My Contractor Stole $10,000

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. A year ago I bought my first house and shortly, a couple months after I bought my first house, I wanted to get some work done on the backyard and the parking area. So I had a contractor to do that and then they worked on it for a little bit and then eventually just stopped coming out and then left my yard a mess and then I had put $10,000 down on that and it had really actually detracted some value from the house and so it's been a little over a year that I've been dealing with that now and we're about six months into a lawsuit and for the last six months I have been sort of funding the legal fees month to month on this lawsuit just out of cash flow of margin that I have in my budget. But I've essentially, you know, stopped a lot of my extra savings. I'm still contributing to my 401k but, you know, I have a lot less peace with having to, you know, contribute to this ongoing legal expenses without a clear idea of when it might wrap up and so I'm wondering how can I get some peace in just waiting for this to wrap up knowing that I've kind of had to pause my savings while I'm, you know, paying the legal fees month to month. How old are you? I'm 29. 29, okay. Has your attorney told you somewhat of a timeline of, hey, this is going to be another 18 months or hey, because, I mean, it's hard to have hope when there's no end in sight, right? Have they given you any level of timeline? I should know whether it's going to potentially settle or go to trial within the next two months but there's not a clear idea because even if I get a judgment at trial, you know, there can take some time to collect on that from then. For sure, yeah. And do they know where, do you know where the guy is? Have they been able to contact him? Yeah, it's an ongoing lawsuit against them, so. Oh, you're not the only one. Man. Just go full class action. Man, this really sucks. Well, how much have you spent so far fighting this thing? It's about $8,000 in legal fees. To recover the 10 grand? So the good part about this is, is anything that I put in in legal fees, if I win the lawsuit, I can get it out because it's one of those special circumstances to where I can recover legal fees. So you'll get your 10k plus whatever you spent in legal fees? I'll get, yeah, I'll get anything that I spent in legal fees out of it. Are they going for 10k? Is that it? I mean, so theoretically, when we consider, you know, how much extra it took to get the project finished and that it detracted value, I mean, I could be looking at getting like a 40k. Okay. Pay off from this because of between legal fees and how much extra it costs to have the project done. So, I mean, there, it's a high risk, high reward type of thing, you know, if, if I win, but you know, so it kind of feels like anything that I put in legal fees is a little bit of a savings account that I should eventually get out, but there's always a small chance that I can't recover it. I'm just looking to get some peace, you know, and paying legal fees month to month and feeling like I've had to pause my savings and I can't really like get back onto the path in life that I want to be on in terms of aggressively saving. Sure. Well, you know, it's hard to find peace when you're in the middle of a battle, but I'll give you hope that this is not going to be forever. You are still going to be okay financially later on in life. And you'll look back and go, man, don't, don't miss that era. That sucked. Yeah. Remember when I had to spend 20 grand to fight this guy and maybe I got it, maybe I didn't, but how old are you right now? I'm 29. Okay. And how much do you make? 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Is it, is it the short-term savings you're, you're discouraged about Lance or is it long, is it retirement and investing? So I would say that, you know, for the past six to seven months, I haven't really been able to save like I had, I haven't paused any kind of 401k contribution. Okay. So it's just short-term savings and you're like, man, I make so much and I'm not, I haven't been able to. Yeah. It bothers me not seeing, you know, the, the, the money go up on a monthly basis. Right. Because like by the time I cover the legal fee is that it's like, okay, there's no money left to save here. What happens if this contractor's broke, even if they do, you know, have the judgment against them? So they, they do own some property. So we know that there's property to, to go after ultimately at the end of the day. And so that, that's not going anywhere. So we're feeling fairly confident about that. Okay. And its value is obviously more than 40. Yes. Well, I would just keep on fighting the good fight. There is a level of sunk cost. If you wanted to set a ceiling for like, Hey, here's my timeline. Here's the financial ceiling I'm willing to pay in before I move on with my life. But it sounds like you're so deep into this thing. You're just going to see it through to the end out of sheer anger. Yeah. But I, I would not let this drag on. We, we see this a lot with people going through a divorce or you know what I mean? Like there's, there's just in, in that grind of the legal world and dealing with attorneys and being in and out of cases. I mean, it's just, it's so, it just wears on you so much. So Lance, I probably would have a timeline and say, I just, I can't take this any further than, I don't know, you, you make it up 18 months, two years. And I would just prepare myself. Okay. So what would look, what would happen in 18 months if nothing came about this? And I've paid this much. Like emotionally take yourself there. Yes, I would. So that you're prepared. Yeah. And just to be like, okay, so then what would my life look like financially at that point? And you know, run some numbers, say, okay, if I start saving, then I can get, I can save this much a month and that's going to go towards this next goal. Like paint your life of what that would look like and then paint your life 18 months from now or whatever. I'm just making up a timeline that you got 40 grand. Um, what, what's going to be happening? What are you going to do with that? Right. And so I would probably paint both scenarios because as much as you want the law on your side, uh, but as sneaky as people are like that, I'm like, they're not, yeah. It doesn't always follow through the way you want it to. Not always a happy ending there, but I wouldn't let it live rent free in your head. I think at this point it might be consuming more of you than it, than it should, which I understand. 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