Tell me what we should do in this situation

Do you guys remember me telling you about that pyscho lady that we were originally supposed to move into the basement of???

Anyways... Josh did a LOT of work for her. I can even post you some photos of the bathroom he was doing so you can see first hand the quality of work he does. The day before we were supposed to move over there she literally freaked out on him. (She's unmedicated bipolar to the extreme).

Anyways... she refused to pay him the $1000 she owes him still. There was no written contract since he's known them and done work for them for so long. Her husband said he would pay Josh still, but so far he hasn't. Whatever... at this point we don't care about the **** money.

The problem I'm having is she will NOT stop harrassing my husband. She has called him MULTIPLE times threatening him. This morning he had a voicemail from her saying that he should be ashamed of himself for the shitty quality of work he has done (like I said, I have pics if you want to see) and she said that she is going to create a facebook page about how horrible he is and post an ad on Craigslist telling people not to hire him. She also said she is going to have a website made to slander him so that if anyone ever googles his name they will never hire him. She has it out for him so bad and is trying to ruin his career.

To say I'm pissed is a complete understatement. I can't tell you how bad I want to drive my ass over there and put this bitch 6 feet under. Obviously I wont, but omg I have never felt this mad in my entire life towards ANYONE!

My advice to Josh is to file a restraining order against her and to talk to his neighbor who is a lawyer. Also I'm going to save ANYTHING I see posted about him on the internet in case this goes to court.

So advice please? Never dealt with a situation like this before and I want to make sure that we handle this the right way.

I would let the husband know. Sounds like he really tries to keep her from doing stuff like this, like you mentioned in the other thread. I would let him know that you're considering taking this to court but that you'd really rather not if it's something you can handle amongst each other as adults. If you have to, take it to court. You deserve that $1,000 and they'll owe you even more if they ruin Josh's business.

Like I said before, invite crazy into your life and you get crazy. Cut her out of your lives, it will be better.

have Josh talk to her husband rationally, not friends, not enemies, just business. Say you want to paid for the services done and the time and it's best at this point to just go separate ways. If not, document all he's done and go file small claims. it's under 100 bucks in most states and then she'll have to prove her side and leave it up to a judge.

who cares what she puts on the internet. Focus on other stuff. For crying out loud there's entire websites dedicated to ripping apart all sorts of people and hardly any of them that focus on the important things in life are hurting. I can think of just a couple dog trainers that have dedicated and popular websites created for the sole intent of destroying them, and yet their businesses have never been more successful.

Your life will go where you focus, focus on the crazy, it will continue down that path. Focus on the important stuff, it will change and all that woman will have is an unfinished bathroom and a website for her and her crazy friends to congregate. Let them

I'm posting the pictures anyways...

He took a half bath and demoed it out completely. He extended the bathroom out and added a shower to it. He also did ALL the tile work you see here. These pictures are not completed because he didn't get a chance to finish the few small minor things he needed to complete that day to finish the job because she started flipping **** on him.

View into the shower


View into the shower


Shower floor... mind you... work in progress


Shower with the shower head installed


Bathroom floor. He did install the threshold after this photo was taken.


Towel rack area just outside the shower. Wall isn't painted because she wanted to paint the wall herself. He did all that tile work though.


Toilet he installed and tile around it


Sink and tile


Small towel rack by the sink and again he did the tile


The entire time he was working on this bathroom she kept harrassing him. She would go in there and try to start painting in spots when the dry wall hadn't even been finished yet in those spots so he couldn't sand the spots she painted. She would go and MOVE his equipment around and she started putting stuff in there when he wasn't even done. She was ALWAYS hovering over him too.

I hope he has saved the voice mails, and that there is a log on his phone of received calls to show how often she has been calling. Take them to the police. Ask them if they would be able to go pay her a visit and tell her what she is doing is harassment and it needs to stop. You may not even need to file a formal restraining order; the cops knocking on her door might be enough to stop it.

Tell her and her husband that if she slanders you, they'll owe you a hell of a lot more than $1,000. You'll own their house. And yeah, keep everything she writes and a record of all her phone calls. You might even record her phone calls. Maybe you need to advise her that you will be recording her phone calls in order they be admissable. I'd definitely take her to court if this continues. What a psycho freak! I'm really sorry you guys are having to deal with this.

Honestly, I don't know what the best legal action would be, but if I were you I'd be saving every threatening voicemail, every post she makes on craigslist, and contacting the husband again about josh getting the money they agreed upon.

That work which Josh did looks beautiful, by the way. Very classy and it reminds me of the house my parents had in Arizona, absolutely gorgeous tile work.

Side rant which is in absolutely NO way directed towards you Amber... I'm unmedicated bipolar and honestly? This woman is a raging bitch and deserves no additional explanation. Bipolar disorder is not an excuse to exercise zero self control, or to discard your use of inner monologue.

Josh hasn't been answering her phone calls. He's been letting it go straight to voicemail and he has saved her voicemails. He is still out there getting jobs and doing work so he's definitely not sitting on his but wallowing in this, but a lot of his clientel he has gotten from this woman. If she starts slandering him then he could potentially lose some clientel over it if she pushes those people enough... and boy is she a pusher. To give you an idea how crazy she is... one of her friends (who is rich) paid $5000 to throw HER daughter a big graduation party. Instead of thanking her friend she complained that it was a crappy party.

Oh, I missed the photos and all the rest of the posts. Beautiful work as far as I can see in the photos. She's a nut job. Maybe the others are right in trying to keep it low key and see if that works first. I don't know. But slandering someone's name is a crime when it's unfounded.

Wow what a trip you are on with this lady! At some point you will need to forgive her for the sake of your OWN mental health so she doesn't live rent-free in your head, but until you are ready to do that just let yourself feel what you feel and get it out - I would say kick a tree but you might hurt your foot. Knowing she is mentally ill and forgiving her is one thing, but allowing her to abuse you is another thing, so you may need to get that restraining order. Being a proactive as you are seems like the best course of action.

Exactly... I actually know a few bipolar people who are unmedicated and not in any way like this woman is.

Josh deleted her number (it now shows up just the numbers when she calls) and her husband's number because he doesn't want anything to do with them. Her husband has his number posted on Facebook though and since I'm still technically facebook friends with him I could pull it off of there. I've been pondering over whether or not I should contact her husband and tell him that if she does slander him I will push for charges. Don't know if Josh will contact him since at this point he doesn't care about the money. He just wants her to leave him alone and stop calling him.

who cares if he has clientele from her. Either they're normal humans and can see quality work and want that, or they're crazy ****ing bitches like her, in which case, He'll want no part of working for people like that. Focus on the important stuff.

He works hard, does good work and he'll get thru this. Make this woman your focus and crazy will continue to pull you down her path.

Honestly, I would not contact the husband. I wouldn't contact her. I wouldn't tell them you are going to press charges if it doesn't stop. I wouldn't reach out to either of them. I WOULD go to the police and ask their advice. Let the police handle it from there... wash your hands of it.

I would look into small claims court. It's very cheap to have your case heard. I would pursue the money owed and mention the harassment and all the threats of slander so they can tell her she cannot do that. Keep all voice mails and txts. Quit answering her calls so that she is forced to txt or leave a voice mail so that you have proof.

This would be the path I would take so that a JUDGE could tell her this work is obviously up to par and that she cannot continue the harassment. I have never experienced this sort of thing and I do not have any legal knowledge so I am open to correction if there is a better way to deal with this but that is where I would start.

EDIT* I would also file a report and see what kind of restraining order or whatever you can obtain to make it illegal for her to call you.

The problem is, unless the husband admits he agreed to pay $1,000 for the work, there is nothing to stand on. There's no written contract...no proof of the agreement. And it sounds like Josh just wants them out of their life....like last week, regardless of the money. Me...I'd want to be paid. I want them to be made to pay.

I would just do a simple letter stating that you are not willing to finish the work because of the personal conflict, and the name and number of a few contracters if they want to have someone else finish the work (warn the contracters first so they know your side of things), and that you are considering this matter finished. And that any further phone calls, emails or slander will be take up with your lawyer who has been given a log of the calls and so on.

And to have a nice day.

You don't need to contact a lawyer but saying that's the next step in your eyes is enough.

I wouldn't worry about clients, if she's a nutty woman then chances are people who agree with her are likely nutty too (sounds like it's their way of getting discounts and treating people like crap, don't need that) or know she's nutty and aren't going to put a lot into what she says. Tell Josh to from now on be very clear that he has that space to work in and it's not a partnership where the client gets to come and work at the same time and be in the way, which usually isn't an issue for normal people.

They have lots to stand on, he did the work and they obviously have a new bathroom. No judge is going to think they did it for free. If he was paid for other things, I assume he was, show the payments. Deposits, cashed checks, whatever you have. Show that they had been paying you and how much (hourly, whatever)

Then you say, XYZ was the payment arrangement for this and then the burden is on them to prove otherwise. No judge is going to believe you did it out of the goodness of your heart. he can deny it, but he's going to have a tough time explaining a new bathroom that just appeared. and if you have past proof of payment for anything you've done for them, use it. It shows you had payment agreements in place.

Unless there is a huge part of this stroy we're not hearing, I have a hard time believing you wouldn't win

I almost wonder if the crazy lady has a bit of an unhealthy crush on your husband and doesn't like that she isn't getting any attention in return. So she's throwing a tantrum.

Anyway, I agree with Kilter and release the hounds. Write a very neutrally toned, businesslike letter and wash your hands of them. The faster they are out of your life, the better. Your sanity and never having to deal with them again are worth far, far more than $1000. And thank who/whatever you pray to that you didn't end up living there.

Maybe trick her into admitting that she refuses to pay via voice mail or txt? Like Josh could send a polite txt saying he is still awaiting payment then she is sure to reply with some crazy, violently worded message saying she won't pay, etc, etc. Maybe even have him state the amount so that it would prove what they agreed on as long as she doesn't come back saying "That's not the amount we agreed to" which I bet she won't.

First off, if y'all ever move to southeast Louisiana, please let me know. I've got LOTS of home improvement projects!

Second, save all voicemails. Sit down right now and right out everything you can, from when original agreement was made and all the specifics to current situation (and everything in between - be as detailed as possible). Go ahead and pull your phone call logs, and highlight all the incoming calls from them.

Third, get the police involved if it's that nasty.

As for libel and slander, that's a criminal offense, if she takes it to the extremes mentioned.

ETA:

Also, type up an itemized invoice for the work, including payments already maid and current remaining balance. Save s copy for your records, and mail a copy to them via certified mail.