[Marilyn]

We've had a similiar situation happen lately, and we consulted two attorneys about the issue, because we are out a lot of money. In our case, the lawyers said we could sue and win a judgment against the contractor, but he has no money, no bank account (cashes his checks at one of those check cashing places). We can't take his equipment because it would prevent him from making a living. We are stuck. The best thing to do is try to get the contractor to follow through on his promises, even if it takes time. In our case we did not have the time, he was a subcontractor for a home under construction. We had to cut our losses and hire someone else to complete the job. We may go ahead and get the judgment and try to collect in the future, but for now we just got burned, and this was a guy we had been doing business with for 5 years. He just got overextended and spent the money we gave him to get the job going. We couldn't pay him any more until he completed some of the work, so he went on to do jobs for people who would give him an advance to start another job. We think he walked off about 4 jobs for the same reason in the last couple of months.