Damato of the Day Is ... "Chapter 7, Take Two"
There
are so many great things to write about this beautiful Saturday morning. There
was a moonset on the way out and a sunrise on the way back from my
early-morning run. There was that email from our group publisher, Jill Bloom,
yesterday announcing the new micro-site, Moving
On (www.bnpmedia.com/movingon),
which was set up to report on contractors who are moving on beyond all the bad
news and recession talk. The stock market completed another mostly positive
week and Mom is up visiting from Jacksonville.
Life is good.
There are so many great things to write about this beautiful Saturday morning. There was a moonset on the way out and a sunrise on the way back from my early-morning run. There was that email from our group publisher, Jill Bloom, yesterday announcing the new micro-site, Moving On (www.bnpmedia.com/movingon), which was set up to report on contractors who are moving on beyond all the bad news and recession talk. The stock market completed another mostly positive week and Mom is up visiting from Jacksonville. Life is good.
Then just the other day I hear that yet another roofing contractor based in Georgia has filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Not a small one either. The October issue of Roofing Contractor just hit with this editor’s note about another such filing and here we have another one.
Here is a link to this week’s filing thanks to one of the local Atlanta TV stations. Long story short, the company racked up $2.8 million in debt while listing less than half a million in personal property assets. Looks like nearly a million in trade debt leaving most of the rest listed as “customer deposit.”
These numbers speak for themselves. No doubt consumers and the suppliers that supported the enterprise have been adversely affected. (And I’m sure they’re using stronger terms than that.) So has every decent roofing contractor who works hard and plays fair every day. They have been robbed yet again of another piece of the reputation that they work so hard to maintain. As for any violations of law, that’s for the courts to decide.
In spite of this, there was some good news. There was a news story this week about a roofing contractor in North Carolina working to help consumers who had been burned by the American Shingle bankruptcy. It is going to take a lot to clean up these two disasters. This contractor seized the day and will doubtless build some great goodwill in his community as he does what he can to help out. I am pleased but not surprised, as I know what most consumers do not know: there are a lot of good people in the roofing industry who know their work and would never take money for work they had no intention of completing. But to quote one of these news reports, “roofing contractor” is the number one item searched by the Better Business Bureau.
So what next? Since both of these contractors worked across state lines I do not think it is out of the realm of possibility that we may see some federal actions down the line. It may result in penalties of some type for the persons who started and operated these enterprises, but it may also result in closer scrutiny of legitimate roofing contractors. I cannot imagine with all the consumers burned that this is simply going to go away. If I were one of the consumers who lost a deposit I would be all over my local, state and national representatives to get answers and action. Stay tuned.
There are so many great things to write about this beautiful Saturday morning. There was a moonset on the way out and a sunrise on the way back from my early-morning run. There was that email from our group publisher, Jill Bloom, yesterday announcing the new micro-site, Moving On (www.bnpmedia.com/movingon), which was set up to report on contractors who are moving on beyond all the bad news and recession talk. The stock market completed another mostly positive week and Mom is up visiting from Jacksonville. Life is good.
Then just the other day I hear that yet another roofing contractor based in Georgia has filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Not a small one either. The October issue of Roofing Contractor just hit with this editor’s note about another such filing and here we have another one.
Here is a link to this week’s filing thanks to one of the local Atlanta TV stations. Long story short, the company racked up $2.8 million in debt while listing less than half a million in personal property assets. Looks like nearly a million in trade debt leaving most of the rest listed as “customer deposit.”
These numbers speak for themselves. No doubt consumers and the suppliers that supported the enterprise have been adversely affected. (And I’m sure they’re using stronger terms than that.) So has every decent roofing contractor who works hard and plays fair every day. They have been robbed yet again of another piece of the reputation that they work so hard to maintain. As for any violations of law, that’s for the courts to decide.
In spite of this, there was some good news. There was a news story this week about a roofing contractor in North Carolina working to help consumers who had been burned by the American Shingle bankruptcy. It is going to take a lot to clean up these two disasters. This contractor seized the day and will doubtless build some great goodwill in his community as he does what he can to help out. I am pleased but not surprised, as I know what most consumers do not know: there are a lot of good people in the roofing industry who know their work and would never take money for work they had no intention of completing. But to quote one of these news reports, “roofing contractor” is the number one item searched by the Better Business Bureau.
So what next? Since both of these contractors worked across state lines I do not think it is out of the realm of possibility that we may see some federal actions down the line. It may result in penalties of some type for the persons who started and operated these enterprises, but it may also result in closer scrutiny of legitimate roofing contractors. I cannot imagine with all the consumers burned that this is simply going to go away. If I were one of the consumers who lost a deposit I would be all over my local, state and national representatives to get answers and action. Stay tuned.
