When you hire a contractor and they do a competent job, you should be able to just hire that contractor again without checking their background and starting the process over. Right? Not so fast, as one person who aspired to have new doors installed in his home learned the hard way. He hired back a contractor he had used in the past without checking any licenses, and paid about $7,500 for his mistake.

About five years ago, a California man hired a highly recommended contractor to replace his roof. He called up the same guy again when he needed some doors installed, not knowing that the contractor bad lost his license in the interim, after committing serious violations and then not paying the fines for them.

“Since this person obviously had a license, they know what the laws are [and] they know their license has been revoked,” a represenative of the state license board for contractors explained to CBS Sacramento. Yet the homeowner put down payments totaling $7,500–far more than the recommended 10% before work begins–and the contractor never showed up to start the work.

Potential scrutiny from a TV station prompted this contractor to refund some of the money, returning a few thousand to the homeowner in cash and promising the rest. He even signed a promispory note, but didn’t pay up, and the homeowner was forced to take him to small clams court.

After a judgement from the court, the contractor has finally paid about $5,000 of the ill-gotten funds back. The homeowner looks forward to having a contractor with a current license actually show up to install his doors.

Call Kurtis: I Gave My Contractor $7,000, Then He Vanished [CBS Sacramento]

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