Contract Violations

Speaker 1: (00:03)
This question comes to us from one of your fans, David, who says, I have seen many of your videos. So they must be quite excited to ask their own question right now, which, which is, uh, which is quite the question. So let’s get right into it.

Speaker 2: (00:20)
Of course. So,

Speaker 1: (00:21)
So this is going crazy, Chris, from Birmingham, who says P I have seen many of your videos going crazy. Chris says my builder died during the construction of our dream home. And it turns out that he inappropriately used our funds for his own personal use. We contact did his wife, and she told us to contact her lawyer to make things worse. He did not finish the work. The home is still without CFO certificate of ancy for those out there, who dunno what that means. And there are a lot of problems that need to be corrected. What can we do now from going crazy, Chris in Birmingham?

Speaker 2: (01:07)
That is one loaded question. I’m sorry for Chris. Um, sorry for the builder’s family too. Sorry for everybody. Yeah. Okay. So, wow. Well, uh, the first thing I would wanna do, hopefully I don’t know if they said that if the builder had a partner or if the builder’s, you know, entity is gonna still continue that be other people, but by just the question implies that it was just the builder and nobody else. Um, wow. So the first thing is, um, the builder and these people had a contract, right? And builders agreements and construction agreements can be quite lengthy, get involved. Sometimes they’re not the ones that are less involved are less, uh, detailed, create a lot of problems for people. Cause when you’re putting in hundreds of thousands of dollars into a project, you want everything pretty well documented as to what is supposed to happen at what time.

Speaker 2: (02:08)
Yep. And when money is to be dispersed, I don’t know how far along these people are with their project. It’s they do mention COO. So that means it’s towards the end. But, um, the one thing I would wanna see is in the agreement at what point is this builder allowed to take draws that pay the builder, his money. I see. Okay. So I’d be very careful if somebody said, well, the builder took all my money. Okay. We’d have to get what we call an accounting first and find out, you know, how much money the homeowner provided of that money. How much was the builder entitled to take that’s number one, hopefully these people went through a title company and did stuff related to a proper disbursement where there are affidavits and waivers of liens, et cetera. I mean, that’s a whole different area of blur.

Speaker 2: (03:03)
That’s like a whole couple hour conversation, but when the builder just, you know, for very briefly, when a builder, uh, subcontracts out the work before he can get paid, he has to get waivers of liens to be able to get the dis the money that’s being dispersed by the bank to pay the builder and also the subcontractors. Okay. So we definitely wanna know what is the payment schedule and what the builder was supposed to get. So before we cast any dispersions on this now deceased individual that he quote, took the money we have to see, okay, let’s do an accounting. Sure. That’s number one. Wow. This is gonna be intense. Uh, the second thing, and we have these situations that it hasn’t been a while, but, um, the second thing is that, uh, we will call, I mean, should this be my client? Uh, if the deceased wife or the, the widow says, call the attorney, I don’t know how, you know, what context was it call the attorney or was it, oh, you know, what would you call the attorney?

Speaker 2: (04:03)
He’s taking care of everything. So again, we don’t know where that is, but here’s the thing. If the individual who owns this building company died and there was nobody else to, you know, continue it, wasn’t a perpetual or perpetuated company to keep going. Um, we’re gonna reach out to that. Company’s a attorney. And if it’s a small company, if it was just one individual, most likely that individual, uh, you know, the, um, probate, which there probably will be a probate or an estate that has to be administered is gonna be handled by a probate attorney. And that probate attorney is gonna handle the estate of the individual, which is the individual builder. And the money that went to the company should not have to do it with anything with regards to the individual, right. Cuz the company it’s his own entity and the individual is the individual.

Speaker 2: (04:56)
Except if that builder really did take that money and li you know, did something that he was supposed to not supposed to do. And it was some by violation of the contract. Well, now these homeowners could possibly file a claim against the estate of the builder for any money that they feel was not accounted for properly. Mm-hmm you see? Okay. Uh there’s so there’s corporate law in this, like how did the builder conduct its business? Right. So you’ve heard me talk about formation, corporate formation, forming a company why it’s important. Well, if this builder doesn’t conduct, uh, his corporate entity business, his LLC let’s say, or his, uh, C Corp properly, and he then takes money from the company that belongs to these homeowners, is it a company issue, or could we Pierce the corporate Vale and go after him individually and by doing so we would then file our claims in the probate court. It’s gonna be very interesting. Uh, it’s too soon to tell, obviously what do these people do, uh, get yourself a good real estate and, um, uh, finance attorney. I know a good one. And you may have to litigate. You may not, you hope you don’t have to litigate, but at the very least what you’d wanna do is file a claim of interest with the probate court as a creditor. Okay. It’s called a creditor claim and you make the estate account for that money. Yep. And that’s where you start.

Speaker 1: (06:37)
Okay. Yep. And then is interesting, also your point, um, about, at what point in time during, you know, during the draws, et cetera, was the builder able to take out the funds and that, you know what I mean? Just, just, just speculation. You know what I mean? Right. That that could, or, or could or could not be, you know, an issue here, but, you know, so David always says in his videos, you know, like you can’t just go on the context of, of your question, your call or your email. Like we do have to see the documentation. We do have to see how it’s all laid out. We do have to see, you know, yada, yada, but it is, it is so interesting. It is, it is definitely something that I would be going crazy over as well.

Speaker 2: (07:23)
I mean, it’s very appropriate. Yep. I, that type of question, I always tell people, it reminds me of, um, uh, I use this analogy quite often. It’s the lady, the circus, uh, lady at the circus who spins plates. Yep. And you have, you know, you have all these different legal issues and they’re all plates up in the air that has to be, they all have to be spun and, you know, keep ’em all in the air. So we’re looking at probate, we’re looking at corporate law, we’re looking at just regular contract law. I will tell you this. I know again, we’re gonna go down a little, uh, rabbit hole. She said like, she didn’t get her C O I will tell you where they, Chris said, I don’t know if Chris is a may and or women, but Chris said that, uh, a lot of the work has not been done. Right. That’s a completely different question. Mm-hmm but let’s let, let me just tell you, uh, good luck to them to find a contractor who will do the work to finish the home mm-hmm and warranty the work.

Speaker 1: (08:20)
Right. The, and then the, the third part of that is, and again, this is just, you know what Chris says, there are a lot of problems that need to be corrected, right? So this is just such a pickle for everybody. Yeah. To be in like worst case scenario is you just get left hanging because the person passed. That’s just terrible. What? A pickle. Yeah. All right. Well, Chris, good luck to you. And, uh, David. Good answer. Good, good answer.

Speaker 2: (08:49)
That’s a good one. Like, call me, call me,

Speaker 1: (08:54)
Call David, Chris, that guy

Speaker 2: (08:55)
Over there’s.