Six construction firms have filed liens against Tyler Perry’s house and new movie studio, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Court papers show that the entertainment mogul's unpaid bills from the two properties total slightly less than $200,000, according to the newspaper. The contractors say Perry refused to pay their final bills either for no apparent reason or because their work met with his disapproval. They claim he ordered work redone on impulse, deciding he wouldn’t like the stones purchased for an outdoor fountain, for instance, or deeming newly planted trees too short.
“He wanted to do it his way,” said Brooks Hilton, a landscaping contractor who said Perry owes him $17,635. “He wouldn’t take any advice. I guess in Hollywood it works that way, but not in real life."
Perry claims to have withheld payment only for shoddy work or for undocumented charges, and then only for a handful of the dozens of construction companies he hired. Even those, he said, still got paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each before he dismissed them.
He sees the contractors’ complaints as a form of extortion and as part of the burden of celebrity.
Perry tells the paper:
“There’s a Tyler Perry tax that’s put on things...I’ve seen the worst of what people can be, the worst of what family members can be. I pride myself on taking care of my business. I pride myself on being able to pay the bills...I’m not sympathetic to anybody who’s trying to rip me off. Just because I’m a Christian, just because I’m a nice guy, it doesn’t mean I’m a wimp.”
Perry said he has the money to pay all of the disputed bills, just to make the conflicts go away.
“But it’s so ridiculously unfair,” he said. “It is so unfair to be targeted that way.
“Every person I know who has come from where I come from and who has had some level of success deals with this: ‘Because you have it, you should give some to me.’ I don’t mind sharing, but don’t try to extort it from me.”
• Trevor Erridge, owner of Multistone Commercial Services Inc., which installed tile and stone surfaces outside Perry’s home, says the troubles started just before a celeb-filled party for his new studio. Multistone employees were working on a patio overlooking formal gardens behind the house when Perry stopped by to check their progress, Erridge said. To Erridge, all that remained was “finishing touches.” To Perry, it was clear the work couldn’t be completed before his big party. He fired Multistone on the spot. Erridge says Perry still owes Multistone about $93,000.
• Merritt Huber, whose Carolina Lumber & Supply Co. sold supplies for the studio construction, described a similar experience. “Early on, he was paying very well —- very timely,” Huber said. “As we got later in the year, things got really slow. And now we’re in this mode of not getting anything.” Finally, in December, he filed a lien —- which stakes a claim to the property, should it ever be sold —- for $11,782.
• Hilton, the landscaper, worked at Perry’s house for seven months, from September 2007 until March 2008. It was an alluring job, worth as much as $800,000. But Perry dictated by whim, Hilton said, ordering up new tasks or criticizing work he already had approved. After Hilton’s workers planted a row of 22-foot trees to buffer the house from neighboring property, Perry decided they didn’t provide enough privacy, Hilton said. So Hilton had to remove the trees, bring in enough fill dirt to raise the grade by 5 feet and then replant the trees. Through his general contractor, Perry fired Hilton’s company last spring. Perry and Hilton are suing each other over the quality of the work, as well as the bill that Hilton said Perry still owes.
source: eurweb
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