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The builder of our home in Chapel Hill is in alot of financial trouble. he owes us $2,500 for appliance and fence allowance and I have his handwrittwen note saying he would start paying us $500 monthly on June 1. Of course he has paid nothing. I will take him to court if I have to but I want to know how I can make his ife miserable. I have his license number. What steps do I take to make sure he does not keep cheating people? Our 1 year warranty time is right about now but I doubt he weill do anything on the punch list. I can't even get him to return my calls. Any suggestions? There must be something I can do to not only get my money but protect others from this lying, cheating SOB.
Get a GOOD attorney who knows about construction law, etc and go ahead and file a complaint to start a law suit... there's too much of that going around these days...
Report him to the Better Business Bureau, get a good lawyer, and/or take them to small claims court where you can recoup up to $5000 in the state of NC.
If is he is that much trouble I would go with a Lawyer and skip the small claims court because of the limitation. The warranty stuff plus what he owes you would probably be more than the 5k.
If it's only $2,500, file with small claims court immediately and have all the documentation you possibly can -- all the who, what, where, why, and when.
If is he is that much trouble I would go with a Lawyer and skip the small claims court because of the limitation. The warranty stuff plus what he owes you would probably be more than the 5k.
I doubt the OP will see more than 5k though, even if they do win the lawsuit.
You can't get blood from a turnip. My guess is that the builder has hit hard times and probably doesn't have the cash to pay you because if he did he probably would. I work with home builders on a daily basis and I feel their pain. Its tough out there and although most of them our now sleeping in the bed they made, they were just riding the building boom until it went bust.
I preface this by saying that I do not know Real Estate Law. However, it is my understanding that when you close on a house you are accepting the house as is with exceptions noted in the closing documents. The warranty is a real grey area and you essentially close on a house in good faith that the items that need to fixed will be fixed.
Did you happen to have the appliance and fence allowances noted in the closing documents?
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