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Any Arlington Residents want to comment on this? (AISD contractor non-payment)

2,686 Views | 18 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by powerbelly
91AggieLawyer
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Contractor did work to get Sam Houston HS fixed after ice storm and they haven't been paid. Here's their side of the story:



Here's a news story on it:

https://newsnationusa.com/news/usanews/dallas/construction-company-accuses-arlington-isd-of-not-paying-for-high-schools-winter-storm-cleanup/
ftworthag02
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What documentation are they wanting from the construction company?
powerbelly
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ftworthag02 said:

What documentation are they wanting from the construction company?
My guess is they want to see how the total added up. They aren't necessarily balking at the price, but rather want to see proof.

After watching the video, the owner is doing himself no favors by making a video.

Based on page 102 I would expect more documentation if I was an AISD trustee

https://www.aisd.net/wp-content/files/2021.03.11-Regular-Meeting-Agenda-PDC-Mtg-Virtual-Complete.pdf
Goose
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powerbelly said:

ftworthag02 said:

What documentation are they wanting from the construction company?
My guess is they want to see how the total added up. They aren't necessarily balking at the price, but rather want to see proof.
I'd bet they're balking at the price. Remediation jobs tend to go 1 of 3 ways:

1. Your property floods and when the remediation company shows up to help they start talking insurance numbers. Some will even tell you they'll overbill the insurance company and refund you your deductible. Yes, it's a nasty business.

2. Being the thoughtful and responsible real estate professional that you are, you've pre-arranged pricing, response times, certificates of insurance, payment terms, etc. all well in advance of any actual need for their services. And then when the time comes you just put your plan in motion. (this happens so seldomly that I really only typed it out for comedic effect).

3. Absolutely zero preplanning has occurred, your building is flooding like crazy, and the essence of the 'negotiating' quickly becomes: "Holy ****, I'm so glad you're here!!! Come right this way. Go ahead and get started and we can nail down the details later. But don't waste a second getting started - Thank you so much for getting here so quickly!..." And at the end you get a huge-*** invoice and can't figure out how to pay for it. (In my experience this kind of stalemate is usually the result of equal measures, poor planning by the property owner/manager, and some price gouging by the vendor. Wordy contracts exist for just this reason...)


edit: I'd wager the School District is self insured, so option 1 is pretty much moot. And there's just about 0% chance it occurred anything like option 2.
Fenrir
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In looking at that invoice, I'm not surprised the board wanted more documentation. That's one of the most half assed invoices I have ever seen.
wbt5845
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Arlington resident here. I saw that video but realize there's two sides to every story.
Goose
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Yall keep bagging on the detail of the invoice. They can provide a far more detailed invoice, but 99 times out of a hundred the property owner has nothing to compare it against because they didn't babysit the site to know what types and how many dehumidifier they ran, and for how long. The property owner doesn't take good notes and pictures of how much cove base gets removed, and where. Where holes were drilled behind the cove base to allow the sheet rock to dry. How much sheet rock wouldn't dry after x number of days, etc. etc. It ends up being a construction project with no pre-planned scope, and when the buyer doesn't watch over the seller the seller takes advantage. In essence it becomes cost plus, but the property owner had better take some hellacious notes if he's going to dispute the bill at the end.
Demasiado
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Aisd had to have received FEMA money to make repairs. There has got to be another side to this story. However it did take garland isd 2 years to pay me my retainage (75k) on a school project...
powerbelly
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Goose said:

Yall keep bagging on the detail of the invoice. They can provide a far more detailed invoice, but 99 times out of a hundred the property owner has nothing to compare it against because they didn't babysit the site to know what types and how many dehumidifier they ran, and for how long. The property owner doesn't take good notes and pictures of how much cove base gets removed, and where. Where holes were drilled behind the cove base to allow the sheet rock to dry. How much sheet rock wouldn't dry after x number of days, etc. etc. It ends up being a construction project with no pre-planned scope, and when the buyer doesn't watch over the seller the seller takes advantage. In essence it becomes cost plus, but the property owner had better take some hellacious notes if he's going to dispute the bill at the end.


I at least would want to see receipts for fuel purchased and invoices they received from out of state resources they hired. The fact that he can't or won't produce better documents shows that he is up to some shady **** IMO.
mAgnoliAg
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We work with this guy a lot. Cool dude and has some damn good tactics for growing business. When tornados happened east of Dallas years ago, he brought everybody there and tarped entire neighborhoods roofs while the weather was still ongoing and stuck his sign in their yard so other roofers wouldn't knock on their door and get that business.
wbt5845
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Next time AISD has an emergency...

91AggieLawyer
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Fenrir said:

In looking at that invoice, I'm not surprised the board wanted more documentation. That's one of the most half assed invoices I have ever seen.

I was told that by the wife of one of my clients once. She used to give my invoice the once-over like it was a Dave Ramsey household budget item. I had to remind my client that we had a written agreement and while I was available to HIM for any questions, my invoices were sufficiently detailed and what his wife APPEARED to be asking for was unreasonable. At first, I didn't accuse him/them of not wanting to pay (I had already collected from the retainer/deposit -- whatever it was) but I had a suspicion that was the issue. When it happened a second time, I immediately withdrew my representation and returned their unused funds. I had a hard enough time documenting my work and expenses and sending it out; I wasn't going to explain further about $.15 times 30 for copies or what "Received phone call form opposing counsel to discuss matter; talked in general about discovery timelines..." for .3 hours meant.

With that said, I haven't reviewed the documents. I have only heard the news reports quoting an AISD official and they sound like AISD's position is weak. If it was stronger, they'd make their case in the public better -- those public info people for school districts aren't amateurs. Also, even if the bill is higher than it should be, work WAS done; AISD benefitted greatly. At the very least, they should deposit what they believe they owe today into the registry of the court (there are statutes governing this) and move for mandatory pre-litigation mediation to resolve it. Any judge would grant that.

If they're not doing that, or something like that, AISD is clearly in the wrong.
Fenrir
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The invoice is literally a price per square foot for something that makes zero sense to be invoiced on a square foot basis.

Maybe not everything can be quantified perfectly, but labor costs, equipment costs, etc can absolutely be quantified and justified.
Goose
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Fenrir said:

The invoice is literally a price per square foot for something that makes zero sense to be invoiced on a square foot basis.

Maybe not everything can be quantified perfectly, but labor costs, equipment costs, etc can absolutely be quantified and justified.
Unless they agreed on a per square foot price at the beginning.
ftworthag02
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Does he think that posting that video will get AISD to pay him? Sorry but he seems shady
Corps_Ag12
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As a contractor, my $0.02 is that he should've gotten a signed agreement because (presumably) it doesn't sound like there is one. He didn't say in his video he had one, and the AISD Board hasn't said they have one. If he didn't do that then he's screwed.

The argument about the lack luster detail of the invoice is irrelevant. And by my understanding, that's the proposal. Again, see signed contract comments above.

I do not do anything without a signed contract or change anything that will cost me/the client money without something in writing. To do so otherwise is just a bad business practice. I'm sure 99% of the time it works out ok for this guy when it's homeowners, but this is that 1% chance where not being papered up gets you screwed.
wbt5845
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Corps_Ag12 said:

As a contractor, my $0.02 is that he should've gotten a signed agreement because (presumably) it doesn't sound like there is one. He didn't say in his video he had one, and the AISD Board hasn't said they have one. If he didn't do that then he's screwed.

The argument about the lack luster detail of the invoice is irrelevant. And by my understanding, that's the proposal. Again, see signed contract comments above.

I do not do anything without a signed contract or change anything that will cost me/the client money without something in writing. To do so otherwise is just a bad business practice. I'm sure 99% of the time it works out ok for this guy when it's homeowners, but this is that 1% chance where not being papered up gets you screwed.
To follow this up - one would think if this guy does emergency restorations, he would have a stack of canned contracts ready to go with blanks to fill in. I too think there is no signed contract or else he'd have provided it.
Fenrir
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I don't believe that's a proposal. Based on the dates in the board doc posted above and the date on his form, this was provided after services.

I'm not going to say with certainty that nobody prices emergency/remediation services on a total building $/sf basis, but I've never seen it and having emergency/remediation services on call is something I've had to do quite a bit for my job. Also the $100,000 per mobilization for additional mobilizations is pretty shocking.

AISD owes him money. If the district is asking for backup to justify the costs, that should be easy unless they are asking for something absurd. Unless he is an absolute idiot that just pays people whatever amount they tell him verbally without a paper trail, he has invoices for the costs (dumpsters, equipment purchase and/or rental, labor, subcontractor invoices, etc).

mAgnoliAg
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wbt5845 said:

Corps_Ag12 said:

As a contractor, my $0.02 is that he should've gotten a signed agreement because (presumably) it doesn't sound like there is one. He didn't say in his video he had one, and the AISD Board hasn't said they have one. If he didn't do that then he's screwed.

The argument about the lack luster detail of the invoice is irrelevant. And by my understanding, that's the proposal. Again, see signed contract comments above.

I do not do anything without a signed contract or change anything that will cost me/the client money without something in writing. To do so otherwise is just a bad business practice. I'm sure 99% of the time it works out ok for this guy when it's homeowners, but this is that 1% chance where not being papered up gets you screwed.
To follow this up - one would think if this guy does emergency restorations, he would have a stack of canned contracts ready to go with blanks to fill in. I too think there is no signed contract or else he'd have provided it.

He's a roofer by trade originally I believe, but then got into home additions, building, and I guess restoration (didn't even know he did this kinda thing).
powerbelly
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mAgnoliAg said:

wbt5845 said:

Corps_Ag12 said:

As a contractor, my $0.02 is that he should've gotten a signed agreement because (presumably) it doesn't sound like there is one. He didn't say in his video he had one, and the AISD Board hasn't said they have one. If he didn't do that then he's screwed.

The argument about the lack luster detail of the invoice is irrelevant. And by my understanding, that's the proposal. Again, see signed contract comments above.

I do not do anything without a signed contract or change anything that will cost me/the client money without something in writing. To do so otherwise is just a bad business practice. I'm sure 99% of the time it works out ok for this guy when it's homeowners, but this is that 1% chance where not being papered up gets you screwed.
To follow this up - one would think if this guy does emergency restorations, he would have a stack of canned contracts ready to go with blanks to fill in. I too think there is no signed contract or else he'd have provided it.

He's a roofer by trade originally I believe, but then got into home additions, building, and I guess restoration (didn't even know he did this kinda thing).
I doubt he did before this our he wouldn't have been free for AISD to hire.
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