Long story short, I hired a contractor to remove three trees from my property and in the process he caused damage beyond the usual yard dings from falling limbs and trunks. He dropped a limb on my shed, breaking the shingles and wood sheeting. Dropped a limb on my yard rake, shattering it. Tried to hide both damages until I confronted him. He said, 'well the roof was old anyway'. It was but it was completely intact. He purchased in inferior POS rake to replace my broken one telling me that's all Home Depot had. That was a lie because I stopped at the same HD the same day and bought my replacement that was identical to my old one.
Came out on the wettest, muddiest day of the year and tore up my path to the woods with his equipment. I'll never get my yard tractor back to my compost area. Left large logs scattered back in my woods. At this point I called his office and told them they were not to return to complete the job unless I was present.
They returned the next day when I was at work, against my wishes of being present and attempted cut the stumps down and to clean up the thick layer of sawdust in the area. They piled the sawdust in piles on the edge of my yard in a completely unacceptable area. That was the last straw so I called the office and fired the company. Told them never to return. I've had ten other trees removed from my property. Five that I did and five that I had another company do. Those ten trees didn't create as much mess or damage as this guy did with these three.
I sent them 800.00 of a 1200.00 invoice. Held the bal to cover repairs. Got a phone call from their office a few days later to call the owner of the co (who is the one that did the job, causing the damage). I thought he wanted to discuss options to settle the matter so I called. I hardly got a word in edgewise. He proceeded to cuss me out, call me an asshole, tell me I was a deadbeat, threaten me and tell me that there were collection agencies for people like me. I asked him about my damaged property and he informed me that he didn't give a f**k about my property and that he could have hired 4 ni**ers to do the job for less and that he'll see me in court. I said I'd see him there and hung up. I recorded parts of this conversation. Against my desire to go to his place of business and tear his white trash, racist head off, I instead decided to follow the legal route. I called the cops, filed a report on the threat and will proceed to file a restraning order in a day or two when I have the chance.
So, my question is: Is it ok to withold part of the payment due him to cover repair costs? He has insurance that I may use but I'm still going to hold the bal until repairs are completed to my satisfaction. You know how insurance companies are. Should I let it go to court? Any other advise for a situation like this? TIA