Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>Hired an Engineer to clear permits on a home. 5 months later he is trying to bill me more money is there a time limit?

Hired an Engineer to clear permits on a home. 5 months later he is trying to bill me more money is there a time limit?

CaliforniaPayment Disputes

I hired an Engineer to pull permit for a mobile home. He asked for $2,500 down payment. He mentions he believes it will be between that and $3,000 at $100 for him and $60 for his assistant an hours plus .55 per mile. Shortly before the process is done he informs me that it went over and I owe him another $6,000 plus. I paid it. A couple of days before final inspection he tell me there will be additional $600. It passes final inspections. I pay him in cash the last of the money I owe him and was surprised he didn't ask for the additional $600. He gives me all the paperwork associated with the project and that's it. Now 5 months later he calls me and says that I owe him an additional $3,500. For what I don't know. Can he bill me for something 5 months later? Can I ask him to send me an itemized statement of charges which he never has supplied me with?

2 replies

Jul 8, 2020

There's nothing stopping a business from billing a customer 5 months after services are provided or goods are exchanged. However, that doesn't mean they can overbill their customers without reason - and that doesn't mean they won't try to pursue claims to recover the exaggerated bill. With that being said, it also doesn't mean that the customer has to pay the bill. If you've already paid well over the contract price, and if you've already exchanged final payment with the engineer, then the account should be settled, and no further amounts should be billed or paid. Potentially, that engineer could threaten to pursue payment claims against you. But, seemingly - if the account has been settled and paid for months, and if the requested price has already been paid for the services, then any claims they will bring would likely be inappropriate and invalid. Still, if things escalate, it might be wise to discuss the matter with a local California lawyer.

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Jul 8, 2020

I came back and offered him $1000 dollars if he would give me a receipt stating that the contract was paid in full. He took it. Which just reinforces my feeling it was just a scam on his part. If he REALLY did $3,500 dollars worth of work and was owed it, I doubt he would have jumped at a mere $1000. Lesson learned, expensive leason learned. What he doesn't realize is that for a mere $1000 dollars he went from having a client that would have recommended him to others, to a client that will never mention his name again.

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