Small heating contractor needs help against big city landowner

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Imagine being owed tens of thousands of dollars by a company and then learning through social media that it just brokered a multi-million-dollar deal.

That's the predicament a pair of small business owners found themselves in, all while trying to collect from a big city developer.

When the heating contractors didn't get paid, they went ahead and filed liens, figuring they would get their money eventually when the properties they worked on were bought or sold.

The big real estate deal made headlines, but that dough never trickled down.

To survive as a small business heating contractors, Larry Hirsch and Chris Clesse have to account for every pipe they install, every penny they spend. Their company -- Heat, Inc -- had been trying to collect on a stack of open invoices for jobs they completed for Morrisania Associates, which owned more than a dozen of buildings in the Bronx.

"Middle of the night, service calls, no heat, no hot water," Hirsch said. "We installed new boilers."

It was work going back more than two years, which has put them in the red nearly $25,000.

"We had to pay those vendors," Hirsch said. "We had to pay tax on those invoices, so we are out, completely out."

Hirsch and Clesse said their invoices, emails and calls were ignored, so the partners filed mechanic's liens in court against each of the properties.

"It was really the only recourse we had," Hirsch said.

Then came the shocker, when Clesse read in the Wall Street Journal that the buildings were sold for a whopping $85.5 million.

"I saw them tweeting about their multi-million-dollar project somewhere, and I became incensed," Hirsch said.

That's when they called 7 On Your Side, and we turned up the heat, getting in touch with the building owners parent company, Two Trees Management Company.

Hirsch and Clesse got four checks, all the money paid in full, nearly $25,000.

"Thank you," Hirsch said. "It wouldn't have done it without you."

Two Trees Management said the delay was caused by a dispute on the amount of the bills. Their representative said the company didn't find out about the outstanding bills until recently, even though Heat Inc. had emails sent to them dating back more than a year.