contractor escaped

What is the name of your state? California
My husband and I signed a contract with a contractor about remodeling the kitchen and adding second floor of our residential home on March 1, 2006. The contract did not specify starting time. He applied the permit for the kitchen, but has never done for the second floor. He has collected our down payment a few times in total of $83000 (we now know this is illegal). The down payment included 25% of total cost, permit fee, foundation checking and architect designing fee. He has not done anything so far. We recently found that the contractor' license number was suspended by California Construction board on Dec 5, 2006 for not paying his material provider in an another civil case. We talked to him on Dec 13, 2006, and he agreed to refund us. But we never received the money. Now he does not respond our phone calls or email. We know he has other bigger projects and apparently he is in financial trouble. We plan to sue him if he does not return the money. But we worry that he could file bankruptcy and get away from this. Your legal advice will be greatly appreciated.

Contact the Contractor's Licensing Board.
Yoyo may have done this before.

Pressure the Contractor's State Licensing Board to file theft/fraud charges against him. That is a criminal charge which can include restitution to the victim as a term of probation or part of the plea bargain.

At that amount, the charge is a felony. Usually, the District Attorney will allow the charge to be dropped to a misdemeanor after the defendant pays full restitution to the victim.

Restitution from a criminal offense can't be discharged in bankruptcy, but you do have to have any unpaid amount reduced to a judgment.

The CSLB acts as the police agency in this type of case. They will investigate the contractor and will present their report & evidence to the District Attorney for filing.

CSLB is under State Dept of Coonsumer Affairs.
Contact them to file the complaint. They can also assist you with info regarding any bond this yoyo may have.
CSLB is an agency that doesn't file criminal charges (esp felony; also their usual experience is in investigating and charging offenses under the Business & Profession Code, this would be the Penal Code) often.
I would be insistent about restitution and filing charges to prevent yoyo from doing this to someone else. I would also want CSLB to file theft, not just Contracting without a license.

Look for any paperwork on yoyo. Your contract, any advertisement you ever saw regarding his services, any cancelled checks. They will need those to prosecute him.

...and...
contact CSLB at:
http://www.dca.ca.gov/complainthelp/complain_cslb.htm


Good luck. Be persistent.
If you get an investigator who appears to be unsure of how to proceed, try to get another assigned. Emphasize that this was a theft, a criminal act - not an administrative offense such as contracting without a license. Ask for criminal charges.

Wow --- turning the matter into a criminal matter probably isn't going to make him pay up if he doesn't have the money. As the saying goes, you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip. You need to let him know you are serious about getting your money back though. I would suspect that to make it a criminal matter there would have to be an "intent" to defraud or something like that. If he made attempts to fulfill his obligations (or had a successful business until now) then the state would not be able to prove he had such a criminal intent. Such laws are probably more designed for hucksters, not for failing businesses. Moreover, you could be liable for malicious prosecution and the like for attempting to make the matter a criminal matter when it is a civil matter. I just don't have enough facts to even think about this as a criminal matter....sounds like a poor business decisions is all.

IndianaOwner said:

Wow --- turning the matter into a criminal matter probably isn't going to make him pay up if he doesn't have the money. As the saying goes, you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip. You need to let him know you are serious about getting your money back though. I would suspect that to make it a criminal matter there would have to be an "intent" to defraud or something like that. If he made attempts to fulfill his obligations (or had a successful business until now) then the state would not be able to prove he had such a criminal intent. Such laws are probably more designed for hucksters, not for failing businesses. Moreover, you could be liable for malicious prosecution and the like for attempting to make the matter a criminal matter when it is a civil matter. I just don't have enough facts to even think about this as a criminal matter....sounds like a poor business decisions is all.

Click to expand...

Are you kidding???

Contractor escaped

Thanks Garrula for pointing this could be a felony case. We filed a complaint to CSLB two weeks ago. The agency responded us giving the contract seven days to solve this matter. Now seven days have passed, the contractor has not contacted us. The file may be forwarded to an Enforcement Representative in CSLB. I will see what the CSLB will do next. From San Francisco Superior Court, I found out the contractor was involved in numerous civil cases from 2003-2007. Quite a few companies or individuals have sued this contractor's company mishandling construction projects or owing money. Some cases were settled privately. Some cases were still in process. His company was liened by State by a large sum of money. We can not locate his assets. He may have some according to what he told us befroe. We completely lost hope he would return the money voluntarily. We have to rely on our legal system to solve this matter. Thanks again for your advice.

baystategirl said:

Are you kidding???

Click to expand...

No, I am not kidding. Turning a business deal that has gone sour into a criminal matter probably isn't the way to handle this at this point. Who knows, he may have spend money on archi fees, etc. WAY to early to say he stole anything or had a criminal intent. The OP obviously did not vet his contractor before handing over a lot of money. Bad business decisions are not a crime...

IndianaOwner said:

No, I am not kidding. Turning a business deal that has gone sour into a criminal matter probably isn't the way to handle this at this point. Who knows, he may have spend money on archi fees, etc. WAY to early to say he stole anything or had a criminal intent. The OP obviously did not vet his contractor before handing over a lot of money. Bad business decisions are not a crime...

Click to expand...

Well, "bad business decisions" seem to be a way of life for this contractor...at what point would you say that he is screwing his clients deliberately??

Apparently this contractor has been in a number of civil lawsuits. This is a civil matter and until more comes to light, I seriously doubt the criminal legal authorities would want to get involved.

When a "contractor" who collects money (eighty-three thousand dollars) and fails to complete the contract, is shown to have a pattern of such behavior, s/he is a CRIMINAL.

The Prosecutor has only to prove that the intent was to permanently deprive - usually very easy, as the defendant rarely intends to complete the contract, as proven by contractor's lack of action.

This sort of 'contractor' is in the business of theft, not contracting.
S/he is the worst type of criminal - they are scammers.

Indiana Owner, it must be nice to live in a bubble, where everyone is wonderful and the world is rosy.
When you're ripped off for 83k, maybe you'll still be saying 'it was just bad business decisions on the part of my contractor'.

That smells like a felony and should be investigated and prosecuted if true.

The best hope for the victim is criminal prosecution - you'd be surprised how that blood flows from the turnip when they're prosecuted. He'll find the money.


Since you broached the subject, IO: more white-collar criminals should be prosecuted.
A thief is a thief, whether one picked my wallet or one scammed me out of an investment/money.

hongbingz said:

He has collected our down payment a few times in total of $83000 (we now know this is illegal). The down payment included 25% of total cost, permit fee, foundation checking and architect designing fee.

Click to expand...

Why is is illegal to collect a downpayment, and the other fees?

You are right to be VERY concerned over the BK and why you should see an Atty, yesterday. Actually why on earth did you allow it to go on this long?

We found from California Construction Board, down payment more than $1000 is ilegal. In the beginning, we thought 25% of total cost as down payment was normal. The contractor was introduced by a neighbor as her nephew. He mentioned he was a big builder, only had time doing small projects between his big ones. So he gave reasonable price. He has many connections with state officials. We trusted him so quickly. He delayed the starting time many times. We even never received blueprints for the designing work. Finally we found that his license was suspended by the CSLB board in last October. It is really a hard lesson for us. We should have got more familiar with law and have searched the perons's background before we start anything.

hongbingz said:

No time was specified on the contract.

Click to expand...

So he isn't really behind schedule then since you two did not agree. He should return your money less expenses and turn over any plans/permits/etc.

Ad far as living in a bubble is concerned, it is too soon to say this is a criminal matter from what is posted. You are free to disagree, but in my opinion turning this into a criminal matter at this point in time seems premature - esp. since there was no agreed upon timeframe upon which to complete the work, hence, no way they could be convicted at this point...no way.

Many if not all state law enforcement agencies, particularly the attorney general, see it as theft if a contractor takes money but does no work. A homeowner should not wait to see if the contractor is coming back to start protecting themselves. Of course, ideally, the homeowner should do this BEFORE HIRING the contractor.

They should make sure the guy is findable. They should watch for signs he's moving or hiding assets. They should look for others having the same trouble w/the guy. They should inquire at any consumer protection agencies, licensing agencies, etc, if there are complaints, ask about the status of the license if the state licenses them, etc. Check court records. Check references, ask around, and don't be in a hurry. It takes time to do good research.

A homeowenr should never give much money down, and should never hire a contractor who has no physical address. Obviously never hire an unlicensed contractor if the state or local govt (city for example) requires licensing. Verify everything including license, insurance, etc.

Always research the contractor, and I don't mean just call the agencies and the BBB. Sometimes state agencies and BBB's keep complaints under wraps though they'll tell you otherwise. People who have a complaint and pursue it often find out that complaints are not public information when they should be.

If you wait til you're SURE you've been ripped off to verify this stuff, you probably won't have any chance of recovering your money even if the guy is a criminal and is caught. Have your ducks in a row. It is never a good position to be in, to have entered an agreement wtih a contractor, given him money, and THEN have to learn what you should've done to protect yourself in the first place. Doing that kind of work now will possibly help you if you need it, but prevention is always better. Good luck. Hope it works out.