- Jurisdiction
- Minnesota
Hello, I'm hoping someone might be able to offer some advise for my pretty unique situation. I own a trades related business and about 4-5 months ago I decided to restructure the business and to help a couple long standing employees start their own businesses doing what my business does. The purpose of this was to allow me to focus more on product sales, to allow them to make more money since they helped me get to where I am, to take some of the liability away from me, to minimize my overhead, minimize my insurance rates etc.. The plan was for these guys to sub contract some jobs from me and to allow them to start taking on jobs from others.
While getting this set up, I purchased about $7,000 in equipment for one of the guys to help him get going with what he needed to do the job. We then had a verbal agreement that on the projects that he subcontracted from me he would pay me back 25% out of these jobs.
Well he had since done several projects for me, I deducted the 25% we agreed upon and he had paid it down to about $3300. With each payment I sent him an email with an updated total on the balance still owed.
The other day the guy told me he has decided to pursue another job offer he received in a totally different business/line of work.. He told me this through email and I haven't been able to get him on the phone to have a civilized conversation about it. In his email to me about this he said that he would still make payments on this equipment. However, I have a good feeling that this would not be the case. A person we both mutually know had told me that the guy was pursuing subcontracting gigs with others and I think that this is probably the case. I think he's simply decided to stop doing jobs for my company due to him thinking he is more qualified then the jobs I have been putting him on.
Ideally I'd like to give him the money he spent on them and recover my equipment. But I don't think that he is decent enough of a person to accept this as an option or to even have a phone conversation, to meet up to discuss etc. Actually I know that this is not an option for him.
So I am wondering what my options my be to recover this equipment or if I can recover it? I did not have a contract in writing for this. I did however have the emails I sent him as payments were made, I have a couple emails from him that discuss it etc but that is really the only proof I have of this or of the amounts. I do have the receipt from the purchases and I can prove that I was the one that did pay for this stuff.
Can I get the police involved and get them to go there with me to recover the stuff? Or is this a different type of matter? Maybe small claims court or?? Again, the guy isn't very rational or I would just try to work something out, but I don't see him following through on his word. I really don't even see him giving up the stuff even if a judge ordered him to.
I realize that this was a mistake on my part to not have a contract or to even do this for him to begin with.. Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.
While getting this set up, I purchased about $7,000 in equipment for one of the guys to help him get going with what he needed to do the job. We then had a verbal agreement that on the projects that he subcontracted from me he would pay me back 25% out of these jobs.
Well he had since done several projects for me, I deducted the 25% we agreed upon and he had paid it down to about $3300. With each payment I sent him an email with an updated total on the balance still owed.
The other day the guy told me he has decided to pursue another job offer he received in a totally different business/line of work.. He told me this through email and I haven't been able to get him on the phone to have a civilized conversation about it. In his email to me about this he said that he would still make payments on this equipment. However, I have a good feeling that this would not be the case. A person we both mutually know had told me that the guy was pursuing subcontracting gigs with others and I think that this is probably the case. I think he's simply decided to stop doing jobs for my company due to him thinking he is more qualified then the jobs I have been putting him on.
Ideally I'd like to give him the money he spent on them and recover my equipment. But I don't think that he is decent enough of a person to accept this as an option or to even have a phone conversation, to meet up to discuss etc. Actually I know that this is not an option for him.
So I am wondering what my options my be to recover this equipment or if I can recover it? I did not have a contract in writing for this. I did however have the emails I sent him as payments were made, I have a couple emails from him that discuss it etc but that is really the only proof I have of this or of the amounts. I do have the receipt from the purchases and I can prove that I was the one that did pay for this stuff.
Can I get the police involved and get them to go there with me to recover the stuff? Or is this a different type of matter? Maybe small claims court or?? Again, the guy isn't very rational or I would just try to work something out, but I don't see him following through on his word. I really don't even see him giving up the stuff even if a judge ordered him to.
I realize that this was a mistake on my part to not have a contract or to even do this for him to begin with.. Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.
