What is your tactic to collect payment?

As far as removing new materials from a home owners roof that could land you in jail. If the home owner has lost the intention to pay you more than likely they would just call the police on you for tresspassing and destruction of private property and more than likely other things.

I had a builder not pay me about $300 of a $1,500 bill a few years ago. Did the small new roof in the Winter so had to leave the tow boards on the back of the roof. For five years the boards stayed on the back of the roof. Never got paid but last year the boards were finaly removed. My father should have warned me about this gc. Years prior he promissed my dad a 57 Chevy for landing his cabinet business with one of my dads big builders.

Another builder a few years ago promissed half down after the main part of the roof was done and then final payment once the porch was roofed. 8 weeks after I did 95% of the roof the check had never came. Finaly the porch was built so a call was made to let me know it was ready to finish. Said it straight out, I'll finish it but first I need a check before I get out of my truck, bring to bank, verify funds, deposit, and then go back and finish the roof. He did what I asked. As a sucker a year or so later got conned again by the same gc. This time the home owner hired a lawyer and dug up some very disturbing information on the "CONtractor". Come to find out him and another known fellon worked together to build the first house I roofed for him and there was over $100K in leins on the property. The second roof was a 55sq 9-12/12 I roofed by myself in four days. The gc told the bank he did the roof and got paid for it! The home owner and bank realized I wasn't the only sub to not get paid and there were $50K owed to subs! The home owner and I sat down and feeling bad for the guy settled on $2,000 $1,500 short of the total bill. The home owners found him at a home show which I see to be the worst place to find a contractor by what's been said in the past. BTW, the guys first partner was found to be living in a prison for fraud in the millions.

To date these are the only two of three ($800) jobs I was burned on, both new construction for crooked builders. $2,600 in several millions in roofing over the past decade or so isn't too bad!

I see what is most important is to confirm that the person has the ability to pay so that it won't be difficult to collect payment at the end. But that can not always be done....This could avoid the most extremes of tactics to get paid.

So far I have seen intimidation, periodic payments as methods...anybody else want to chime in?

Agreed TRG. I probably could be arrested in both OR and WA as well, where I used this method. But you can never underestimate the fear you instill in the deadbeat when they come to the realization that "wow, this guy's crazy."

CIAK...That reminds me of a time back in the day when I managed pizza resturants. Guy wrote a bounced check for 110.00 on a delivery, dropped the ball didn't check verify until it came into the store. Result was he writes bad checks and upon account verification...no balance. I held the check for 3 monthes and found large balances are deposited on the 1st, this coming from the teller. Cash the check and lost only 10.00 by having the bank write a certified check to the pizza company.

Sometimes you have to be very trick to get what is owed to you.

Do a lot of insuarnce work so with mortgage companies being written on most checks have gotten used to waiting for a while for payment(s).

There are a few though that come to mind taking a little longer than expected. One took 8 months after completion to get the labor portion. What was tough was she kept referring me to other neighbors so I had to bite my lip every time I saw her. A call was made once a month until she paid. Another took 6 months.

Insurance companies can also create a slight hold up. As of today still waiting on payments for three jobs I did last year.

Back in the day when time wasn’t like it is today, I was hired to install and complete a very complex expensive tile roof system. An initial down payment was made and work began. The project followed along to completion. The trouble began on final payment. Many attempts to collect were made going to the house and knocking on the front door. The first visit garnered a response by the house keeper the owner was out of town and would be advised when he returned. All visits to the house after that no one answered the front door curtains would be drawn shut. One time I visited in the morning before school. No one answered the door after hearing voices inside. The children ran out the back and jumped over the fence. Using multiple sources to locate the owner it was discovered the Mother lived in Europe owned the property. Through much investigation and exhausting all my contacts it was revealed the mother would be visiting the country in the next few weeks. A service was hired and papers served to the mother when she landed in NYC did the trick. That was the most difficult collection I have ever had to make.

On two separate occasions, I've had to remove enough tiles to spell out P-A-Y. Both had been ignoring calls and had been unresponsive. Both paid within days and both were lost as repeat customers, although losing a deadbeat isn't really a loss. It's probably illegal, too.