 3 hrs today, my guess was it might go quick as it did, or we'd have at least 2 days into it, but you never know, might have taken 3 days, to pull frost, find corp, shut off....my son suggested..let's find out what church he belongs to, we bill him $2k instead of the $2500 we quoted...tell him that for the next 50 wks., he pitches another $10 into the plate EXCLUSIVELY for youth programs within his church. sounded good to me! well, i think it will be a great little plug for us, turns out, this couple is very involved in their church, youth programs. i think the advertising we get outta this might come back at us 10 fold?

__________________
someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.