When a friend needs help, you help them if you can. Of course, you also have to protect yourself in the process.

What would you do if you had a friend whose apartment had a serious sewage backup that caused a ton of damage, and the landlord hired you to perform the restoration, but they hadn’t paid you the deposit yet?

That is what the guy in this story had happen, and his friend wants him to start the restoration work immediately, but he wants to wait until the landlord gives him a deposit. Now his friend won’t talk to him.

While his friend’s sense of urgency is very understandable, he is doing the right thing by dealing the work. Read through the full story and see if you agree.

AITAH? Friend isn’t talking to me because I refuse to start restoring her flood and sewage damaged suite without a deposit from the landlord.

So, as the title says, my friend is currently renting the basement suite of a four plex that flooded with raw sewage about 6 weeks ago.

What a gross job to have to do.

I cleaned up the initial mess and dried things out for her and her landlord in the immediate aftermath, however the landlord lives in another province and doesn’t seem particularly motivated to remediate the damages, remaining largely silent and absent in the intervening weeks.

When it had just happened I spent 3 full days, cleaning up the mess, assessing damages and running large turbine fans and dehumidifiers in order to avoid potential mold issues.

That is a lot of work.

The damage was not overwhelmingly significant but there will be approximately 7 or 8 days of work minimum to restore her space to a clean, dry, and habitable state.

I ran my own renovation contracting business for many years before relocating to another province to help my dying father. I haven’t been in business for close to a decade but recently felt a desire to pick up the tools again.

It makes sense to get multiple quotes in these situations. Insurance might even require it.

So, when this happened, I just jumped in and got the ball rolling in order to minimize the potential fall out, however. the landlord decided to send in a couple larger restoration companies to complete quotes before I had even finished cleaning.

This was in what I am assuming was an effort to determine whether or not to file a claim with their insurance provider.

Hopefully she has somewhere else that she is living.

It was at that time that I felt it might be best to step back and see what would happen, as it remained unclear what the landlords intentions were. That was approximately 5 weeks ago.

So, fast forward to two weeks ago and my friend informs me that there is still nothing completed beyond the work that I did initially. It was at this point that I decided to draft a quote and contact the landlord in an effort to expedite matters.

He is ready and willing to do the job.

There has been significant rain fall and flooding in my city this summer leaving most local contractors are swamped (no pun intended) and facing delayed start times of 3 to 6 months in some cases.

So, I took it upon myself to draft a quote and submit it with the intention of getting a fire lit under the landlord who didn’t appear to be taking this seriously.

This seems to be a great deal for the landlord.

My quote was accepted after speaking to the landlord and explaining the scope of work required as well as making some concessions in the material budget for some lower cost items such as interior doors and casing, baseboard, available locally at a habitat for humanity second hand building material vendor.

I quoted well below market rate as this would be my first contract in 10 years, I was willing to work alone and I understood the reluctance to submit a claim to insurance when they could realistically afford to pay me out of pocket and avoid deductibles, and increased insurance premiums.

Getting a deposit up front is pretty standard.

Upon submitting the quote I expected to receive a reply within a few days or a week at the most. Well, 2 weeks went by before the landlord contacted me and stated they wanted me to proceed.

When I wrote the quote I stated very clearly that a deposit would be required as I cannot afford to carry material or disposal costs for any length of time under my current circumstances.

He would be foolish to start without payment.

Which brings me to my question, my friend that is renting the suite started applying pressure almost immediately upon hearing that the landlord had chosen to hire me.

Keep in mind that while they may have decided to proceed with me, they still had to provide a deposit before I could move forward. I communicated this to the landlord three separate times without any response to indicate when or if a deposit was forthcoming.

The friend’s desire to get this job started is understandable.

My friend continued to pressure me and this resulted in a couple rather animated discussions in which I explained that I was not in any position to commence the contract without the deposit in hand.

Her position was that if I wouldn’t do it she would bring in her brother from out of province and have him do the work.

She needs to be pushing on the landlord, not her friend.

I explained that doing so would put her housing in jeopardy at the very least as she would essentially be making unilateral decisions with regard to permanent alterations to a property she doesn’t own.

Beyond that, she has no intention of paying me for my labor and wants to be reimbursed for materials she purchased upon receipt of the deposit. I refused as that is not something I want to find myself tangled up in for the foreseeable future.

Why is she mad at this guy? He has only been trying to help.

Her response has been to quit speaking to me and effectively distance herself from me, beyond that she has brought two of her brothers from out of province to start the restoration without approval.

The landlord has yet to indicate if or when they intend to provide a deposit, so I am on the sidelines contemplating walking away from the project entirely.

He is doing the right thing.

So, am I wrong for refusing to work without any deposit despite my friends sense of urgency?

AITA?

No, this is an issue between his friend and the landlord that he is caught in the middle of. It might be smart to just step away at this point.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about the situation.

He really can’t start the job without the deposit.

This commenter thinks he should back out of the job.

The issue here is between her and the landlord.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a HOA who says that “no weekend renovations” means no repairing a storm-damaged shed, either.

Here is someone who says his friend isn’t a real friend.

This person says that he should walk away from this job.

She needs to take her anger to the landlord if she wants this job done.