legallearner
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? WA
Our contractor has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy with about 50 creditors so far and close to $350K in debt liabilities while listing a measly $6k as assets. Some are unfinished jobs like ours, others are taxes owed and non-payments.
He left our job unfinished and many things done incorrectly that will have to be redone from the start (like our entire deck and opening up an addition down to the studs -- how this passed inspection is beyond me).
Anyway, we did withhold money from him because the job wasn't finished and we told him about how the manufacturer's rep for the deck surface said it was done incorrectly etc. and we were withholding money to fix that, etc. He never showed up again, his license is suspended and his bond is cancelled.
The money we withheld is no where near enough to finish, much less fix, the job.
Can we attach to his bankruptcy filing as a creditor? We have a new contractor and will start getting bills soon. Unfortunately, it is highly likely we will get nothing and he gets a free pass and fresh start with the chapter 7 filing, but we would like to be in line if there does end up to be something to pay out.
If we can get on the bankruptcy filing, how do we go about doing that? Do we have to have a lawyer? Are there any other means of recourse (even criminal... he basically robbed people, made a lot of substitutions on our job unknown to us with inferior products -- only found out when we opened walls, etc).
Thank you.
Our contractor has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy with about 50 creditors so far and close to $350K in debt liabilities while listing a measly $6k as assets. Some are unfinished jobs like ours, others are taxes owed and non-payments.
He left our job unfinished and many things done incorrectly that will have to be redone from the start (like our entire deck and opening up an addition down to the studs -- how this passed inspection is beyond me).
Anyway, we did withhold money from him because the job wasn't finished and we told him about how the manufacturer's rep for the deck surface said it was done incorrectly etc. and we were withholding money to fix that, etc. He never showed up again, his license is suspended and his bond is cancelled.
The money we withheld is no where near enough to finish, much less fix, the job.
Can we attach to his bankruptcy filing as a creditor? We have a new contractor and will start getting bills soon. Unfortunately, it is highly likely we will get nothing and he gets a free pass and fresh start with the chapter 7 filing, but we would like to be in line if there does end up to be something to pay out.
If we can get on the bankruptcy filing, how do we go about doing that? Do we have to have a lawyer? Are there any other means of recourse (even criminal... he basically robbed people, made a lot of substitutions on our job unknown to us with inferior products -- only found out when we opened walls, etc).
Thank you.
