Help! NYC DCA judgement says contractor owes us $80K but contractor won't pay

We pursued a case against our NYC licensed contractor to recover the cost of repairing their poor renovation of our home thru the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs and were awarded $80,000 (not enough, but a huge help), but the contractor says they won’t pay even though the city will revoke their license. So now we are applying for funds through some kind of trust fund at DCA set up to address this kind of problem but it’s completely unclear how this works. Our assigned attorney at DCA also said we can take the judgement to the NY Supreme Court but we’d need to hire a separate attorney for that. Does anyone have any direct experience with this? We don’t have much extra cash to hire an attorney but should we do it? Should we file a lien against the contractor’s property? Picket outside their front door? We’ve never been involved in anything like this. Does anyone have advice?

Brooklynreno

in General Discussion 7 years and 7 months ago

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joekinde | 7 years and 5 months ago

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brooklynreno, thanks for sharing this. I had an issue with a prior contractor who I replaced with a great one and finished my project. It’s been over 6 months now and I’ve been thinking about going after this guy (cost me over 40k). So I wanted to know if there is any time limit on pursuing litigation against contractors? also if you can share details on how dca process works might help me make my decision. I let it go and moved on but if dca does not cost me too much money and time, I’ll go after my previous contractor.

Brooklynreno | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Hi Kayaak, I wrote you at your email.

Guest User | 7 years and 6 months ago

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brooklynreno- wondering if you’d like to be interviewed for a story I’m working on about shoddy contractors and DCA. Can you get in touch? Thanks, Kaya
kayalat@gmail.com

Brooklynreno | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Thank you for the info., that contractor sounds like a nightmare.

Lurker | 7 years and 6 months ago

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In our case the contractor agreed to settle at the 11th hour rather than have his license get pulled, but months later he had it pulled by the DCA apparently over a succeeding case and they wouldn’t divulge but explained that he is ineligible to get a new license. If you look at the DCA requirements to become a licensed home improvement contractor it’s attached to your drivers license and business license, and you have to supply proof of disability and work comp insurance and a minimum lump sum of cash in the bank for a year, so it’s not so easily spoofed.

Brooklynreno | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Thanks for the excellent feedback and questions, which go beyond what the DCA lawyer could/would tell me. More homework for me, but obviously i’m not letting this go. Lurker, your case sounds like ours: an administrative judge made an enforceable judgement in our favor. Did you just put the contractor out of business, or were you able to recover damages too?

workisfun | 7 years and 6 months ago

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In a traditional ruling and award, you can subpoena the defendant (post-judgement) for a deposition regarding a broad scope
of finances and financial activity. If they refuse, they will be in contempt of court, and technically you can have an arrest warrant issued. Most would want to avoid such extreme measures, so they’d be likely to try to settle or just pay the judgement in full. Is the contractor listed in the court as an individual or an entity?

Lurker | 7 years and 6 months ago

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what slopefarm said. I don’t know your entire situation but if like ours, an admnistrative judge handles the case and as said it is a legal judgement and enforceable. if the contractor doesn’t pay you can go after them as you would anyone else but that gets tough if they have an LLC or some other legal entity that separates their personal finances from their business. If you’re lucky, they didn’t, and you can put a lien on their property. A collections lawyer is probably the way to go. But if a judge has ruled in your favor, that’s it unless they appeal.

As for the DCA, our contractor had his license revoked and that was it. He had to go find another job. Of course there’s workarounds and he might work for someone else, but he’s not allowed to get a home improvement contractor (GC) license in NY state in his name, period.

somuchwork | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Take the order right down to the courts and ask the clerks down there what the next step is.

slopefarm | 7 years and 6 months ago

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I don’t know what it means that the DCA says the judgment is enforceable. Can you just docket it with the clerk and enforce it or do you need a judge to issue an order and judgment? If it is enforceable as is, with only ministerial steps required, then get yourself a collections lawyer, not a construction lawyer. Collections lawyers work on contingency (take a percentage of what they collect) and specialize in the mechanics of collecting on judgments. You only need a lawyer specializing in contracts or construction if you need to litigate the merits in court. And if you need to litigate the merits in court, this is probably not worth pursuing, as I doubt you will find someone taking this on a contingency, since it is a contract dispute.

empathie00 | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Brooklynreno, if you find a real attorney that’s willing to take on a contractor case on contingency, PLEASE share the rec!! They will have more business than they can manage! 🙂

Brooklynreno | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Thanks everyone, I’ve been told of a few attorneys who would be willing to pursue the case more or less on a contingency basis, so we wouldn’t have to shell out tons of cash in advance. Believe me, I’d love to share full details but don’t want to jeopardize what’s still an ongoing matter. If the contractor shuts down and try to reopen under a new name they won’t get a license, at least DCA says so.
You know, what little I found on this process on B’stoner said basically that “the system works, it just takes a while.” I’d love to hear from the folks who said that. The process is very opaque, which is pretty shocking when DCA says the #1 NYC consumer complaint is home contractors!

empathie00 | 7 years and 6 months ago

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DCA lawyer is telling you what SHOULD happen. Reality is totally different and I’d guess that almost everyone here on Bstoner has a story of a contractor closing down as AwfulContractingCompany on day 1 and reopening as ReallyAwfulContractingCompany on Day 2. Unless you have literally 100s of thou for a lawyer and nothing else to do in your life for years but to fight what is likely to still be a losing battle, you’re not going to get anywhere. Sorry to say, and I do realize how cynical I sound, but it’s true and I speak from experience. Take whatever DCA will give you, out the company (including the name of the owner) and move on.

allans | 7 years and 7 months ago

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Out the company here so no one else hires them!

Brooklynreno | 7 years and 7 months ago

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Thanks all for your replies. The DCA lawyer told us that an Agency judgement is legally enforceable. If the contractor pay up, the lawyer told us to apply to the trust fund and also go to the NY Supreme Court. In the meantime, the contractor goes on the DCA shit list. I asked DCA what happens if the contractor, after not paying and thereby losing its license, seeks a new one under a different name, and it told me the contractor would not be allowed to hold a new license (they can’t simply register under an LLC name, eg). That would hold for family members. Our lawyer said in that case to keep an eye out for any such activity and to pass it on to DCA. The procedures all seem pretty opaque but at the very least we know that DCA doesn’t simply drop the case once it’s passed judgement. And so, from the contractor’s perspective, this problem ain’t going away. The company head is an arrogant jerk but even he should be able to figure that out.

Thanks again Brownstoners. Any other advice?

newtomehouse | 7 years and 7 months ago

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Get what you can from the DCA trust fund, but don’t waste your time going after the contractor. As no-permitz stated, they will likely just close down their current corp and open a new one, thus there will be no one to go after. You would likely end up spending many thousands in attorney fees for nothing.

workisfun | 7 years and 7 months ago

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Collections attorneys exist, but I don’t know to what extent this decision is a legally-enforced one.

yudashasom | 7 years and 7 months ago

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I think it’s unlikely that you will get paid. They’ll can fold the entity and continue business under another name. That doesn’t mean they will stop operating under their DBA, just their legal name that no one probably knows.