I contracted with this company / individual to build a steel framed home. I paid him $6,000.00 as a down payment. The day he started to frame up the home I noticed that the roof line was much lower than it should be. I stopped the construction process before they even had the piece bolted onto the basement and discovered that he had forgotten the whole main floor of the house.
He left the job site and went back to town, only to come back a few hours later and tell me he needed more money to build the main floor. I told him no, I already had his bid which included the main floor. He told me he could not do the house for what I was paying him and he would give me back my down payment. He left the jobsite again and wanted me to "think about it". Upon calling and letting him know that I would not pay him more, he decided he wanted to take more than 1/3 of my down payment and apply to his time and expenses in moving the materials to the job site. I disagreed and told him no, I wanted all my down payment back as agreed. He refused to give me back the money. I told him he could not pick up his materials on the job site until I had my money.
In turn, he filed a lawsuit against me, I had to hire a lawyer which cost me an additional $3,000.00. The day we went to court the judge ruled in my favor on all counts. I ended up with a $6,000.00 judgement (Missouri does not allow you to recover attorney fees).
What good does the judgement do - NONE! I am now out $9,000.00. According to my figures it is going to cost me at least another $3,000.00 or more to go to Arkansas, hire a lawyer and try to collect from this person.
As a single mother, I have a hard time coming up with a few extra dollars to spend, let alone thousands. So in the meantime, this person has been running on my money, and I set here with nothing.
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