Australian tradesmen reached their breaking point when they destroyed a concrete driveway after their client refused to pay them and left them with no other choice. It took the police’s involvement to resolve the heated dispute.
37-year-old Damian Hallett and his 39-year-old business partner, Jamie Sommerville, work at Clare Concreting, a concrete contractor company in Clare, Australia.
Nevertheless, the men lost their cool after destroying their hard work when a homeowner informed them he wouldn’t pay the last $3,500 of his $13,500 bill.
The laborers were seen in footage, which has gone viral, captured outside the home, where they started digging up a driveway with a bulldozer.
Damian Hallett and his business partner, Jamie Sommerville, reached their breaking point when they destroyed a concrete driveway
Image credits: clareconcreting
Damian was reportedly seen telling the stunned homeowner: “I’m ripping the whole f****ing lot out.”
“It’s not going to help anybody,” the homeowner replied.
“It’s not going to help me by leaving it here,” Damian responded.
The tradesman added: “I don’t care, I’m pulling this out.
“At the end of the day, you owe me $3500.
“I’m pulling this out, you’ve had your chances.”
Image credits: clareconcreting
The homeowner was seen continuing to argue, to which Damian counteracted: “You said you’re not going to pay me the money.
“If you’re going to pay me the money I’ll stop, if not I’m going to bulldoze now.”
However, the men were eventually able to come to an agreement, the Daily Mail reported.
Taking to his Instagram account, Damian posted a follow-up message, writing: “In relation to this, we have been paid in full on the day.
“Thanks to South Australian police involvement.”
In the initial footage of the dispute, a police officer was seen asking the construction workers to “be reasonable.”
Damian yelled at his stingy client: “I’ve got messages to say: a day ago, you said you’ll pay.”
The Australian tradesmen destroyed their hard work when a client informed them he wouldn’t pay the last $3,500 of his $13,500 bill
Image credits: clareconcreting
The police officer was filmed interjecting and saying: “Now we can go over here and talk about it.”
“You can go and talk to him,” Damian replied, adding: “I’m done talking to him. Why do I need to talk to him?”
The conflict reportedly continued before law enforcement understood the origins of the disagreement.
“Hang on, how much do you owe him?” the police officer asked the homeowner. To which Damian replied: “$3,500.”
“Well then, you need to pay him $3500,” the officer went on to tell the penny-pinching client as the tradesman applauded the cop, adding he had been “outstanding.”
Image credits: clareconcreting
The tradies told News.com.au on Thursday (March 21) that they were simply “hard-working Aussies” pushed to the limit.
Jamie said: “We don’t condone this sort of stuff, we’ve never done it before.
“We knew it was going to come to a situation.”
According to Jamie, the job was for $13,500, and the homeowner had paid $10,000 but was refusing to pay the remainder.
He explained: “The main reason why it happened was he blatantly said to us he wasn’t going to pay.”
Damian further stated: “There were no quality issues.
“He said there was a discrepancy in the invoices, he wasn’t sure what invoice was supposed to be paid when.”
You can watch footage of the conflict below:
Image credits: 7NEWS Australia
According to Jamie, clients not paying happened “not too often,” but last year, a big company stiffed them out of $14,000, News.com.au reported.
He recalled: “We’re still recovering from that.
“We’re just hard-working Aussies. It’s a hard trade, concreting.”
A Police spokesperson told News.com.au: “The matter was a civil dispute and SAPOL (South Australia Police) attended to ensure there was no breach of the peace occurring.”
She added: “No offenses had been committed by any persons and SAPOL did not get involved in the matter of payment between the parties.”
Incidents of builders retaliating against a homeowner are more common than one might think.
Back in January, trade workers smashed up a woman’s completed driveway after claiming dissatisfaction and payment disputes.
The homeowner in question, from Queensland, Australia, wanted her driveway paved but expressed discontentment with the standard of the work, making her withhold payment for the full total originally agreed on.
The laborers subsequently sought revenge by taking their working tools back to the woman’s new driveway before completely destroying it.
“This is my kind of petty,” a reader quipped
Australia isn't s country that sues left, right and center. The time it would take to go through court they would lose more in loss of work than they would have got back from this guy not paying. Besides, taking to the driveway like that could have been rather therapeutic.
fun fact for all the folk commenting above saying they'll only have to pay for the driveway later, all the products used to build the driveway belong to the contractor until fully paid for so there wont be any payments from the contractor, they are only taking their items back and this applies even with the partial payments. its not yours until paid in full. a local builder demolished an entire house a few years back cos the owner didn't pay.
That's why you pay an up-front fee, for material, maybe a fee when it's around the halfway point, and then one when it's finished.
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I thought contractors could just put a iien on your property if there was an unpaid bill. May not solve the problem short term, but it interferes with any potential house sales and provides an incentive to settle while a court claims goes through. I wonder what these guys are going to do now about the $10 000 that did get paid? Guess it depends upon how the contract was written.
Australia isn't s country that sues left, right and center. The time it would take to go through court they would lose more in loss of work than they would have got back from this guy not paying. Besides, taking to the driveway like that could have been rather therapeutic.
fun fact for all the folk commenting above saying they'll only have to pay for the driveway later, all the products used to build the driveway belong to the contractor until fully paid for so there wont be any payments from the contractor, they are only taking their items back and this applies even with the partial payments. its not yours until paid in full. a local builder demolished an entire house a few years back cos the owner didn't pay.
That's why you pay an up-front fee, for material, maybe a fee when it's around the halfway point, and then one when it's finished.
Load More Replies... I thought contractors could just put a iien on your property if there was an unpaid bill. May not solve the problem short term, but it interferes with any potential house sales and provides an incentive to settle while a court claims goes through. I wonder what these guys are going to do now about the $10 000 that did get paid? Guess it depends upon how the contract was written.
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