Contractor took deposit and then went out of business

[soupcxan]

Dad filed a police report and they said they had gotten several others from people in the same situation with this company. But who knows if it will go anywhere.

 

[Mulligan]

I have never had this happen to me, but boy it still makes my blood boil thinking about it. I hunted down a person to roof my house after noticing his work on another persons house I inquired about. He ordered all materials and made me pay for them directly. He told me to pay his part when he completed it. I guess now thinking about it, he put a lot of trust in me to pay him! If someone screwed me out of 20k, I would give serious consideration to going in debt another grand or two to have someone give him an anonymous butt kicking he wouldn't forget.


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[Bestwifeever]

We have had a lot of contractors over the years and at least half said no deposit necessary, to just pay them when the work was done, from painters to roofers to carpenters. Of course, they can put a lien on the property if they don't get paid.

I hope the OP's father gets his money back. I saw in one of the links that other places in that area are offering discounts to the burned customers.

 

[pb4uski]

....I won't do business with any contractor that requires a deposit. ....

In most cases, I tell them that I pay my bills on time so it should not be a problem for them and that is good enough. If I'm in the right mood, I jokingly respond that I am not a bank and don't provide working capital.

I did have one instance when we built our new garage that the contractor wanted an advance for the custom roof trusses. I pushed back and he explained that he had been stuck by a customer who abandoned a project after he had ordered some custom trusses. Since I had previously done a couple projects with this contractor and in all instances he had done what he said he would do I did do the advance in that one instance. I would not have done it with someone who I didn't have a history of doing business with.

But on a more recent heating project, the contractor wanted a 40% deposit and I just said that I was an existing customer who had a history of paying their bills on time and they said payment after the work was done was fine.