I had my suit on. Full make up. Just had my hair done two days before – awesome color and sexy, confident layers. I put on my black dress boots with the heels. I felt fierce. I took an unsmiling selfie for my Facebook - “Headed to court...A bigger company thought my smaller company would just roll over in a dispute. Nope.”
This was the third time we'd been to court with these people over this matter. And the only reason we were in court at all was they dragged us in for non-payment of lot rent. And we counter-sued them for the maximum allowed at the magisterial level, $12,000.
Our attorney advised us to do it this way. They had stopped responding to our attempts to settle the matter, so we hired him to attempt to settle it. And they ignored him. Their strategy was to ignore us because we were small and would probably just dry up and blow away. We wouldn't have to money to drag them into court, and if we did they would use every trick to prolong the process and cost us as much as possible. So he advised us to stop paying our lot rent. When they finally sued us for it, we would be able to counter-sue them for free. We could do this ourselves, we wouldn't even need a lawyer unless we ended up in the Court of Common Pleas on appeal.
We had a pretty good case, we thought.
It's bad form to comment on what could be an ongoing lawsuit, so I will explain what happened as best I can without revealing any identifying details. Even though I want to scream from the top of the highest mountain and broadcast from all the radio stations I still work for that these people are shady scumbags of the lowest order and you should never under any circumstances do any business with them ever...
Is this grounds for a lawsuit?
A few years ago Steve was working with a partner who convinced him it was a good idea to invest in mobile homes located in trailer parks. Apparently many parks have a problem with abandoned trailers – the owners get behind on their lot rent and skip town, leaving nothing but dilapidated mobile homes behind. Mobile homes aren't worth all that much – they're more like cars than houses. They depreciate. If it's in a park you don't even own the land, you rent it. But people live in them. Lots of people. Buy a trailer from the park for next to nothing, fix it up, and sell it under a rent-to-own contract.
Steve bought three trailers from this park. One we sold as-is for a small profit. Another we fixed up and got a rent-to-own tenant who pays faithfully $700/month to this day. The third – a real nice double-wide – required a lot of work. About $15,000 worth. But it was beautiful at the end. It wasn't hard to find a rent-to-own tenant, and she signed our lease in November of 2015.
She never moved in. Because we were denied an occupancy permit. Because the foundation of this trailer had never been inspected and approved by the Borough inspector.
Say what????
At first the park management was very helpful. They made an appointment for a foundation inspection and told my husband no lot rent would be due until they straightened this out. They let our tenant move into a vacant trailer temporarily. Then the inspector didn't show up. Weeks went by, and the tenant needed to know what was going on. Then no one would return our phone calls, and the park management informed Steve any further contact would have to be through their attorney. We had to refund all of the money our tenant had given us and send her on her way.
I know what happened. They found out the foundation was fubar, and would cost a fortune to fix, and their lawyer told them to clam up. After all, what would we do about it? We're nobodies!
I wanted blood. Our lawyer, who works for one of the bigger firms in town, told us litigation would be quite expensive as they would draw out the process. It's something big companies do to screw little companies. Donald Trump was accused of doing as much to the contractors he allegedly never paid. And that's why our attorney advised us to go the magistrate counter-suit route.
Our first hearing was in November. They brought an attorney, we did not. Steve presented the case quite brilliantly. He indicated he was willing to settle – if the park would just get the foundation approved, we'd pay the back rent and life would go on. Their attorney seemed to think this might be possible. Both sides requested a continuance until after the New Year.
Back in court on January 3rd – park management had a change of heart. They're not going to make it right, and they are continuing their claim that we owe them the lot rent. Their stance was it was Steve's responsibility to make sure the foundation was legal. Our stance was we had done our due diligence, and had reasonable reliance the foundation was legal. We had copies of approved inspections from the Borough that had drawings of the foundation on them! And we had the word of the Borough inspector that it was the park's responsibility to get that foundation approved.
Their attorney said she had heard of no such law stating it was the park’s responsibility. I asked the judge for a continuance so we could obtain a copy of the statute. Steve obtained records from the Borough by filing a right-to-know request. We got a copy of the statute in Pennsylvania code, and it was admittedly vague. It didn’t matter. When we went back to court this week the judge barely glanced at what we’d brought. He’d made his mind up in January. He ruled in favor of the park.
The next step will be an appeal to the Court of Common Pleas. If we even want to do this anymore.
At what point is a lawsuit worth the negativity?
I read an article about the rock band Metallica. Apparently they started off as a cover band – but they covered such obscure songs most people who saw them live thought they were originals! The article goes on to claim the band “borrowed” quite a bit from other, lesser known bands when they did write original songs. One of their bigger songs, “Enter Sandman” was a blatant rip-off of another band’s tune, “Tapping Into An Emotional Void” by Excel. The article quoted the songwriter from Excel as saying they had a case and looked into it, but a lawsuit sucks the life out of everything. You’re trapped in a cycle of negativity. So they just let them steal the song.
Much like Excel, I’m “Tapping Into An Emotional Void” in regards to whether or not I want to take this lawsuit any further and risk knocking our little company off its track to success. I want to focus on successfully flipping houses, improving our rental system, and building our rehab services for other investors. I don’t want to squander that precious energy on scum-sucking trailer trash charlatans!
I asked Steve if he wants to just let this go. He said no. Then he said he didn’t know. And that’s kind of where we are right now.
The smartest business move might be to just let this go. Go strip all of our materials out of that trailer and leave it abandoned, cut our losses and move on. But there’s a big part of me that wants to put my retirement income on the line and start a raucous lawsuit to let those bullies know they can’t push us around just because they’re bigger.
They may have won the battle, but…
I have a new mission – this will be in addition to the Bootstrap Foundation, my charity that will help people out of poverty who are actively trying to help themselves - http://thisgingerjustsnapped.weebly.com/blog/bootstrappin
When our business is successful with a surplus of profit, I will start an anti-bullying initiative for small businesses. It will pay part of the legal expenses to sue a large company who is trying to screw them. Perhaps it will help these larger companies make the decision to “do the right thing.”
Our attorney advised us to do it this way. They had stopped responding to our attempts to settle the matter, so we hired him to attempt to settle it. And they ignored him. Their strategy was to ignore us because we were small and would probably just dry up and blow away. We wouldn't have to money to drag them into court, and if we did they would use every trick to prolong the process and cost us as much as possible. So he advised us to stop paying our lot rent. When they finally sued us for it, we would be able to counter-sue them for free. We could do this ourselves, we wouldn't even need a lawyer unless we ended up in the Court of Common Pleas on appeal.
We had a pretty good case, we thought.
It's bad form to comment on what could be an ongoing lawsuit, so I will explain what happened as best I can without revealing any identifying details. Even though I want to scream from the top of the highest mountain and broadcast from all the radio stations I still work for that these people are shady scumbags of the lowest order and you should never under any circumstances do any business with them ever...
Is this grounds for a lawsuit?
A few years ago Steve was working with a partner who convinced him it was a good idea to invest in mobile homes located in trailer parks. Apparently many parks have a problem with abandoned trailers – the owners get behind on their lot rent and skip town, leaving nothing but dilapidated mobile homes behind. Mobile homes aren't worth all that much – they're more like cars than houses. They depreciate. If it's in a park you don't even own the land, you rent it. But people live in them. Lots of people. Buy a trailer from the park for next to nothing, fix it up, and sell it under a rent-to-own contract.
Steve bought three trailers from this park. One we sold as-is for a small profit. Another we fixed up and got a rent-to-own tenant who pays faithfully $700/month to this day. The third – a real nice double-wide – required a lot of work. About $15,000 worth. But it was beautiful at the end. It wasn't hard to find a rent-to-own tenant, and she signed our lease in November of 2015.
She never moved in. Because we were denied an occupancy permit. Because the foundation of this trailer had never been inspected and approved by the Borough inspector.
Say what????
At first the park management was very helpful. They made an appointment for a foundation inspection and told my husband no lot rent would be due until they straightened this out. They let our tenant move into a vacant trailer temporarily. Then the inspector didn't show up. Weeks went by, and the tenant needed to know what was going on. Then no one would return our phone calls, and the park management informed Steve any further contact would have to be through their attorney. We had to refund all of the money our tenant had given us and send her on her way.
I know what happened. They found out the foundation was fubar, and would cost a fortune to fix, and their lawyer told them to clam up. After all, what would we do about it? We're nobodies!
I wanted blood. Our lawyer, who works for one of the bigger firms in town, told us litigation would be quite expensive as they would draw out the process. It's something big companies do to screw little companies. Donald Trump was accused of doing as much to the contractors he allegedly never paid. And that's why our attorney advised us to go the magistrate counter-suit route.
Our first hearing was in November. They brought an attorney, we did not. Steve presented the case quite brilliantly. He indicated he was willing to settle – if the park would just get the foundation approved, we'd pay the back rent and life would go on. Their attorney seemed to think this might be possible. Both sides requested a continuance until after the New Year.
Back in court on January 3rd – park management had a change of heart. They're not going to make it right, and they are continuing their claim that we owe them the lot rent. Their stance was it was Steve's responsibility to make sure the foundation was legal. Our stance was we had done our due diligence, and had reasonable reliance the foundation was legal. We had copies of approved inspections from the Borough that had drawings of the foundation on them! And we had the word of the Borough inspector that it was the park's responsibility to get that foundation approved.
Their attorney said she had heard of no such law stating it was the park’s responsibility. I asked the judge for a continuance so we could obtain a copy of the statute. Steve obtained records from the Borough by filing a right-to-know request. We got a copy of the statute in Pennsylvania code, and it was admittedly vague. It didn’t matter. When we went back to court this week the judge barely glanced at what we’d brought. He’d made his mind up in January. He ruled in favor of the park.
The next step will be an appeal to the Court of Common Pleas. If we even want to do this anymore.
At what point is a lawsuit worth the negativity?
I read an article about the rock band Metallica. Apparently they started off as a cover band – but they covered such obscure songs most people who saw them live thought they were originals! The article goes on to claim the band “borrowed” quite a bit from other, lesser known bands when they did write original songs. One of their bigger songs, “Enter Sandman” was a blatant rip-off of another band’s tune, “Tapping Into An Emotional Void” by Excel. The article quoted the songwriter from Excel as saying they had a case and looked into it, but a lawsuit sucks the life out of everything. You’re trapped in a cycle of negativity. So they just let them steal the song.
Much like Excel, I’m “Tapping Into An Emotional Void” in regards to whether or not I want to take this lawsuit any further and risk knocking our little company off its track to success. I want to focus on successfully flipping houses, improving our rental system, and building our rehab services for other investors. I don’t want to squander that precious energy on scum-sucking trailer trash charlatans!
I asked Steve if he wants to just let this go. He said no. Then he said he didn’t know. And that’s kind of where we are right now.
The smartest business move might be to just let this go. Go strip all of our materials out of that trailer and leave it abandoned, cut our losses and move on. But there’s a big part of me that wants to put my retirement income on the line and start a raucous lawsuit to let those bullies know they can’t push us around just because they’re bigger.
They may have won the battle, but…
I have a new mission – this will be in addition to the Bootstrap Foundation, my charity that will help people out of poverty who are actively trying to help themselves - http://thisgingerjustsnapped.weebly.com/blog/bootstrappin
When our business is successful with a surplus of profit, I will start an anti-bullying initiative for small businesses. It will pay part of the legal expenses to sue a large company who is trying to screw them. Perhaps it will help these larger companies make the decision to “do the right thing.”