Hey guys, I did some work for a production outfit up here, welded up a bunch of 4''xx piping, the bill is a little over 13k. Here is my question, the customer came down and hemed and hawed at the price. I informed him the anything 4'' xx is not cheap, anyway i am giving him 6 more days. I welded all this piping up from his business partners request, so I am thinking about my options if nothing happens in days. (lein)?. I would like to break some bones..(long story, but it works)

Weaver-
A rock and a hard place not getting paid.  A few questions:  what is the business relationship with the company that owes you money?  Specifically-are they a legitimate licensed/insured/bonded General/Mechanical contractor?  From the size of your bill and the nature of the work I would assume so.  If so your options have some advatage and your chances of collecting are better.  regarding business relationships- I am not talking about goodwill/ not burning bridges or the possibility for future work, I am asking what was the formal legal arrangement under which you accepted the job.  Were you an employee?  Doesn't sound like it.  Working as a subcontractor?  Again a fully legitimate sub ie. license/bonding/insurance?  If this is the case again your options are better legally speaking.  Did you do all or any part of the work on site or was it all prefabbed at your facility and delivered to their facility under a provide only purchase order?  Even under a purchase order you have the expectation of payment in that a purchase order will stand in court as a contract- which legally in essence is an agreement between two or more parties to an action that is intended to produce a result in exhange for an established compensation. Most importantly how was this work spelled out and agreed to before you began?  Did you have a signed contract or purchase order that specified the materials, their purchase, the time line for completion, the welding standard you were working to- API, ASME and who was responsible for that QC inspection, what your responsibilty was as the fabricator, what were the terms of payment- net 30, net 15, paid when they got paid and most importantly of all was this contract/purchase order signed by a representative of the company that owes you money by someone in that company that has the authority to do so?  Did you specify the cost for this job in that agreement?  Was is it a fixed lump sum, a not to exceed amount, a time and materials cost plus agreement?  Were disputes to be settled in court or by arbitration? If this ends up in court a lawyer is going to have  lot more questions for you to answer before taking the case- if they're any good, but these are a few that come to mind immediately.  If you are an unlicensed business, just a guy with some tools and equipment and are doing work without the protection of a written contract you are in murky waters.  A contract is intended to bind and protect each party to an agreement.  There is a multitude of specific agreements within that contract some of which have been specified above.  Without that authorized agreement it becomes difficult to prove who said what to whom.  Regarding liens:  depending on the state you did the work in the law will vary.  If you can lein this company- and as an unlicensed individual you may not be able to- a mechanics lein or even the notification of intent to lein may get your money.  When a contractor gets liened it is a legal proccess wherein the states contracting and licensing authority agrees to review the greivance of unmet contractual agreements that contractor has and resolve them.  This may include a suspension of the contractors legal right to bid further work in some instances- usually public works- untill those liens are resolved.  It usually includes the provision that final payment for the job for the contrator, of which your work was a part, does not get payed untill the contractor meets all their obligations to the sub-contractors and suppliers for that job.  That is a very strong incentive for the contractor to make sure everyone gets paid.  I have some experience in these matters and have taken the time to educated myself to a small degree in how they should be handled, which is not as good as a lawyer, but might be some help.  If you care to provide some answers to the questions above and fill out the details of how/when/where the work was done I might be abe to suggest a possible course of action.  Hate to see a guy get screwed out of his hard earned money.

Best regards.