I have no idea why he marched himself right up to, and over, the edge but he did it all by himself and with great determination.
Maybe it was because I couldn't stop and chat the last time I saw him. I was running late and he was, at long last, clearing up the piles of debris that his guys had left (at his direction) all over my yard over the past year. He appeared (finally!) to have understood the last formal communication; an email detailing standard end of contract stuff to get his final check. This is all very normal. What is not normal was his yelling, the accusations, the nonsense I hung up on just before I wrote him that email.
He must've stopped cleaning up the minute after I left that day because there were still many piles of rubble lying around and he never sent me the final bill or the invoices. He chose to serve me with a complaint 3 months later instead. Still no final bill! Still no invoices! He did include my email which proves what? that I always had every intention of paying him in full and this is a frivolous complaint?
My lawyer took care of it with phone call.
But since Moshe chose to be such a pill, and since he said he believed in yelp once he found me on it, let's examine his behavior over the year he worked on my contract:
He was amiable at first. Chatty even.
Then he got passive aggressive.
At the end he just went bonkers.
His guys borrowed my bobkitten (3.5' wide so it's not full grown cat) several times and left the key turned to the glow position (no matter how many times I told them about it) thereby destroying the life of my brand new, very spendy, battery.
He left a big pile of gravel blocking the driveway for at least 6 months. When he finally moved it, he immediately replaced it with another pile which he left for another few months.
He left a huge pile of very long, very heavy 2by material taking up a lot of space in my back yard for many months. I asked him to move it so I could put in my garden since he wasn't going to be back for awhile and he refused. I moved it. It took me a couple days but at least I was able to work on my garden during what would otherwise be downtime.
Instead of warning me, the general contractor, or the plumber on the job at the time that he was about to compact the soil around an unsecured pipe and likely damage it, he just went ahead and knowingly damaged the pipe. When I brought this up to him. He said he told the (different) plumber about it 8 months earlier. He doesn't care about the job he does or getting along with people. He only cares about having an excuse. There is no reason he couldn't mention it to someone, anyone, at the time.
He caused a flood in my basement that set me back at least another month and tried to deflect the responsibility onto the plumber. I accidentally nearly caused the exact same flood so I now know for a fact that it was his drainage at fault.
He charged me through the nose for any little thing, and I do mean a 12" piece of rebar, that was disturbed by another workman for which I paid him immediately. Can't say the same for him. He damages other people's work, delays your job, and can't be bothered with his own liability.
The finishers hung around my house for a couple of hours drinking beer waiting for Moshe to come back and pay them.
Can anyone say double standard?
He's a lot cheaper than Alameda Structural.
The slabs are beautiful. He hired new finishers just for my job because his finishers keep quitting on him as did his top guy who told me he quit because of how Moshe treated him.
The Miradrain work that faces the street looks good. It's missing its flashing on the side of the house.
The plans call for insulation around the perimeter of the foundation. Didn't bother to install that.
Back to the present: Paid in full, 6 days after cashing the check, he's complaining about how the check was written!
Let me say that again. He's had my cash in his pocket for about a week and his lawyer is still threatening me.
What a jerk.
Edit 5.11.14 for clarity. It;s probably less funny but easier to understand. read more