lumber that scher had already paid martinez for. the company immediately put a lien on scher s house. what brian scher didn t appreciate at the time is the financial power of that contractor s license. the same license that is supposed to protect the consumer. because in california, like many states, homeowners are on the hook if their contractors buy materials or hire subcontractors and don t pay them. that s right. even if you can prove that you ve paid your contractor, angry vendors can hold the homeowner responsible. in one last ditch effort to try to reason with martinez, scher phoned and asked him to return items he had taken from the house. i said, well, are you going to give me back are you bringing back all the windows at least and all the lumber and everything? he says, hell, no. i m bringing back nothing. he said to me, listen, if you bug me, i ll come there and i ll kill you, so don t just mess around with me, you don t know who you re talking to. richard martinez i
and i phoned him up and i said what s happened? he says he s not coming back, he s going broke. i said you re going broke? i ve paid you just about the whole contract, you haven t even done less than a third of it. brian scher was about to lose more than just the $85,000 he had paid for shoddy work. just days after that phone call scher received this $27,000 bill from the local lumber company, lumber that scher had already paid martinez for. the company immediately put a lien on scher s house. what brian scher didn t appreciate at the time is the financial power of that contractor s license. the same license that is supposed to protect the consumer. because in california, like many states, homeowners are on the hook if their contractors buy materials or hire subcontractors and don t pay them. that s right. even if you can prove that you ve paid your contractor, angry vendors can hold the homeowner responsible. in one last ditch effort to try