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#1 The steam to water HX. It can't help but overheat where the sensor is located its not in the hot water.

I used to have to "switch gears" all the time. I think that is what caused my anxiety.

It costs peanuts to put mechanics liens on houses. Might not get your money today, but you may a few years down the road.

@The Steam Whisperer I have a feeling that your idea may be against the law or at least an infringement on someone's right to privacy. I am not sure that it is a viable service that a business can just post Customer John Doe  does not pay their bill.  Unless you get the customer’s permission beforehand.  

I would become a member of a private online service, not open to the general public, that may post this information similar to the way a credit bureau offers the credit score for individuals who provide their SS number and DOB.  Anytime you apply for a credit card or a bank loan, the fine print says that they can report your payment history to any credit bureau that the financial institution has an agreement with.   You gave permission when you signed the application.

The trick is to assemble a “Bureau of Trade Customers” by having all tradesmen have that fine print in their invoices where it states that any customers dealings with tradesmen of any type that subscribe to the “Bureau of Trade Customers” that will give permission to the contractor to post their experience with said customer for all other trades to look up and make a decision if they want to deal with that customer.   Each customer would be rated with a “Trade Score” just like a “Credit Score” 

So every address that has any type of trade work on the property, from original construction including foundations and structures, to masons, to framers and roofers, to electricians, plumbers and mechanicals.  For the most part those first owners (the developers) would get a score based on how the original construction was handled. If the developer ends up not paying and files bankruptcy the personal information of the individual(s) would be part of the public record and you can avoid future develop[ers with that(those) individual(s) as named owners.   

Each proceeding owner would also be rated along with an equipment rating (as to weather or not the systems were designed or operate properly) so as a prospective contractor you can know what you are getting into. Customer rates poorly or equipment rates poorly.

Just a few ramblings from an old man in a wheelchair

Thanks for the reminder of that story. I've been thinking about doing something like that for awhile. There are lots of local community papers, online forums, etc here in Chicago that could be used for something like that. It really is shocking how some people can so easily steal from others, depriving children, grandparents, church's, etc of support. I have found it to be extremely rare that it is people that are in financial need that don't pay….it almost always the ones living in the most expensive areas that don't pay. We have been steadily pulling services from specific areas just for that reason. It really would be an interesting sociological study to look at the patterns of who commits these crimes. We have it down to specific neighborhoods and even streets which are dominated by these type of criminals. The old saying of "birds of a feather flock together" really seems to hold true for this behavior.

I'm curious if others have had this same experience in thier communities and cities.

It really should be no different than Angi's List, Yelp and all the others that are out there. They are platforms that can be used for slander. I always find it interesting that slander and defamation are immediately brought up if contractors share information about people that take advantage of them , but with the Angi's list, Yelp type platforms, no one ever seems to mention it about statements by customers being taken advantage of by contractors. The problem I've find with credit bureaus is that the cost to have attorneys, collection agencies, tec. to file liens, etc that would show up on a report is too high to make it worthwhile for contractors to pay for. This seems to be well known among those that take advantage of contractors. They often don't pay on smaller bills because they know they will probably get away with it.

I brought this up a long time ago, but thought I would again. I've been doing a lot of book work clean up and writing off accounts where customers have committed theft of goods and services (delinquents). Do any of you contractors have local systems in place so these experiences can be shared with other contractors to help protect contractors from these kind of people. I've seen them jump from one contractor to another, never paying thier bills. This is certainly a cost that the honest folks that pay thier bills should no have to cover, but have to because it is part of the cost of doing business these days. It could be just a simple list added to by participating contractors about who is not paying thier bills.