After I win a lawsuit.......

[setterguy]

I own a small business here in the Twin Cities, recently I had a to sue a builder for non-payment for work performed. I went through all the proper channels and ended up suing the builder. The builder didn't show up to court and I was declared the winner. My question is, now what? It seems that I am in the same boat as I was before. I'm not looking for any legal advice, just wondering what channels can be taken at this point. I have heard that you can get the county sherriff involved but can't really find a difinitive answer to exactly what needs to be done to get something accomplished. If anyone has any experience they would like to share I would appreciate it...thanks in advance.

[Big Roy]

Did you contact the Better Business Bureau? How about the Attorney General?

[lawdog]

Do you mean as far as how to collect the judgement or what are you looking to do?

[Chris Haley]

The court should have set a time frame for payment. After that point, you can go down to the sheriff's office and put them on him. The sheriff's office will have the paper work. you will have to pay a fee, but you'll get that back. It helps to have as much info about the person as you can get. If you have an address, a check that didn't go through, a bank that the person deals with, all this info will help the sheriff collect. Once the sheriff is brought in they do the collecting. (at least thats the way it is here in Beltrami county) The info will help them to collect, they can levy pay, impose a lein on a house or checking account. Once the sheriff is involved they usually pay because it will affect credit.

[fishwidow]

Setterguy, collecting is not as easy as it seems like it should be. I had the same thing happen on a remodeling project and received a judgement by default because the contractor knew he could not win. He simply dissolved his company and stiffed several other people, too.

As for the BBB and the Attorney General, they were both of virtually no help. The BBB contacted him and told him of our complaint and he did nothing. Later when we were looking for an honest reputable contractor to finish the job, we asked the BBB if they had anything on record for him and they said "No." I told them that we had filed a complaint with them, and they said that they needed multiple complaints showing a pattern before they would tell any prospective buyers there could be a problem.

The AG has a fund that consumers can draw from when they are stiffed by contractors. There are several conditions, though. First, it's a limited amount in total, and if you are unfortunate enough to be hooked up with a crook, he's probably done it to other people, too, and there is not enough money within that limit to satisfy everyone. Second there is also a time limit, and I don't mean X number of days after you get the judgement. It's a cold hard date. Our judgement was entered something like early December and the time expired on the 31st. There was not enough time to file a claim for reimbursement from that fund. It was a moot point anyway, though, because the limited fund amount had already been sucked up by other claimants.

The state had already pulled the license from one of the crooks in this firm, but they got around it by getting a son licensed as a contractor. I'm sure they are still out scamming others and there is nothing you can do from a practical standpoint. Believe me, we checked with the BBB and the AG before hooking up with this guy. We also checked references and looked at work they had done, but we were near the tail end of a string of jobs where they financed the last one by down payments from the next one so everyone upstream looked good at the time we signed up.

We have a judgement that should be printed on soft paper so it sould at least be put to some use. Hope your deal turns out better.

Sorry for the rant. This will probably always be an open wound. The amount we lost was secondary. The real sore spot is that someone can get by with this and there is no real punishment.

[setterguy]

Thanks for the replies, and I do feel your pain. I will call the sherriff and see what steps need to be taken to collect on the judgement. I will post and let you know what I find out.

[lawdog]

Setter was this a small claims court judgement? If so you should get it docketed in District Court first.

Also, if your sheriff is like the ones I deal with, they really don't like doing collections and they will make you do all the work before they do anything. Namely, they will want to know exactly what property you want executed on, who the lienholders are and anything else that affects the ownership, where the property is and an exact description of it so they don't execute on the wrong thing. Some sheriff's try real hard to avoid doing this but in the end, if you have to, remind them that they are court ordered to levy on this property if you've done all the proper paperwork. I don't do a lot of this collection work, but the stuff I have done, the sheriff's have obviously not wanted to be involved in, just so you know what to expect going in.

[jgeatz]

was reading your post, was wondering if you subcontracted through a general contractor, if so you have the abilility to issue a lean against the property you worked on. You only have so long though. Maybe I'm just reading your post wrong thou.

[setterguy]

I do have the ability to lien the property, the fact of the matter is its a guy I know who owns the property and his builder contracted me to do some work. Its not a fortune that is owed (800 bucks) but I did the work and am owed the money ya know? I happen to know a washington county sheriff and have a call into him to help me with all the details. Thanks for the replies guys, its nice to have such a knowledgable pool of fellas at your fingertips....

[Big Roy]

The reason why I asked about the Attorney General and the BBB is because I was stiffed by a builder last year. I went to his HSOforum and sent out a e-mail to all of the sponsors on his site, the window companies, door companies etc. using the BBB complaint case number and the Attorney Generals report, within hours I started getting phone calls and replies back and my money.

[setterguy]

I may have to give that a try...thanks for taking the time to reply. Doesn't it suck to do work and not get paid? I can't believe these guys can stay in business.

[nthomps66]

I think you need to hire a couple of hard pipe swinging fellas to go after the holmes with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch. Get medieval on him.

[setterguy]

your're hired

[nthomps66]

I'll put you in touch with a guy named Ashtray.