Thanks for your replies.
The situation is happening as I am describing it. I have beliefs about what i am reporting, but not CNN sort of beliefs. It's 6:30 AM and i am running on about 4 hours sleep, kind of sick to my stomach as new information comes in. If anyone is being trolled, it's me.
Yesterday new information came my way suggesting this is more about an unanticipated breakdown in priority's between joint bank account holders, one of which says he needs to prioritize taxes, and the other who has been using this account to renovate her mobile home on 10 or so rural acres, presumably with his full knowledge and consent, even though they live separately. He has been in her mobile home convalescing during the most recent two pay cycles, watching me work, sometimes making comments.
Although i have over 25 years working with builders and homeowners, there are still far too many beliefs regarding collections, and not enough knowledge, to make my stomach feel better right now.
Based on my experience, it is a deep seeded belief that the last payment is the one that is hardest to get, because the client no longer needs your work. My tools are 50% rolled up right now. Nothing has happened for a week. That's a move on the chessboard. It's a risky move because it starts to send the message that the party is over. If the party is over, why pay anything at all?
The need for, and/or the desire for more work is still obvious. Under duress, i can say anything at all to them about wanting to continue to work, but while pay is still withheld, nothing is binding about that. It's what she wanted to hear in a phone call about 40 hours ago, which ended with a trip to the property, only to be invited to a BBQ next door neighbors, and nobody producing a check. So who is being trolled?
What i say here about continuing to work is another thing. I am not under duress here. I still think a 50% weekly advance, sharing the risks of credit equally between the first part of the week (or day or whatever) and the last part, is a brilliant Trumpianesque sort of business solution for people who work under my sorts of circumstances. But the shit is getting deeper every day, every hour, and my feelings about extending even that much credit are rapidly changing.
Anybody would continue working for 100% advance pay, giving zero credit. That's all speculation because of the unlikeliness any such deal would be accepted, even though, when you think about it, 99% of the time, workmen give 100% credit to clients, with only lien laws to fall back on. Why can't those tables be turned 100%?
As resentment tends to creep into the situation, i am not even feeling like continuing with 100% advances and zero credit extended.
The big question is, when, exactly, is the right moment to go full hostile, and/or full legal, either through bluff, or for real.
I have been giving them time to hash this out. It's possible she believed she could get more money out of that account. What she's been doing is ethically questionable. If this is something he tolerated before, he is no longer, and only just now bringing it to my attention. I should have questioned it...why is this woman tapping a joint account when the man doesn't even live there? Does he share ownership of the 10 acres she lives on? I don't know! Why does she maintain legal marriage relationship, when they are semi-estranged? Yes, she visited him everyday he was in the hospital, and opens her home for convalescence...but she also can't stand his personality. Is she using him? Is she using me? Are we all just finding this out?
Today, with this new information, the idea that this is because of what she may think of what i think of Trump is a lesser factor, but still a factor, imo. People who are realizing they may not be able to pay will look for anything to pick a fight. She is completely unable to fault any of the work i have done. There's no doubt, in my mind, that she has been picking my brain for weeks, trying to figure out how much guilt-by-association to apply to me. Even in this collections process, i have to tread lightly, at least at first, to avoid doing or saying anything that could be interpreted as picking a fight. Stopping work and asking for pay is not picking a fight. She is perhaps hoping i would do something rash under pressure.
So while a grand bluff might be the right solution at some moment, i don't think that moment has been yesterday, or that it should be today, on the weekend.
First, i am incapable of forging an attorney's letterhead, if that's what this means. Otherwise, i am perfectly capable of drafting some compelling language suggesting she should pay sooner than later.
The challenge, with any of this, is documentation. She has only admitted she needs and/or wants to pay over the phone. Not through text, which is a little more document-able. That appears to be what's happening, and it's alarming. Documentation is a lot easier when there has not yet been enough expressed hostility to get me kicked off the property. I can literally walk into the house without knocking if i wanted to, like every day i've been here. The dogs won't attack me, and nobody will call the police.
So being able to remain on the property while this collections process gradually escalates is, imo, a lot of power. Like yesterday, instead of coming into the party, i at least peeked inside and told them i was not ignoring them. In this brief interaction, i was able to talk with them about some aspects of the work i had done, and have them acknowledge i had done it, and that it looked great! And all the while i am recording this on my smart phone video/audio. You don't get that kind of documentation by bluffing.
With access to the house, i can turn on the TV to some channel that will document the actual DATE, and prove that i am able to walk around the house taking pictures and video of my work, and of the address of business mail sitting on the counter-top, from the electric company for example, that connects the date, the place, the work, and the people together. While they have been watching NYPD Blue every night, so have i.
I now have a text from one of the account holders telling me i have to collect from the other account holder. I have audio/video talking with her and others about how long i have been there, working, and establishing a general time period. All i need now is some documentation, other than a non-recorded phone call, where she admits she needs to pay, but cannot, for some reason. With as much as i've got, i may not even need that.
Certainly, i have enough evidence to legitimately lien at least one, and maybe four properties. The first legal overture i will make will be snapshots of four liens, all filled out, and ready to file. The filing will cost perhaps $75 dollars each, not including the research. I just have to match locations with public records. It won't be a bluff. They will be filed if full payment is not received.
After that, it's a process of documenting SERVICE papers, which unfortunately, i, nor any personally involved collector, can do PERSONALLY. It has to be done all through third parties. That's all made more difficult when the property is out in the country, and everybody owns dogs and guns. And that's why i still think i am in a position of relative power while i am still welcome on the property.
I'm not sure why people are naturally disposed to fear letterhead from an attorney at law. What attorneys really know how to do is create documentation that any judge or jury should accept. Basically, anything that is served properly ought to be feared as much. That's mainly what my potential process involves. But i'm not ready to trigger that process yet, beyond gathering property data on Monday, and filling out lien forms.
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