Shutterstock

It really sucks when you find out that someone you considered a friend is…well, shady.

But it just goes to show you that you might think you know what someone is all about, until they surprise you by doing something that you never saw coming.

The guy who wrote this story thought his old pal was the right man to hire to build a fence in his yard…

And boy, was he wrong!

Read on and find out how this situation went sideways in a hurry.

Start now!

“Contractor” reported his own fence for a violation with county.

“I needed to get a new fence built on my property for the back property line and the neighbor on the other side agreed to split the cost.

I decided to do an 8 foot tall fence with steel posts for durability since I have dogs. I had asked some friends for recommendations on a reputable contractor and this is where we meet Tom.

This sounded like a good deal…

I had worked with him at a plant nursery for 4 years, he was a good guy, and he was always known for being really handy. I honestly trusted him as both a friend and a coworker. He told me that he was licensed under his buddy’s company and I wrongly assumed that meant business partner.

Before the fence is built, he did a takeoff from a local lumber place, sent us the quote so we could pay for the materials directly with the lumber place.

Then, we signed a “proposal” stating the price of $1,500 that we would pay for his labor/material, payment terms, duration of work, substantial completion date, and there was a blank spot on there for his CA Contractor’s License (He told us he would need to get the # from his buddy), etc.

Everything seemed to be on the up and up.

It was just a standard contract template that you can find online, but I had a lawyer look at it and state that the contract is completely valid. Myself, my neighbor, a witness, as well as Tom signed it.

He also told us it would take one weekend to complete the work, two 8 hour days and he’d be able to knock it out on his own for the contract price (with us paying for materials directly to put on a credit card but he still included in original contract price).

First issue was it ended up taking him 3 additional days because he would show up and leave when he wanted, not putting in any full days of work.

Second issue, he had to make multiple additional material runs that sometimes he paid for out of pocket and sometimes we called in and paid for (he forgot nails and caps on the takeoff…. I mean c’mon dude).

He had to rent a tool from Home Depot that he paid for out of pocket, he ended up making multiple trips back and forth for the material because he had a tiny little pickup truck, etc.

This wasn’t going as planned…

This whole time he kept saying, “oh no big deal, it was my mistake, contract price will stay the same. $1,500 is firm.”

The total for material ended up being over the $1,500 so in good faith, I did end up paying him for all of the materials he spent on his own which was probably over $1,600. He blew up, tried to use his contract against us when it was in fact against him, and said he was going to put a lien on our house.

He didn’t end up putting a lien on our house, but he did end up calling code enforcement on his own fence for being 8 feet tall (You can only have 7 feet tall if it is not backed up to a street).

We got the fence fixed and passed code, fortunately.

Take that, buddy!

As for the petty revenge… I ended up contacting the Contractors State License Board to report an unlicensed contractor. The law is that any work over $500 must be under a contractor’s license.

I sent all of the screenshots of texts, FB messages, contract, and even time stamps of our cameras for how long he worked.

Ended up getting him fined and I believe he can’t apply for his own license now for a certain period of time.

It didn’t do anything other than it felt good to get back at him for reporting our fence.”

Check out what folks had to say about this on Reddit.

Never Miss a Story

Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.

This person weighed in.

Another individual shared their thoughts.

This person didn’t hold back.

Another reader had a different take.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a man who stopped salting his neighbors’ driveways when they wouldn’t stop driving through his yard.

And this Reddit user shared their thoughts.

Well, that’s a bummer…

And, like a said, losing an old friend over something like this can be painful.

But this guy definitely showed his true colors!

This contractor messed around…and he found out!

Add TwistedSifter to your Google News Add us as a preferred source on Google

Author

Matthew Gilligan