When customer doesn't own home

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sfav8r

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San Francisco Bay Area
Does anyone have experience with bidding a job then going to pull the permit and not seeing the people you have a contract with on the "owner name" line of the permit?

I am going to a job in the morning and since we have 24/7 access to pull permits and the fireworks won't start here in SF for another hour or so, I decided to pull the permit. There is a church listed as the owner, not the people I have been talking to.

They bought the house (according to them) about three months ago, plenty of time for the records to be updated. Any thoughts? Should I ask for a copy of a mortgage bill or something to confirm they actually are authorized to hire me?

I may seem a little paranoid, but I have read about tenants having work done then saying "oh, you have to talk to the landlord about the payment."

I do of course have a deposit and I don't "really" think this is any kind of a scam, I'm just curious if anyone else has dealt with this.

Thanks, and happy 4th!
 
Fireworks in SF will be going all night! Most of the neighborhoods have a better show than the city. The wife and I were just on Mt Davidson (Right above where we live) The Excelsior was like WW3. Hunters Point had bigger stuff than the city...

Back on topic, my own home is owned by 'bank of mother-in-law' with her name listed as owner via the actual bank. (A little personal...) Many other people also have similar arrangements. Went to pull a permit for a friend of mine and saw his step-dads name instead.

And, I will quote the SF DBI.... (When I needed to personally bring my biz license into them so I could pull permits on line...) "Just because there is a computer in front of me does not mean we are in the 21st century - this town runs on paper" If they just bought the house their data base could be months out of whack between several different agencies like the Assessors.

However, I usualy have people fill out a pre-lein on more sizable work, and 75% of the time properties are really owned by banks. If you ask a simple question - "Do you own the house?" they'll say yes anyway even though the bank does. But not many people will if they rent - even then they are still obliged to pay you.

A simple question like, "Do you know who 'so-n-so' is?" will usually lead to a long or short story that clears it right up for you. Just reply, "Oh... Just checking.":wink:
 
I would tell the ?owners? what you found, that the official records do not (yet) show them as being the owners. I would then ask them to sign a short statement to the effect that they certify that they are authorized to hire you for this work. Tell them this is a ?official policy? (i.e., make it a policy starting with this job) for instances in which there is any question of ownership.
 
Having gone through this more than once I will tell you, do NOT do work for people without a correctly signed contract.

That being said, a lot depends your state laws. I know some states require you to have a contract with the homeowner.

We were burned on a job not long ago because the homeowner refused to pay, when we went to lien his house our attorneys told us to forget it. Apparently the contract we had was in Mr.'s name only, and he was married, the name on the house was Mr. and Mrs. So we were not able to lien the house because the salesman and our finance department didn't do their jobs.

The way I look at it is, if it is either a friend that I am willing to write off the costs for, or a homeowner that I am willing to take the risk of writing it all off then I don't go by the book and do the contract exactly as it needs to be. However, I stopped doing free work for friends a long long time ago, and there is not a homeowner that I will give work for free to if it is my choice.

So long story short, make sure you comply with your state laws, and make sure the contract is correctly written, otherwise enjoy your down payment, that may be all you get for the job.
 
When customer doesn't own home

Boy do I feel lucky. I get all my business from referrals and have never ran into this problem in thirty five years. If I did I would have the customers that want the work done to sign a contract. I agree that sometimes paper work by the city will not be updated yet. Semper- Fi
 
I wonder if your new homeowners ARE "the church of_______"?

In NYC, many people claim to be a church to get out of paying property taxes. Queens is filled with streets of homes with signs out front offering services.
 
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