Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Verbal trade agreement
A verbal trade agreement was made between a client and me. He did some carpentry work for me, and we agreed that I would paint one the rooms in his house as a trade. A fair exchange with about the same amount of labor hours.
A date was set for me to paint the room. He called on that morning and wanted to postpone, then ignored my future calls and emails to reschedule. 6 months later I get an unrealistly high bill from him for the work he did for me. He had done quite a bit of work for me previously at very reasonable prices. FYI,he just did the carpentry work on the side and is not in business.
Because he did do the work, I in turn sent him a check for the materials used on the job and a reimbursement of all the labor charges from the last invoice he paid to me for my services on his home,$255. What I thought was a very fair payment for services rendered.
He was not satisfied with the payment and is demanding the remaining amount of $313.00. He has threatened to take me to court on this.
There was never anything in writing or any dollar amounts quoted for the work to be traded.
Does he have any kind of a case against me?
What do you recommend I do to get rid of this guy?
Thanks for your help.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Verbal trade agreement
Send him a letter, certified return receipt, that you paid him the fair price for the job he performed, although the agreement was that he would take it in trade for your work. If he continues and sue you, you can cross-complain against him for his breach of the agreement with you for you to do work, and the value of the work you were supposed to perform.
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