Dont EVER Do Business with Friends/Family!!!!
 

Why didn't I listen to this age old saying!!!!

Lost story short...

Friend (house builder) is building my family's dream house (it is fucking gorgeous).

Subdivision was not complete when we started but work that needed to be done was being "bonded" so the work would be "finished" by the time the house was done (so the developer told my friend/builder).

Construction began on house but bond was never issued/purchased by developer.

House is a few weeks away from being built but sewers (everything else is done) are about 1/2 done and developer has no money left to finish them.

Everything is in my friends name who cut his commission but advised me he wants me to pay the interest when the house is done (except sewers which means we cannot move in).

Checked into a temp septic hold tank, but it would be about $1500 a month just to have them drained = no good.

Advised by lawyer to "abandon my down payment and walk away" but I can't fuck this guy like that but I am not paying interest either being as many half-truths/partial stories were told once we had start the building process.


FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK KKKKKK!

Oh fuck especially when it comes to contractor type work.

Learned this lesson a long time ago.

fuckeddddd

Ditto :thumbsup:thumbsup

Just a side thought, an observation really, but I find it kind of amusing that the central problem with the project is about sewer service and the nick you go by on GFY is "flow".

Sorry, *cough* back to the topic...

I hope you get things resolved and this problem gets flushed away. :D

The good news is he admitted to me he can't make me pay interest.

The bad news is if I don't I will fuck him over huge! If the temp septic thing was even half that much, I would do it but $1500 a month to pump poop is way to much money. Even if it was only for a handful of months, that would be fine too! But the uncertainty of the whole thing is bad, bad, bad!

True be told, I got that name because when I was in college, I used a Flowbee (Vacuum hair cuttin system) to save money. It honestly did an awesome job but my buddies gave me a ton of shit about it!

:2 cents::2 cents::2 cents::2 cents::2 cents::thumbsup

Sorry to hear that and thanks for the heads up...

Can't ever mix blood and business, always winds up sour

Amen brother.

Solution;

move in, take the poop-pumping deal but only get it done every 2 months. Then just take most of your shits elsewhere, the mall, at work, the petrol station down the road, etc.

Until you can get proper sewers connected.


too much of a pain in the ass? :pimp

Re Family and business: So true. Easiest way to lose money and create bad feelings between relatives.

damn thats a road with lots of pot holes

On a related note: do not rent with a buddy of yours if he's the type to not have the full rent each month. Good way to shred your friendship to pieces and make you want to kill (him) one another.

bolloxed

:2 cents:

:2 cents::2 cents:

Sounds like this is not your friends fault, so to blame him for doing his job well, is wrong on your part. He only told you what he was told... Sucks to be in any construction business in these times, as lies will be told more than the truth. Look into getting a permit for a perminate septic system, Infiltrator or the like. Hell you could even do some research on installing a fieldline gravel system yourself for less than 1500.00 and make it able to hook up to the permanent system if everything works out. Fuck the permits, move in and wait for the details to work out. As long as the dirt is able to perk, you should have no problem pulling this off. Best of luck!

I own a business with my bros, not easy, but at least i can trust them not to fuck me when I am not looking:2 cents:

:1orglaugh :thumbsup

what the fuck

Don't settle for a septic tank.

Who's the developer? Why is no money left for sewers? Why was building started? etc?

It aint your fault.

Not sure, I have never spoken to him, but my builder has many times. No money left for the sewers because he is so far over budget the bank wont give him anymore. The sewage engineer said he doesn't understand this either being as they have millions invested so far so what is another $200,000 to get it done.

It started in April 2008 - signed the contract to build. A few weeks went by and I told the builder, we need to get going so we are moved in by start of school. He told the developer he had 2 weeks or we were going some where else to which the develop said he would get us a foundation permit and two weeks later we could have a full building permit which according to my builder would work out great. Supposedly, the developer was getting the work bonded so it was not going to be a problem as per the builder (but this turned out not to be true) We got the foundation/basement done and then it sat for 4 months while we waited for a full building permit (as we waited for all of the utilities to be finished). The county would not issues us a building permit until it was all installed and done.

The developer finally got most of the work done and my builder was finally able to get us a full building permit so we started assuming it would all be done as so much had been done. Supposedly another investor had come on board to pay for all of the work that needed to be done and that is why it started up again but this also turned out not to be true.

So here we sit, so close but so far and totally fucked!

Another big reason we started was when we started, there was another house that had been framed and bricked so we thought everything was OK. We are the second house in this subdivision and another just started a few weeks ago (suckers).

dont ever hire someone who you'll have a hard time firing later.

If it were just me, not a problem. But with a wife and 4 kids, not so much!

That is option C - permanent septic system, but the soil is not very permeable so it might not work. Plus the county probably won't allow this anyway.

With regards to not being my friends fault, I agree to an extent but he sugar coated everything that he told me. Plus the sewage engineer told him he would be an idiot of he finished the house out there (after the foundation only was done) and never relayed any of this information to me. At that point, we could have both walked away and lost some money but nothing like we are out now.

That sucks ass. Good luck

$1500 a month for septic removal service?? would that cost also include 'renting' the septic tanks, or what's the deal? here in southern california, it costs around $300-$500 to have your tank emptied, and they surely don't need it once a month.

It's just a 1500 gallon holding tank (not a full septic system). With a family of six, we would waste about 200-250 gallons of water a day so it would need to be emptied every 5 days or so = $1500 a month for draining the tank.

Fucked, eventually you can't trust them. lol

ahahahaaha - fuck yeah - i remember those advertisings. hilarious :1orglaugh

That's so old but you always think that can't happen

how much would a full septic system cost?

You just have to train them. :1orglaugh

I agree, who are you going to do business with? A stranger?

Never give work to friends
Never lend money to friends

If you do the opposite you may end with no money and no friends at the end of the day.

If the situation came up to work with a stranger with your looks, No brainer on my part;)

But it only makes sense to do business with people we know...As far as calling someone a friend, that's a term I do not use often and hope to die being able to count them all on one hand. To original poster, sorry it went down like it did, sounds like he is not really a friend if he was willing to sell you out for a buck. A septic system seems like your only quick fix to this. Try looking into the "Infiltrator" type system, you can install yourself, and it will work in less than exceptable soil conditions. Hope it all works out for you!

Never do business with friends/family..... yeap, I learned how to avoid problems derived from such practice ever since I was 6 years old...... so .. duh!

I asked the builder if I could do anything else, other than the holding tank (i.e. full septic), and he said no the county would not approve it. the builder did get the approval for the septic hold tank from the county but I can't afford the $1500+ a month to have to emptied for long and with no end in sight I can't take the risk. If I knew it would only be a few months, no problem!

So all that is left is for him to have the belief that I am going to pay interest on the house until I move it. My wife is so far up my ass about all this it is not funny and she has advised me it will be over her dead body that we make payments on a house we cannot move into.

Sad part is, everybody I have talked to (including a lawyer) has told me to get out of the deal and really fuck him over but I can't do that but I predict it is not going to end pretty!

No offense but I don't see how you can blame him or even come to the conclusion you have in starting this thread.

Your one and only problem isn't with your family member or friend... it is the fact that you decided to build a house in an "undeveloped" housing area that didn't even have the basic setups for a house to even be completed, let alone completed to livable conditions.

If anything, if you are really going to bail on this guy and leave him in the lurch, it is YOU that is the reason why you shouldn't do business with family or friends. He has done nothing wrong and walking out on your end of the deal is a pretty shitty thing to do.

Some life lessons are harder than others, but you don't learn anything running from them. I hope it works out for you and especially your friend who probably did it for all the right reasons.

:2 cents:

Oh, I have zero intention of walking out on the deal and I am sure we will work something out. Though he did do me some favors in this mess, there is a lot to the story that I didn't want to bore people with (i.e. leaving out key details that might have cause different actions on our part or pushing us to start building when we should have probably waited). We could still be sitting here with a finished foundation / hole in the ground if I had known all of the details but I assure you we pushed forward because he didn't want to get stuck with the $10,000 bill that was left after my down payment when the foundation was done. Hell, I would have even paid him for the work done on the basement if he would just have been straight with me.

Most importantly, if the roles were reversed, he would bail so fast it would not even be funny. But again, I am sticking it out until the end and I am sure we will work out some kind of deal so neither of us loses too much money. In my eyes, the best way to get this resolved if builder sues developer for loses. Nothing is in my name or this would have happened a long time ago.

It is a kinda true word!

look into a home aerobic system.

I wish I could ONLY do business with friends and family. When I do, there are no problems. It's when I get all these OTHER people who I don't know and who don't know me involved that I have problems. I feel sorry for people who can't trust their friends and family.

Egads! Hope it all works out for ya!

Prayers may have been answered! Wife talked to the developer who worked it out with the banks and said work should begin on Monday to finish the sewers. House will be done in about a month and the sewers should be done in about two so (PRAYING TO GOD!!!!) we should be in soon and not have to worry about any of this crap every again!