Facts:
My ex and I have a store. He’s filed (meets with trustee this month) Ch 13. He claims he’s not involving the store (don’t know what if any truth to that is). MOST of the debt he has is from opening the store, but some of it was to buy investment properties and is on the items he kept in the divorce-I took nothing. The business is an LLC and I own 51%. We haven’t made regular payments to our debtors in years. Through the years, we have settled about 65% of the original debt by calling and agreeing on lump payments. The store is failing and I’m the only one working in it. I was paying myself (W2) $1k per month gross when the store brought in enough to be able to afford it after bills.

My question:
Can I legally go and take 50% of the property before he liquidates the assets himself? I’d leave the store in tact to be able to do some business. Only taking things that don’t prevent him from continuing the business until he completely runs it into the ground.

Ok. here I go with another Thread.

As restaurant owner I made a contract with a company that provide aprons, towels, etc.

I’t has been a little over a year since I singed the contract. I decided to cancel their services for the following:

Damage towels: Towels that were used wrongfully, meaning they cant not be used in the kitchen to clean up any kind of grease or oil. I had a couple of conversations with the owner of the company that provides those services, we discussed the problem regarding those towels been charge and those damage towels were never showed to me to verify such damages; meaning if you get charge for any damage products you get to KEEP them after you pay full price for them then it is yours now. Also on that phone conversation I told the owner “can you tell your delivery guy to bring me my damage towels that I have been charged for” his answer was “sure let me call him and tell him to stop by and give them to you, and I call you with an answer of when he will do that”.

All invoices were paid in full/cash money. So for me to help remedy the problem I told the owner of that company on that phone call, “let’s add more grill pads instead of regular towels so I wont keep getting charged for damage towels”. Grill pads can be used any where and you can clean oils spills, grease, etc. And also to help remedy the problem we separated aprons, regular towels, and grill pads on different bags. So when the delivery guy comes in next week he can see for himself that all products are separated so it will make it easier for him to find any damage towels BEFORE putting them in the back of his delivery truck.

After a few weeks we started to get charged again. Every other week I saw a total charge of $2-$3 for the damage towels.

It was over a month and I never heard from the owner on WHEN my damage towels will be shown to me, so damage towels were still been charged but never delivered to me. So with that poor of a service and because of those charges of damage towels I decided to cancel their services. so in the last week of march of this year I decided to send him a certified letter stating the reason of cancellation of services.

I mentioned on that letter that on the next service day he can go ahead and pick up their stuff and leave and of course no more invoices will be payed. So the next service day, the delivery guy came in and my manager/brother told him to not deliver any clean inventory anymore and to pick all dirty inventory, he left with his clean inventory and left the dirty inventory inside of my premises. The day after the delivery guy came in with his business card and a copy of the 5 year contract later on that day the owner NOW is trying to contact me to see whats going on, he called my two businesses my cellphone number and showed up to another of my restaurants that he does not provide services to. I did not answered any of his calls at all. I mean why should I when he doesnt really care about getting back to me when he is asked for so i can see my damage towels.

After a few days he sent me a certified letter saying that contract was breach.

In the contract says the following:

Should the customer, at any time, believe that this company has failed to provide such service, the customer shall notify the company by certified mail, stating the nature of the complain. Should the company fail to remedy the complaint within 30 days of receipt, customer may terminate our service agreement via written notice, certified mail.

Ok, I did sent the cancellation of services letter via certified mail. I did not sent the complaint via certified mail. Why? because the owner and I were on the phone more than once regarding the same problem. And I felt that after I asked for proof for those damage towels and him not giving them to me I had the right to cancel the services. I have a few invoices that proves that indeed I help on remedy the problem by ordering more grill pad.

A week or Two after the delivery guy and another person (female) comes into my restaurant and he tolf my manager(brother) that he was there to pick up the dirty inventory he left a couple of weeks ago. The delivery guy and the female started counting aprons, regular towels, grill pads, etc. (BUT he never asked my manager/brother to count those items with them), then He went ahead and put them in the back of his delivery truck then he told my manager/brother that 9 aprons and 3 towels were missing and that he needed to sign a piece of paper, my brother did not sign it!

When I told the owner that on the next service day he or his delivery guy can pick up their stuff I already talked to another company about providing the same type of services, this company services my other location and I never, NEVER had a problem with charges etc, etc for over 3 years.

So, for us it did not make any sense whatsoever becasue we already had another company replacing that company with such poor service. So I was thinking ” if he claims 9 aprons and 3 towels were missing he brought short the inventory on his last delivery day!”

The day after the owner shows up and he picked up all toilet paper dispensers, soap dispensers, etc. (all wall attachable items).

A few days after that I received a bill from them with the full amount for the remaining of the contract, which is around $12k.

I responded to him via certified mail and I explain in more details the reason of my cancellation.

A few days later I received a certified letter from his attorney and they mention that the provision that allows for termination of the Agreement makes it very clear that the customer shall notify the company by certified mail regarding the nature of the complaint then the company has 30 days to remedy the complaint before I may terminate the Agreement.

Also in the attorney’s letter they said that the company continued to fulfill their obligations under the Agreement, Each week for three weeks and that their attempted to make the regularly scheduled deliveries. and their services were refused during each of those attempts. THEY NEVER ATTEMPTED TO DELIVER ANY SERVICES AT ALL THATS A LIE!

Also in the lawyer’s letter is says that in regards of the 9 missing aprons and towels that I WAS NOT PRESENT THAT DAY and that my manager/brother WAS asked to observe the counting of the inventory. That my manager/brother indicated that, at your specific direction, he could not accommodate that request.
LIE AGAIN he came home that night and he explain everything to me!

And then they mention again that I should sent a complaint first via certified mail. And that i clearly did not comply with the terms of the Agreement regarding the termination, and therefore the Agreement has been wrongfully terminated by me.

Also in the lawyer’s letter says: Demand is hereby made, that by close of business on Friday, may 13 of this year i send a cashiers check for the sum of $6,000.00. and to be advised that failure to cooperate will result of office pursuing every appropriate legal and equitable remedy available to my client.

And lastly. the said that Their client wishes me to know that to resolve this matter, it remains willing to discuss the full reinstatement of the services that was provided pursuant to the agreement. That if I am interested in that venue, to please contact the lawyer ASAP so that we can work out the details.

What should I do?

I heard form another business that they have the same problem with this company!

Thanks in advance,
Jhon.

Does mold in your business that significantly affects your health constitute a casualty in a business lease?

Hi,
I was wondering if someone can provide any advice, as my company is receiving threatening letters about a photo that was on my website.

Here are the pertinent facts:

1. The website is owned by my corporation, and is a very new business – only about a little over a year old.

2. I received business coaching to build the site, and was referred by my business coach to a website where I could find photos for my site.

3. The website offering the photos said they were free to use for any purpose as long as I was not creating a commercial product featuring the photos (derivative work) to sell (which I’m not – my site is on health products, and all photos are purely decorative).

4. A couple of months later, I received a letter from some image licensing company (I will call them Company X), stating that a photo on my site was in violation of copyright law. (Note that the letter was addressed to my website address, NOT my corporate name – there is no business entity created in my website name.)

5. I immediately removed the image in question from my website.

Several months later, I received another letter, saying that I owed Company X something ridiculous like $1,200 for using their picture, even if it wasn’t on my website anymore. (Or I could pay them $1,200 for a license to use the picture.)

I just received another letter titled “Notification of Case Escalation” and saying it my “last chance” to pay the settlement.

Okay, so my question is, what should I do here?

First of all, they are not actually threatening to sue my corporation, but a business name that does not even exist. Secondly, I removed the photo immediately upon notification of the violation and never received any compensation from (or during) its use. Thirdly, I try to be pretty cognizant of copyright law, and I did believe in good faith that it was okay to use the photo – shouldn’t the person who was offering the image for download and “free usage rights” on the photo download website be the one who is penalized?

And lastly, I absolutely don’t have the money for this (my business is very new, and I have made a total of just over $100 so far), don’t want to use the photo that badly anyway, and my corporation has no holdings.

Should I reply and tell Company X this? Do you think it is just a scare tactic? Surely they won’t take my corporation to court if there is nothing they can possibly gain – since my corporation owns a total of $0.00 – right? Then again, I don’t have the money for legal fees either.

Any valid advice would be much appreciated!
Thanks!
Rose.