Landscape architect Leon Gray of Fullerton, Calif., e-mailed me to ask about how far he needed to go to find a contractor to whom he might owe some money.

“I was contacted by another firm to bid on a small waterfall feature at a private residence,” Gray writes.

He and the other contractor scheduled a meeting at the residence, which Gray missed because poor cellphone reception had caused him to think that the meeting was in the evening rather than in the morning.

While at the residence, Gray met briefly with the homeowner and found out exactly what was needed. He prepared a bid to give to the contractor but found it impossible to get in touch with him.

The homeowner also called the contractor and received no response. A couple of weeks passed, and the homeowner was growing impatient, so Gray gave him the bid for the waterfall job.

At the time, Gray says, he stated very clearly that, although he was offering a bid for informational purposes, the arrangements should be made through the original contractor.

“But if he refused to return either of our calls,” Gray writes, “then I feel he is out of the loop so far as getting any referral fees. The homeowner emphatically agreed with me.”

Gray wants to know if he is still obligated to continue trying to contact the contractor, given that none of his previous calls have been returned.

I believe that he is.

Some contractors subcontract parts of jobs and let the subcontractor directly bill the homeowner without taking any referral fee.

That does not seem to be the case in this instance, however.

While the contractor might be shirking his responsibility by being so difficult to contact, it doesn’t remove Gray’s obligation. Without the initial contact from the contractor, he never would have found the job in the first place. Their initial conversation defined the obligations of the relationship, and nothing that has happened since has altered those obligations.

The right thing for Gray to do is to track down the contractor to resolve the amount of the referral fee.

If, however, it turns out that the contractor has for whatever reason decided not to take the bigger landscape job, and if the homeowner still wants to hire Gray to build his waterfall, then the contractor should release Gray from any obligation.

Sound - off

All readers who responded agreed that, if they received an erroneous $10 in change at their local coffee shop, they would return it promptly.

“The right thing would be to immediately return it,” writes Nancy Pike of Mount Vernon, Ohio, “no matter how personally inconvenient it would be.”

Lori Flores of Riverside, Calif., notes that, if the mistake is left uncorrected, it’s likely that the cashier will have to pay back the money out of her own pocket.

“To keep this money is theft,” writes Kitty Chisholm of Windsor, Ontario.

Helen Standley of Charlotte, N.C., like Debi Grand of Stanton, Calif., and Carole Longman of Delaware, Ohio, would call the store manager about the mistake.

“Much angst can be avoided by a telephone call the instant the receiver discovers the mistake,” Longman writes.

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