THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 27, 1995 TAG: 9510260179
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Business fed up with illegal competitors
There are many people who operate businesses without a business license, without liability insurance and without worker compensation. To all homeowners who may use such a business for lawn maintenance, house cleaning, home repairs or any number of other services, beware. Without even considering the amount of revenue lost to the city in the form of business-related taxes and fees, which could easily offset an increase in property tax or fees that you pay, you could easily pay much more.
Any injury that occurs either on your property or is a direct result of a service being performed on your property, you as the homeowner can be held financially responsible for any and all damages if the contractor has no liability insurance. For example, many people operate lawn maintenance businesses on the side. They pocket the money that they make and pay no taxes, no compensation, and certainly no insurance premiums. If they are cutting your grass and a rock is thrown from the deck and strikes a person riding by, the homeowner can and will probably be sued for the damages. Even if one of their workers is injured on your property, you could be sued by them if their employer pays no workers compensation.
Additionally, a homeowner may be subject to further action by the city for using an unlicensed contractor. To put it another way, it just is not worth the risk. You may save a few dollars now, but it could cost much more in the long run.
To all those hundreds of people currently operating an unlicensed, uninsured business, beware. Those of us who do it right are looking for you. You pocket most of the money that you make, and are able to offer a much cheaper service only because you are operating illegally. To make the matter worse, many of you have full-time jobs that offer you and your families health insurance and retirement programs, and because of the unfair competition with legal small business, you are a major reason we cannot afford the same.
Additionally, others who are illegally operating are receiving benefits in the form of SSI or welfare payments at my expense, then undermining my ability to make ends meet. They have no greater right to the benefits of financial and health security than do I, and at least I am not a cheat.
I own a small lawn maintenance business. In one month, the cost to operate my business is approximately 80 to 85 percent of gross income. This includes about 20 to 25 percent in taxes and fees alone. As a legal business, a partnership, we pay the following: federal, state and city taxes, matching Social Security, workers' compensation, personal-property taxes on vehicles and equipment, unemployment tax, and liability insurance. The remaining income ideally covers labor and operating costs; however, more often than not, it does not.
I will look in the neighborhoods in which illegal services operate, recording their vehicle plate numbers. I will look in the help-wanted and service ads, and copy their phone numbers. I will look for them everywhere possible, and I will turn them in to the commissioner of the revenue. Either operate legally, or suffer the consequences. If you persist, soon enough you will hear from the Internal Revenue Service.
Finally, those who own a lawn service, a cleaning service, a construction business, a roofing business, or any legally operated small business, can write down license plate numbers and phone numbers from ads and report them to Mr. S. Callis, deputy commissioner of the revenue, city of Virginia Beach, 23456-9002.
Joseph A. Sansone
Virginia Beach by CNB