If you have a written contract and time frame hasn't been met,check into small claims court.

There was no time frame mentioned in the contract at all. I know it is my mistake to have signed the contract without even the proper date schedule mentioned by the contractor. The most worrying thing is the work is not even started, but he has half my money :(

Thanks for your input.

Pay a lawyer $100 to write a demand letter to the contractor. That will often scare them into doing the right thing.

Second choice would be to file against him in small claims court. Again, he might realize it's simpler to repay you.

How long has it been since he dug the holes? If it's only been a week, I wouldn't start with the legal stuff yet. If it's been a month and he's not doing anything, then it's reasonable for you to send the demand letter and then file in small claims court if he doesn't respond to the letter. Even if you don't have a time frame in your contract, if he's not progressing on your job, it's reasonable to sue him for your money back. Again, that's only if it's been a month, not a week.

Calling him 50 times in one day is excessive. He probably thinks of you as the "crazy lady/man" now. :-) So perhaps he'll be smart and refund your money so he doesn't have to deal with crazy any more.

Demand letters only tell miscreants that you don't have the nerve or wherewithal to sue. Stuff a lawsuit down his throat or kidnap his children.

Thanks for your inputs. On doing more investigation, I found that guy has cheated lot more people. I found few of them have pursued in small claims court, but looks like he doesn't give a damn and doesn't show up. So, all those people even though they won the case, they are still waiting to get back the money from him. His usual job looks to be like cheating people like this and moving on.

I feel the law needs to be more strict. On reading more, I see that winning a small claims court is only 50% of the effort, and recovering back the money takes little more effort with no surety. I contacted a police and they told he is not a criminal and asked me to pursue in a small claims court. I went to the business address what was present in the contact eventhough it had one number missing, somehow i found the address and it looked to be his residential address, and when i went knocking to his door to ask back my money, he called cop to remove me from his address. That cheater's daughter was at that address.

This is usual for to go asking in the country where i am from.

I really feel some laws like this to be stupid for these kind of reasons. That cheater is confidently cheating so many people, where as i cannot even get to meet or speak to him to ask back my money which legally belongs to me. And I and my pregnant wife has gone through a severe depression because of this.

With all this, I dont even feel like pursuing a case in small claims court.

I strongly feel a police needs to have authority to help people from these kind of cheaty contractors. :(

Sounds like a demand letter won't work. Go for the small claims court. You'll easily get a judgement.

Yes, collection is the hard bit. But here's an idea: find out where his bank is and file a garnishment against his bank account (sheriff's office should be able to help you with this paperwork after you have the judgement). Get a copy of your cancelled check to find out what bank it was deposited into. Then file the paperwork and they'll pull the money out of his account.

You could also leave negative reviews on any sites where this guy is listed so that others don't fall prey to his bad business tactics.

And learn a personal lesson from this for next time: verify license, verify lawsuits, verify with other customers.

rosh,you have to availe yourself of the law in your state(it's different in every state) then use it. Just for grins so to speak,exactly where are you located? We might be whipping a dead horse in some countries of the world.