Any lawyers on here??

[curt swartz]

you donate them, take 5k off your taxes, which saves you
$2k in tax liability.

I'm sure the OP already deducted the fixtures as a "cost of goods sold". You can't donate them and deduct the donation. That would be double dipping. The only way you could clam them as a donation is removing the cost of goods sold expense and putting them into inventory. I think the cost of goods sold expense is a much better deduction.

 

[north star]

: - :

69gp,

I DO recommend that you file a lien on their bond
and anything else that you can....It WILL make
you feel better in that at least you will have done
something.....It may or may not come to fruition !
I DO NOT recommend that you obtain the services
of an attorney......IMO, this will be more
"out-of-pocket costs" [ usually a per centage up-
front, with the remainder due when you collect ].
You can file the liens yourself.

If you have the ability to store the removed
fixtures somewhere safely, then keep them until
this issue is resolved [ by any lien actions, or other ],
...or you can cut your losses now......Consider the
10.5k an expensive education & a hard kick in to
the nether regions, , ...sell or "write off" the
fixtures to a legit charity, or re-sell them and
move on.......Your life and peace of mind ARE worth
something......Also, as an aside, ...the GC and
the architect will get their due, somewhere down
the road......You have the guarantee of the Holy
Bible on it [ RE: Galatians 6:7-8 ].

: - :

 

[gadfly56]

OP says this was a HUD housing project and liens were mentioned several times so far. Can you even file a lien against what very well may be government owned property? May not be federal government property but could be local government property that receives HUD funds for operation.

IIRC, you can't lien the property directly, but there is usually a bond issued to cover things like this and you file against the bond. If you're out more than 90 days you may be SOL. On the other hand, if you can think of a plausible reason to go on site and touch the work, the clock restarts from then.

 

[cdslotz]

Since the architect ordered you to proceed to buy the fixtures, send in a change order AND your standard billing form showing this change. The architect probably knew the GC was in trouble and chances are there are funds being withheld somewhere.
Have you been paid your contract including all retainage?

 

[Sierrasparky]

I heard of a guy who placeed words in his contracts that said. A materials remain the property of __________ until final payment is made.

I wonder how that worked as this guy was a concrete contractor.

 

[kwired]

I'm sure the OP already deducted the fixtures as a "cost of goods sold". You can't donate them and deduct the donation. That would be double dipping. The only way you could clam them as a donation is removing the cost of goods sold expense and putting them into inventory. I think the cost of goods sold expense is a much better deduction.

You also can not sell them and not declare the income. It is not exactly like OP had something acquired for free then claims a deduction if it is donated, he paid for something, ended up with something in inventory and then chooses to donate or sell it.

 

[hurk27]

You also can not sell them and not declare the income. It is not exactly like OP had something acquired for free then claims a deduction if it is donated, he paid for something, ended up with something in inventory and then chooses to donate or sell it.

Actually if they were purchased by someone else they are not really yours unless they gave them to you to which I would have paper work that says so, also since they were once installed so their value is not going to be the same if they came right out of the box unless maybe they never was installed in the first place, personally I would never take the old fixtures as part of the payment since it is almost impossible to find a new home for them which could take years to do, custom types are even harder since not everyone will like the same style, and as far as the lean or claim against the job, I would not reduce the claim amount just because they given you these old fixtures, I would gladly give them back if they tried to use them to get money off the bill, maybe something more common that we used allot of, but custom pole light heads that might be only designed for the poles used would not be an easy item to reuse somewhere else, and the fact that if your state has a state wide dark sky law or light trespass law you might not be able to use them anywhere else legally so they could end up worthless or maybe sell them on E-bay?

Here its not more then 3% of light can not trespass onto adjoining property.

Here we also have the small claims court we can go after amounts lower then $5k so if a home owner fails to pay for a repair or a small job then we can take them to small claims.

Here the court systems treat the person who untimely received the work and or materials that became part of their property as a gain to be the final person who is responsible to the paying of the bill, even if they had paid the GC already, it is up to them to go after the GC to get their money back.
We had a GC who was paid in full by most of the homeowners to build there houses, the GC had most of the houses about 80% complete when he skipped country without paying anyone including the lumber yards, the homeowners ended up having to pay all the bills that the GC didn't including all the contractors and lumber yards, the owner had to almost pay for the building of the houses twice, he skipped country with over $4 million, they think he went to south America somewhere, but if he ever returns he is facing all the charges and sentencing he was found guilty of because his trial continued even without his presence he was also hit with tax evasion, his poor dad also lost all his houses and properties since he had put up them to back the finance of his sons company, I really felt sorry for these homeowners and his dad, but they should have not paid him before the house was complete.

 

[kwired]

Actually if they were purchased by someone else they are not really yours unless they gave them to you to which I would have paper work that says so, also since they were once installed so their value is not going to be the same if they came right out of the box unless maybe they never was installed in the first place, personally I would never take the old fixtures as part of the payment since it is almost impossible to find a new home for them which could take years to do, custom types are even harder since not everyone will like the same style, and as far as the lean or claim against the job, I would not reduce the claim amount just because they given you these old fixtures, I would gladly give them back if they tried to use them to get money off the bill, maybe something more common that we used allot of, but custom pole light heads that might be only designed for the poles used would not be an easy item to reuse somewhere else, and the fact that if your state has a state wide dark sky law or light trespass law you might not be able to use them anywhere else legally so they could end up worthless or maybe sell them on E-bay?

Here its not more then 3% of light can not trespass onto adjoining property.

Here we also have the small claims court we can go after amounts lower then $5k so if a home owner fails to pay for a repair or a small job then we can take them to small claims.

Here the court systems treat the person who untimely received the work and or materials that became part of their property as a gain to be the final person who is responsible to the paying of the bill, even if they had paid the GC already, it is up to them to go after the GC to get their money back.
We had a GC who was paid in full by most of the homeowners to build there houses, the GC had most of the houses about 80% complete when he skipped country without paying anyone including the lumber yards, the homeowners ended up having to pay all the bills that the GC didn't including all the contractors and lumber yards, the owner had to almost pay for the building of the houses twice, he skipped country with over $4 million, they think he went to south America somewhere, but if he ever returns he is facing all the charges and sentencing he was found guilty of because his trial continued even without his presence he was also hit with tax evasion, his poor dad also lost all his houses and properties since he had put up them to back the finance of his sons company, I really felt sorry for these homeowners and his dad, but they should have not paid him before the house was complete.

Forgive me if I missed something, but I thought we were talking about fixtures that the OP installed and they did not meet local codes (too much light entering adjacent property). Just who does these (barely used) fixtures belong to, if the contractor is stuck with purchasing fixtures that will comply with codes? IMO at the very least the contractor sold one fixture per pole in his contract and has the right to keep the extras and do whatever he wishes with them. The original fixtures - I guess are dependent of anything mentioned in the contract, if contract says contractor will dispose of them then they also are his to do what he wants.

 

[hurk27]

Forgive me if I missed something, but I thought we were talking about fixtures that the OP installed and they did not meet local codes (too much light entering adjacent property). Just who does these (barely used) fixtures belong to, if the contractor is stuck with purchasing fixtures that will comply with codes? IMO at the very least the contractor sold one fixture per pole in his contract and has the right to keep the extras and do whatever he wishes with them. The original fixtures - I guess are dependent of anything mentioned in the contract, if contract says contractor will dispose of them then they also are his to do what he wants.

If he was already paid for the contract ( which is what he said in his OP) then the original fixtures belonged to the owners as they have already been paid for, if the fixtures were supplied by others then also they belong to others, he has just not been paid for the replacement fixtures.

 

[kwired]

If he was already paid for the contract ( which is what he said in his OP) then the original fixtures belonged to the owners as they have already been paid for, if the fixtures were supplied by others then also they belong to others, he has just not been paid for the replacement fixtures.

I don't see it that way. His contract was likely to install a compliant system, since it was not compliant he should have the right to retain any portion of what he installed in the process of making the installation compliant.

Now in the case of third party specified fixtures being the non compliant portion it gets a little more complicated. Which I guess is what we have here. IMO an owner that thinks those non compliant fixtures belong to them even after they were replaced with no extra payments made are just plain jerks.