Our contractor has abandoned our job site and the bank is foreclosing on his property. :mad: My real estate broker told me I need to get a lien on his property right away. Does anyone know how I go about doing that? He's being evicted in less then 30 days so I need to act fast. This is the only hope we have of recouping any of our loss which is huge.

Thank you in advance for all your help.

Is your contractor a licensed contractor? What state are you in?

First thing to do is contact the local building inspector's office and let him know what is going on... He will have some ideas for you.

Here in Mass. If a contractor is licensed AND the homeowner and the contractor have a signed contract AND IF a situation like this occurs the homeowner is protected up to $10, 000... that is the homeowner can recoup up to $10,000 loss as a maximum.. not much on a $60,000 job, but on a $15,000 job.. it is pretty cool. Great incentive to make sure contractors are registered/insured, etc.

See if something like this exists in your state. After that... like I said, talk to your town/city hall personnel... start with the building inspector... let him know what is going on. I believe you will need to go to nearest court and file for lien... but talk to people in your town or city. I hope this helps in some way. Sorry to hear.

I would ask who much is the first mortgage on the home being foreclosed ( and is there a secon or third mortgage.

Seldom do foreclousre homes sell for enough to even cover the first mortgage, and almost never other liens. So this needs to be consiered but is always a optoin.

Thank you for your responses.

Yes our contractor is licensed and we have a signed contract. We live in Huntington Beach Califorinia and unfortunaetly the city does nothing to protect the home owner. I've been to inspectors, supervisors and building supervisor. Although helpful in answering questions relative to building a home, they don't have any advise for the homeowner other then filing with the Contractor's State License Board which we've done. Now our contactor has released himself from liability of the property by taking his name off the permits (allowed by the city since he took the out in his name originally) which means he can't work on the job. NOt that he was anyway, we haven't seen him in over 8 months. Your advise on going after his bond is a good one, CA it's $12,500. Although every little bit helps, we've invested $240,000.00 in this contractor so that would merely be a drop in the bucket.

I will contact a lawyer and my local courts to get the lien filed, even though I did find out he has a first and a second so we would be third in line, it's worth a shot. Maybe between that and his bond we can at least get something.

Thank you all for responding.

CALL AN ATTORNEY!!
Mike