Paid contractor without contract and receipt-What are my options?

[Ray Rusty]

Hello everybody,

I am a newbie investor from chicago land area and this is my first post. I have been following real estate investing and got in touch with a real estate agent who is working with investors. He showed me a HUD property and we submitted an offer and got accepted. I trusted this guy as he was claiming that he works for lot of investors and makes lot of flips using a general contractor who has multiple crews. He showed the listings that he placed on MLS and the work done by the general contractor.

                   I talked to the contractor over the phone and he mentioned that he does lot of rehabs for the investors. He went to the house and gave a detailed estimate and walked me through the estimate (40K rehab) later. He sent me a contract over email and also mentions in the email that first come first serve (whoever makes first payment will have their work started). We met at the house to talk through the work and I wanted him to sign the contract. He said it is better to do it contract signed online and said that I can mail the first 50%(20K) of the payment. I did a mistake there by handing over a check thinking that if he did not receive the payment, he would not start the work. He said he will send the lien receipt. I see that he cashed the check after couple of days. There is a check image in my transactions.

                       Now hell started for me. He would get the work started after 3 weeks after so many calls from me. Most of the time he would not respond. As I am busy with my regular Job, I get to check either during lunch time, evening or over the weekend. The work has been very slow. Sometimes nobody is at the work and when I call him he would not respond. It has been already 4 weeks since work started but has been very slow. Currently, i do not have contract with him and no receipt for the payment.  I know I have done BIG  mistake and I am learning it now. Given this situation, what are my options to get the work done. I have emails of the scope of the work and text messages from him that work will be done, cabinets and appliances are ordered etc. Please help me with your advice. I appreciate your advise.

Thanks,

Ray