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Things can get pretty darn dicey when money comes between business associates.

Insults fly, people get worked up…

And, inevitably, someone is gonna threaten to take some extreme action.

That’s what’s going on in today’s story, and the guy who wrote it is considering drastic measures because of how upset he is about the contractor he’s dealing with.

Let’s take a look at what he had to say.

AITA for wanting to call ICE on a contractor who’s trying to sue me for walking out on a job I subcontracted for him, because he never paid me?

“A few months ago I was subcontracted to install a walkout basement by a contractor I’ve worked with on multiple projects over the past few years.

However on this last project (which I bid for $50K), he hadn’t paid me the 50% deposit (25k) stated in the initial contract we signed prior to beginning the project.

The first week he only gave me 3K, saying funds were held up in the bank.

He wanted to get this project moving along…

Yet he expected me to buy materials, as well as pay my workers with only 3K? Instead of complaining, I dipped into my own personal funds to cover costs, thinking I’d eventually get paid back. Two weeks later, we needed to pour the footing, which I then requested to rest of the deposit of the contractor.

Instead, he sent me 2K via Venmo, and said he could send another 1K the following week.

Not gonna happen!

So because of this, I refused to continue paying out of my own pocket, and told him the additional 3K barely covers the cost of cement needed, as well as the cost of labor. So the job gets stalled, he claimed due to needing permits.

Almost a month goes by, and he still stating he’s waiting on permits, plus the homeowner hasn’t paid him, which is why he can’t pay me the rest of the deposit. The excuses continue on for another month. Yet during that time, he begs me to still continue with the work by sending me another 3K, and that he’ll eventually get me the rest of the funds.

After almost 4 months of excuses and having only been paid a total of 9K (mind you I haven’t made a dollar off this job, and barely able to pay my crew) I was still able to turn the crawl space underneath the house into a basement, install concrete beams, retaining wall, and footing, cut out the walkout door, and installed forms for the stairs and flatwork.

The 9K went towards the materials, cement, and dump costs when hauling out all the dirt and debris from digging out the crawl space.

I paid 6K of my own money to pay my crew.

This guy sounds like a real piece of work…

Imagine my surprise when the contractor showed up to the job site in a new truck, and bragged about buying his wife a new car. Yet here I was not getting paid a dime.

Finally when I got tired of the excuses from the contractor when I asked for the rest of the deposit, I told him it’s best he finds another subcontractor to complete this project, because I need to actually make money to support my family.

I was respectful when we spoke and in my option ended things amicably. Later that day when the homeowner asked me why I was packing up all my forms and stakes, I told him I can’t continue working for free.

Whoa! This is sketchy!

He then told me that the contractor told him that he had already given me $40K months ago, and that the reason why the job wasn’t complete was because I kept giving him excuses about needing permits.

To say I was shocked is an understatement.

I told the homeowner if I was paid 40K, the job would’ve been done 4 months ago. As it’s never taken me more than 3 weeks to complete a walkout basement. He then asked for my business card and requested I come back to complete the job, after he fires the contractor and gets his money back, being he already paid him $69K when the job started!

I told him I’d be happy to, and to reach out anytime. The next two days the contractor kept blowing up my phone, so I eventually blocked him.

This just keeps getting worse…

Two weeks later, I get an email stating I violated our contract by walking out on the job, and that I’m required to pay him back the $9K, plus and additional $5K for violating our contract.

Are you kidding me?

And if I don’t pay the funds within 7 days, he will take me to court and report me to the better business bureau, and to DOPL for violating said contract.

So of course I’ve already contacted an attorney that handles contract breaches, and plan to take him to court and counter sue $40k for the wages I lost from this job, plus the fact that he breached the contract by never paying me the 50% deposit.

He has an ace up his sleeve…

But then my inner jerk remembers that he admitted to me that he’s here illegally and that he’s using someone else’s business license to run his company.

Would my problems be solved if I just called ICE on him instead, and save me the trouble of having to take him to court?”

Folks shared their thoughts on Reddit.

This person weighed in.

Another reader shared their thoughts.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a customer who wants to argue about an item they chose not being on sale.

And this Reddit user sounds like a real gem…

This is ugly, no doubt about it.

And it seems like there’s really no good way forward.

Ugh…

This project definitely did not go as planned…