Roundup granules might be your best friend in this situation.

Many states have a civil theft suit which in Florida you can sue for 3x the amount and you're going to need a lawyer.

You can sue her in small claims court, which is probably the best avenue to collect, but how much is your time worth......however if she has a 9-5 job she'd have to take off work to go to court, then on the first appearance she needs to go to court for, postpone it at the last minute, then reschedule.....LOL.

Honestly, going the court route is going to cost you more in loss of work, time and everything else than it's worth and the most profitable situation is to just forget about it and cut more paying lawns.

Why not offer to treat her lawn for free, as an advertising ploy to showcase your new treatment that reduces the number of mowings per season?

Surely there's a "new" chemical on the market that will prevent the grass from growing so quickly. Make sure you get a signature, then roundup the entire thing.

Do the people whose yard you still trim have kids? Ones that may enjoy, say, new Red Riders or ball and bats? Or a drum set to play outside?

Honestly, I'd professionally let my friends/ fellow service providers know, looking out for one another.

And send her a bill monthly. Perhaps with a minimum payment due of a trivial amount. The mailing expense is a writeoff anyway, and who knows? You may recoup at $5-10 per month. Can't hurt to try it.

Man destroys his 40,000 square-foot lawn

I'm not suggesting anything, but remember, "if you can't collect, there's always revenge"....!

Lien the property you serviced.

I have an aversion to people that stiff others, even if it's a few dollars. If you get the judgement you can ding her credit for the collection. I'm a mortgage lender and we routinely make people go pay collections in full so we can close their loan. It will also do wonders for her FICO score. Doesn't get you paid any quicker but makes you feel better.

If you can lien the property then for sure you will get paid eventually. We have made people track down now out of business contractors to provide a demand to be paid in full so somebody can close the refinancing of their house. Title company won't insure around it and bank won't Make a mortgage subject to a lien ahead of us. Same goes for selling the house. Eventually you'll get paid. an Alternative that I don't reccomend is 160$ worth of slashed tires. It ain't right... but I understand.

quote:

Nothing you can do will be worth the time and trouble it will take.

This is the answer short and sweet. Move on. I have been in business for several decades, this happens and I understand the anger and frustration very well. I would find it useful to do some introspection and determine why collecting this amount of money is so important to you. Typically the answer lies in how you were raised by your parents and your family environment. You can see from the many responses that this is a common problem and that it is hard for some to let things like this go.

Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z9Cg46Nktw

quote:

Originally posted by Micropterus:
Lien the property you serviced.

This option was discussed in several posts in this thread. It probably wouldn't be a proper remedy. You can go back and read why.

Getting liens on people's houses (or any real property) is, quite properly, not a casual undertaking.

I suggest you stop long before you are out one night, drawing a bead on her with a suppressed .22LR rifle. Its a tempting shot to take, but....

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
Nant have said it'll cost more to pursue than it's worth but aren't court fees won back in the case? I was told I could attach small claims filing fees to the total amount she owes.

NANT = "Not a nice thought"?

Even though the court will let you add all the court costs and sheriff's fees that you have to pay to the debt that your ass-hat deadbeat owes you, the only way that pursuing your deadbeat ass-hat won't cost more than it pays is if you value your time at zero dollars/hour.

You may or may not get satisfaction in the form of money. Like everything else in life, you pays your money and you takes your chances.

Just how pissed-off are you? Is this woman just a hard-luck case that is worthy of sympathy, or is she a bona fide miscreant who should've been slapped down long ago but has been able to continue to fuck over everyone she owes just because she hasn't yet encountered anyone who had the stomach to push back?

Do you have the stomach for it? Can you find the time for it? Do you want to push back, or do you want to roll over? I've done both, letting some off the hook if I thought it was the right thing to do, pursuing others with vigor if I thought they had deliberately fucked me over with malice of forethought -- only you know the right answer for your situation.

My experience is that if you can prove the facts that you presented in the OP to the judge in small claims court, then you probably will get a judgement. You may never get full satisfaction in terms of money, but you certainly can get full satisfaction in terms of hassling your ass-hat deadbeat, and you may cause her to think long and hard about hitting her next mark.

Think about it:

-- Even though she has probably been an ass-hat deadbeat all her life, chances are high that nobody else has ever gone after her; it's just easier to let a small amount go than it is to pursue it. If she hasn't been dragged down this road before, it's a safe bet that for every hour you spend dragging her sorry ass into court, you will force her to worry about it for ten hours.

-- Once you get the judgment, she might pay you. It does happen. If it happens to you then you have satisfaction both ways: you have your money and you gave a bad day to the ass-hat who was laughing about screwing you.

-- Once you get the judgment, she might not pay you. This happens, too. But look on the bright side: now you have the opportunity to make this ass-hat who has pissed you off so badly sweat some more. Maybe she has had others push back this far before, but has she had anyone take the next step? It gets very real when she's dragged back to court for what's called a "Debtor's Inquiry" and forced by the judge to answer your questions about what assets she has, where they are, and the facts you need to know in order to get to those assets (VIN and license plate of cars/motorcycles/snowmobiles/trailers owned by her, real property she owns or has a mortgage on, bank account numbers, SSN, where does she work, does she do direct deposit, when are her pay days, etc). It's a real "Oh Shit!" moment when she realizes you're about to reach into her life and take out what she owes and her boss is going to know all about it. If she hasn't crossed that bridge before then it's possible she'll offer to settle as you walk out of the court. Then you have the double satisfaction of getting your money and of knowing you caused her to have a "Come to Jesus Moment" that she never had before -- a come to Jesus moment that may modify her future behavior.

-- If she still doesn't pay after the Debtor's Inquiry, you can continue to push back. You can have her assets seized and sold at a sheriff's auction. For instance you can take her car away from her and have it sold to pay off what she owes you -- how satisfying is it to make somebody who deliberately screwed you walk? Or, you can have the court seize money out of her bank account. Or, if she owns a business you can have the court order the sheriff to do a "till tap". Making any of that happen will require a lot of your time. But she will spend much more time worrying, losing sleep, crying about it, when it happens. Maybe it'll be such a bad experience that she'll never do it again. And if the last guy had just followed through like this, then maybe you wouldn't be stuck with having to deal with this shit.

So it all comes down to this:

Does that woman really owe you the money? Can you prove it? If so, then you can probably get a judgment in small claims court.

Is she just a regular person having a hard time, or is she a bad person who routinely screws hard working people by not paying them? If she's an otherwise good person who is down on her luck and needs a helping hand, then maybe this is your opportunity to be an angel and help her out. But if she's an habitual petty criminal/sociopath that saw you as a mark, maybe you ought to do something about it.

Were you just had by an habitual criminal/petty thief? Just how angry are you about it? How motivated are you to get what's yours? Are you willing to let her continue to screw people out of what she owes them? If so, change your name to Mark and move on. Or are you going to be the guy that brings it to an end? If so then spend the time and pay the fees to do your duty.

Thanks,

Sap

The neighbor caught me pounding in my debtor's door and yelled over "if she owes you money, you won't get it. She rips people off all the time." So, she's not just someone down on her luck, she's a filthy thief. I haven't decided how to proceed but I'm real tired of being told to get over it when people steal from me. Real tired.

For that amount assign the judgement to a collection agency that will hound her and get on with your life.

You may get little or nothing... at least you will have the satisfaction knowing, they will torture her for the monies owed.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
The neighbor caught me pounding in my debtor's door and yelled over "if she owes you money, you won't get it. She rips people off all the time." So, she's not just someone down on her luck, she's a filthy thief. I haven't decided how to proceed but I'm real tired of being told to get over it when people steal from me. Real tired.

Mark, respectfully, I don't think most members here have been saying "get over it" meaning stop being a little bitch and grow up. I think it has been more of a concern for what the cost of going after someone for $161.12 can end up being, not just financially but emotionally.

You come across really angry and pissed off at her and I get that, but allowing this relatively small amount to potentially cause you so much hate and discontent in your life is destructive to you and those around you. Often, it ends up not being worth the money and that is us why people gave been recommending that you let it go and move forward with your life. Many of us have paid the price only to find out that the recovered money never covers the emotional investment.

Ask yourself this; Are you upset about the money she owes you or are you upset about her being being a worthless piece of shit scamming thief?

If you can honestly say it is just the money the I will send you a check for the $161.12 to make you whole again. You are a good dude and if the money would make you right say the word and I will be honored to be able to help you out. I think you may be surprised at how many members here would line up to do the same thing.

If it is not about the money, then you will never be satisfied. Even if you get the money out of he she will still Be a worthless piece of shit scamming thief who cost you all sorts of time and money and that will still piss you off.

Just to be clear, I am all for making her life miserable, just do it after you have emotionally let it go. Kind of like a hobby to keep you occupied on slow days. Some screw with telemarketers, you can screw with her.

Spinzone, thanks. While I have an aversion to being stolen from, I've an even stronger aversion to someone else bailing them out. But I do appreciate the gesture.

I didn't mean to make it seem like I was upset with someone in this thread. When my cousin disappeared with $14000+ of what he owes me, I was told to get over it. When my brother sold my amp to a friend, I was told to get over it. I'm just tired of that phrase. I'm also tired of letting it go. It's wearying.

$161.12 isn't going to make it break me and with everyone here's help, I'm moving beyond being angry but I'm moving into duty.

Is it my duty to stop her or not? If I can make things right, should I?

Nobody here is telling you to get over it. What everyone here is telling you is that the path to go through the court system to get a judgement, the cost of all of the court fees, and then most likely not collect or if you do it won't be 10/20 years from now is a far more aggrivating road to take and takes up a lot of time. What we're telling you is the path to collect it, is not worth the trouble.

I have a small business like you. I too have rental properties. I too have been burned several times. It REALLY pisses me off. But, I have to understand that it's the nature of being in business. Every once in a while you're going to get burned. Now imagine how pissed off I was at getting screwed out of $700 by the owner of a $5 million yacht that burns that much in fuel in an hour. And, it wasn't for labor, it was for storage for a dinghy that I paid someone else out of my pocket.

quote:

Originally posted by SpinZone:

Mark, respectfully, I don't think most members here have been saying "get over it" meaning stop being a little bitch and grow up. I think it has been more of a concern for what the cost of going after someone for $161.12 can end up being, not just financially but emotionally.

I couldn't have said it better. Allowing a small loss - even a theft - to bother you this much is damaging to you. Don't let it be. You sound so angry and vengeful that I think people are, in fact, worried about you.

Like Oddball said, "Always with the negative waves Moriarty, ALWAYS with the negative waves!" Let go of the negative waves - that is what people mean.

It is not your duty to the rest of the world to teach this woman a lesson. We may have duties to help the sick, for example, but we are not policemen to each other. You can't do it anyway. No matter what you do, she'll continue to be a low grade deadbeat. In 16th century England, everything was so local that everyone knew who the deadbeats were. Now, that is impossible.

Although I'm not recommending this, if you wanted to be somewhat vindictive, you could issue her a 1099. At least then she'd have to pay taxes on it.

quote:

Originally posted by PPGMD:
Do you have a baseball bat?

Finaly some common sense with restraint.
(because I knew my first thought "burn her damn house down" was over the line.)