Contractor refuses to return deposit

[teyrsy]

I had attempted to get an addition on my home in January - had a contract signed and process begun. After numerous months back and forth with the county I was denied. According to them, I had used all of my buildable area on my lot and unless I was to tear something down I could not add more.

The contractor said that this is only a delay and then disappeared for a few weeks. When I finally got back in touch with him he said that he had a resolution to proceed with the project. He wants to tear up my parking pad to create buildable area and after the project is done I can recover the area with a semi-permeable stone which according to him is allowable by law. He sweears that if we did tear up the parking pad we could get our permit. I have nothing from the county that says this is possible, legal, or permittable and neither did he when we spoke.

I told him very clearly that we did not want to tear up the parking pad or tear down the garage and had no intentions of deconstructing anything or incurring more cost to replace what we already had when we signed on for this project. The county has said that we cannot build and that's that.

His claim is that we were offered a suitable resolution to the problem brought forth by the county to proceed with this project and that we are cancelling the contract in which he does not have to return our deposit. He also admitted that he went out and purchased materials some custom made to our job prior to having the permit, "Because this has never happened to me!" and is stuck with the materials and had spent our deposit.

It has been 10 months now and we do not have our addition or our money back. I believe the next step is the aquire a lawyer who specializes in this type of situation and proceed with a lawsuit. Am I wrong, or do I have any other steps I can take?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maryland.

[Cedrus]

MD no doubt has a Contractor Licensing Board (or similar) that licensed contractors fall under. They can help. If your contractor was licensed.

Also, get something in writing from the County telling you that the proposed work is not and will not be permitted. Talk, in person, to the head of the building department and ask if you can fill out a permit form that they will notate "Denied" or something similar.