Possible Illegal Activity by Contractor (medical, range, get)

[emmylou]

Hi all,
not sure if you can help...long story short.
2007 we were going to build a home and met with our contractor. he asked for 1600 for a survey. i wrote "survey" in the memo and he said he would fill in the name after he contacted the surveyor. Time passed and we could not get him to get a surveyor out to our mountain land. Because of medical reasons we had to put our plans on hold and because of the somewhat shady dealings before, we are not using the same contractor. I contacted the bank to make sure the surveyor had been paid (since we never received the final survey). The check came back with a random woman's name. we are not sure if this is similarity or what but the contactor's girlfriend, whom I met, had the same first name as the name on the check. we ordered the survey in Sept. and the check was cashed after we stopped the process...in April....
just a side note: we have an email from our contractor with the name of the surveyor. It was a man and we contacted his office. There was not woman there by that name.
so what should our next step be?
contact the contractor?
contact the company he works for?
contact the banks involved?
contact the police? if we find out it was his girlfriend..
Thanks
emmy...

[akck]

First step is to find out if the survey was done. Next, assuming it was done, find out if the surveyor was paid. If not, then the surveyor could file a lien on your property. If he was paid, I'd find out how much he was paid. All this will tell you is how much he ripped you off. If it wasn't paid or not done, then you contact the contractor and possibly the police depending on any resolution the contractor provides. Chalk up any lost money to experience in signing an almost blank check and don't do it again.

[HappyTexan]

Moral of the story..never, ever, ever sign a blank check and give it to a stranger.

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Check (pun intended) with the local police fraud unit.