How to combat a property manager who knows "a painter guy"

The following is what happened to one of my LI client’s homes when an estate property manager brought in his own painters!

Well I got the job and it turns out to be a complete nightmare.

For the first job, they add all these various colors midway through the project - one room they wanted EVERYTHING (ceilings, door trim, baseboards, even the window trim) DARK BLUE; another room they wanted a dark maroon - all things that were not discussed in the intial scoping of the job where the owner told me he wants to keep everything "light and airy" (those dark colors needed 3 or 4 coats). That was issue #1. Then the flooring guys come and not only do they put holes and marks all over the newly painted walls but they remove all the baseboards and leave them off, having us put them back on and adding a shim to each becuase of the gaps. If that's not enough, the owner now wants his entire deck powerwashed and stained for $2K when it's easily big enough to be $7K+. After having 2 extrememly uncomfortable conversations with the home owner (the property manger is no use at all during this) explaining that we'll need extra money for this, he very reluctantly agrees and we'll be done (hopefully) on Wed after spending 2 more days there. All the while, my crew is getting very upset with the organization of all of this.

But that's not even the worst of it: the property manager (a slick NYC kid in his mid-30s) tells me about another job that is upwards of $70K (which includes a huge sunroom, cabinets, pool house, etc) and he tells me to send him the bids separately and we'll work with just the interior first. This place is built in the 70's and the majority of the rooms have wallpaper on them and require a ton of work. I scope it out with my foreman and we agree that $20K for trim, wallpaper removal, prime and painting walls and baseboards is reasonable - the property mangager agrees and we sign the contract. Not two days into the job, he says he has the other contracts to sign but there's been an update: now we're exchanging all the light fixtures, adding in sconces, removing window treatments, on top of adding wainscotting, painting all the doors and all the stairs and handrails; none of which we spoke about. To add insult-to-injury, he's now speaking directly with my sub and tries to cut me out!! My sub is a great and honest guy and said whatever new bid he sends him, he's adding in 10% for my cut. So far, he's rejected the offer but we'll see.

Sorry for the rant, this is just fresh in my head and it was (or is) one of the worst experiences of my short painting career. Long week....I need a beer and a Met win.

Your complaining about all these things which should be mentioned and covered in your contract. The colors, (which surfaces get what color), the overall scope, encumbrances brought about from other trades, damages after your work is completed, literally everything should have been spelled out, assigned a price, and new change orders with additional prices should now be handed out. What's the problem?

The conversation with the homeowner expecting a $7k job done for $2k was an elevated level of cringe. Who's forcing you to do the job you didn't agree to? And now the new job has scope changes? Is that still not mentioned in your contract?

Quit being a victim and take some accountability. Be proactive. Construct a comprehensive contract. Amend with Change Orders to cover additional work not covered in the original contract. All of these things will command a certain level of respect. What's happening to you isn't the norm. You don't have to put up with it, but you do need to create positive change ASAP and be consistent.