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How to collect from a hiring contractor who ghosted on us and the job?

Hi, I filed an affidavit claiming lien on the property owner when the hiring contractor ghosted on us with ZLIEN. However, I am not sure if anything will be resolved as the hiring contractors has avoided phone calls, emails, all forms of communication post services rendered. It seems they have planned this from the beginning. This debacle cost us a working relationship, closure of a branch not including financial losses. I have researched the hiring contractor and found multitudes of complaints from customers and contractors alike all over Texas about their work ethics and practices. My question is, are there other legal ways to stop them from repeating the same behavior? We tried complaining with Better Business Bureau but they were unable to help because we were not customers.

1 reply

Aug 23, 2017

Thanks for this question. This sounds really frustrating, and sorry to hear you're going through this situation. There seem to be a few issues in your question.

Issue 1: Stopping this hiring contractor from doing it again
Unfortunately, there's not much here. The BBB is a really useless organization because they only do paper-shuffling of complaints and have no teeth. It would be best to report them to the licensing board, the attorney generals office, or some other licensing or governing organization. BUT, it's really hard to get these offices to act on complaints. They have a long backlog, and typically spend their time on the biggest and most egregious cases. You can report it, but there's nothing you can do to actually get them to act.

Issue 2: How to collect your money
The issue where you do have some control is in collecting your money. If you didn't file a mechanics lien, you'd be stuck trying to collect from the hiring contractor only (who ghosted). But, since you filed a lien, you can actually proceed directly against the owner and directly against the property itself. While a bummer for the owner, it shifts the burden to find and chase the hiring contractor from you to them. Otherwise, you can file a regular lawsuit against the hiring contractor and try and track them down and get paid, but that may be a tall order. Good luck.

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