BUILDER WALKED OFF JOB AND WILL NOT ANSWER LAWYERS

[RoxieBD]

On March 2 we signed a contract with a out of Parkersburg West Virginia, for a turn key construction. This contractor took over $$$,$$$.$$ of our money and the only thing we have is a subfloor, a septic that is not done and our log kit. Which he had delivered on September 8th knowing he was walking off the job. He gave us a 12,000.00 bill telling us we had to pay (which we did not pay) it before he would return to the job. This bill was because of mistake of other subcontractors that he had hired and was not on the job to tell them what to do. Now it's October 25th and still nothing. I am looking for someone who can help me just get my logs up.
I am in Berkeley Springs W.V.

PART TWO ...
To bring everyone up to date. It is now January 21, 2006 and I have wrote to the Attorney Generals office (some time in December) for help. They contacted my builder and he replied back (to make a long story short) he wants more money so the Attorney General contacted us back and told me to get a lawyer. Now we are working with a lawyer that has sent a letter to my builder and his lawyer. One week later the builders lawyer called to tell us that he is no longer with our builder. Our contactor still hasn't contact us or my lawyer. We do know he did recieved the letter since he had to sign for it.
So now we need to find a builder that can put up our logs. So if anyone is next to Berkeley Springs that can help us can you please email me...
Thank you..

[ChainsawGrandpa]

Get a bench warrant.

Well...at least the threat of that help my parents
get a landscape contractor back very quickly.

[Andythompson]

Just to clarify some terminology w/o trying to offend anyone.

I've been in law enforcement for many years. To my knowledge bench warrants are for criminal violations and are issued by judges who find sufficient reason to have an individual(s) arrested (essentially, it is a judge telling law enforcement to bring an individual before the court).

This appears to be a civil dispute during which arrest are rare unless an individual fails to comply with a civil ruling. At that time a judge may issue a bench warrant. To obtain a ruling (as I'm sure you know) you'll need to go through the long drawn out process of a civil trial (or arbitration), which I'm sure your contrator is betting you won't have the stomach or patience to follow through with.

I don't envy your situation, but am hoping for the best for you. A good lawyer will know best how to apply pressure to your "walk-a-way" contractor. Unfortunately, you'll need to watch your lawyer racking up billable hours.

It's a wonderful world we live in............ isn't it???????

[kyle]

I'd get a baseball bat!

[Andythompson]

I like that solution!!!!

a little batting practice. There's nothing like the crack of the bone.....I mean bat to make yourself feel better.

Then you just fuggetaboutit and let things fall as they may.

I think your onto something Kyle................................

[wood bug]

Bench warrant hence its name, issued from the bench of a sitting judge for the retrieval of a persons body to come before the judge to answer for whatever, usually some one who missed a court date or summons, a bat is quick psychological candy but may end up with your own bench warrant, of course probably both of these wouldnt get the house up probably get more done by getting his beer and hold it for ransom.
Really I would suggest going to the loghome builders home page read the horror story of those folks in ..hmm was it Maine, they may have better ideas on how to solve this since they went through the same thing..good luck

[rreidnauer]

Being that this contractor had taken possesion of cash in the six digit figures, and hasn't delivered, isn't considered grand theft of some sort? I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but it sounds like an easy case of scam/fraud.

Though it's too late in this case, I think if I was looking for contractors to do work for me, when they come out to the property for estimates and such, I'd be wearing my largest pistol holstered in plain view on my hip. Passive intimidation can be a real positive influence where you got people like that who try to use the law to fraud people. :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

[Andythompson]

Trust me.........I see your reasoning for the theft/larceny/fraud angle. Essentially you'd need to prove that taking the money was his "specific intent" (plan) from the beginning. Almost impossible to prove unless he told a third party of his intentions and then that person would have to be willing to come forward and say so. If he had told a third party then it has the possibility of becoming a conspiracy, which is a whole other legal ball of wax.

As I read it, right now it's a 'failure to perform' contractual issue which is a civil matter. The contractor has not taken the money and fled he is refusing to perform unless certain conditions are met and/or renegotiated. This seems to be due to extremely poor business practices of the contractor. Unfortunately, being an idiot isn't against the law. Any DA that I've ever dealt with will tell you it's a civil issue unless you can bring them more evidence of "intent". To have a bench warrant issued a judge would need to be convinced that the contractor had committed a violation of criminal law or failed to comply with a civil ruling or judgement. To make things easier just remember that penal and civil are two different branches of the law. The burden of proof being significantly less on the civil side under which penalties are almost always monitary unless an individual fails to comply at which time he/she may be jailed (which is rare).

Believe it or not that is the basic short explanation, it truely is much more complicated than I've briefly described. I'm glad you didn't take offense to me explaining the bench warrant, but if you attempt to threated someone with something that really isn't a credible option....you really come off as not much of a threat. Therefore there isn't much of a need to fear what you'll bring to the table in your attempts to resolve the situation.

my windy 2 cents

[ChainsawGrandpa]

Dunno. Even the threat of a bench warrant worked wonders
for my parents.

The best answer to the problems comes from where I'm moving to:

"That's not at all a problem. You see, up here we carry guns!"

Yes, lawyers and contractors really can behave themselves.
These people up here are friendly, but no one's fool.