Carlos Nunez from C&L Backhoe Services of Hialeah, Florida, overcharged us by $3, 500. on an approx. 18k project after we verbally agreed to a price. He was a guy whom I had known previously and thought I trusted. We could have easily done this job ourselves, but I gave him the work to help him out during the hard economic times, as he was complaining to me about a lack of work. He had every opportunity before and during the project to discuss any price increase issues or concerns, and absolutely did not. WE initially were suprised by his final invoice where he was over charging us by $3, 500. He stated that it was for mobilization and some internal staking work that should have been included in the agreed to original price. His only defense was "well, you didn't get it in writing", which we didn't since we were "friends" then and just shook hands over the price.

He then filed a notice to owner thru the Florida lien law services to force the payment of his overcharge, complained to our project mmanager about a payment dispute, and tied up over $200k in our project money payments until we had to pay off his total invoice including his forced $3, 500 over charge amount. He signed a release of lien document to get paid. Had another resident in Ft. Lauderdale advise us that he pulled this same type stunt with him.

This guy also disappeared a couple of times during the project to go do some other work, holding up the progress of our project.