Ripped Off by a Contractor? The Real Playbook for What to Do Next

The moment you realise a contractor has burned you — walked off the job, botched the work, or vanished with your deposit — do three things before you say another word: stop every remaining payment, photograph and document everything, and put all further communication in writing. Then work the ladder — a formal written demand, then their trade body and their insurer, then a consumer authority or the courts. And go in clear-eyed about the odds: recovering money from a bad contractor in Europe is slow, and if they are insolvent or never really existed on paper, full recovery is rare. This is the honest playbook for limiting the damage and getting back what you realistically can.

First 48 hours: stop the bleeding

Your instinct is to argue. Resist it. The first moves are practical, and they protect your position far more than a shouting match ever will.

• Stop paying. Cancel any scheduled transfers and do not pay the 'final' invoice, however hard they push. Money already gone is money you will fight to recover; money still in your account is leverage.
• Do not let them back on site to 'fix it' without a written scope and plan. Cowboys often make the damage worse, then bill you for it or claim the new problem was always there.
• Document everything now, before anything changes. Photograph and video the work from every angle, with timestamps. Save the contract, quotes, invoices, bank records, and every text, email and voicemail.
• Switch to writing. From here on, no verbal agreements. If you speak by phone, follow up with an email summarising what was said. A paper trail is the single most valuable asset you have.

The reality check nobody gives you

Before you spend money chasing them, be honest about the odds. The uncomfortable truth is that the deposit-and-disappear operator usually planned the exit: the company is a dissolved shell, the 'business' was a personal name with no assets, or the entity is already insolvent. You cannot squeeze money out of someone who has none.

Your leverage is almost entirely a function of how you paid and what you signed. Bank transfers, a written contract, and an itemised quote give you a real case. Cash with no invoice gives you almost nothing — and, in several countries, a tax problem of your own. Aim for damage limitation and a partial recovery rather than a guaranteed full refund, and you will make calmer, better decisions.

Build the case: get an independent assessment

One document changes everything: an independent professional's written report on what is defective and what it will cost to put right. Pay a surveyor, an engineer, or a reputable contractor to inspect the work and quote the remediation. It turns 'the work is bad' into an evidenced, costed claim that a trade body, an insurer, or a judge can actually act on.

• Get the remediation quote in writing and itemised, from someone with no connection to the original contractor.
• For structural or safety defects, say so explicitly — it changes which insurance and which authority applies.
• Leave the defective work in place if you safely can until it is documented; ripping it out destroys your evidence.

Who to call: the escalation ladder

Work these in order. Each step is cheaper and faster than the next, and jumping straight to a lawyer is usually the most expensive way to begin.

• The contractor, formally and in writing. Send a dated letter or email setting out the defects, referencing the contract, and giving a firm deadline to remedy the work or refund. This 'letter before action' is often required before a court will even hear you.
• Their trade body or professional association. If they are a member — the Federation of Master Builders in the UK, a Qualibat or Qualifelec holder in France, a Handwerkskammer-registered trade in Germany, a Camera di Commercio registration in Italy — file a complaint. Bodies can mediate, and the threat to their membership carries real weight.
• Their insurer. If the contractor carries liability or long-term structural cover — France's décennale, Spain's seguro decenal — you may be able to claim against the policy, especially for structural defects. This is often the only route that actually pays out.
• Your card issuer or lender. If you paid by credit card or financing, ask about chargeback or statutory protection (in the UK, Section 75 can make the lender jointly liable on qualifying card payments). A bank can claw back money a contractor never will.
• A consumer authority or ombudsman. National bodies — France's DGCCRF, Spain's regional OMIC offices, and their equivalents — advise and mediate, and for cross-border cases inside the EU the European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) exists for exactly this.
• The police — if it is fraud. A deposit taken for work never intended to be done, forged credentials, or a fake company is a crime, not a civil dispute. File a report: you will need the reference number for any insurance or legal claim, and it is the only path that treats a con artist as a con artist.

When it goes legal: mediation, then court

If the ladder does not resolve it, the formal routes are mediation and, failing that, the courts — but weigh the cost against what is realistically recoverable.

• Mediation or ADR (alternative dispute resolution) is cheaper and faster than court, and some jurisdictions require you to attempt it first. A conciliateur de justice in France or a Schlichtungsstelle in Germany can broker a settlement without a courtroom.
• Small-claims procedures handle lower-value disputes without a lawyer; the money thresholds vary by country. For cross-border claims inside the EU, the European Small Claims Procedure lets you sue a contractor in another member state through a standard form.
• For larger sums, a solicitor, abogado, or avvocato is worth the fee — but ask them bluntly, before you engage, whether the defendant actually has assets worth pursuing. A judgment against an empty shell company is an expensive piece of paper.

The checks that would have stopped this

Almost every recovery story ends the same way: the homeowner wishes they had checked three things before hiring. A current licence verified against the national registry, insurance confirmed to be in force, and staged payments tied to completed milestones — with the final slice held back — prevent the large majority of these disasters. Pay through traceable bank rails, never a large cash deposit, and get every change in writing.

That verification is precisely the gap Veted was built to close: we check the licence and insurance against the relevant national authority and summarise a business's real review history before it is ever listed, so you start from a shortlist that has already cleared the checks a good outcome depends on. It cannot undo a bad hire you already made — but it is the cheapest insurance against the next one.

Getting burned by a contractor is slow to unwind, stressful, and rarely ends in full recovery. That is not a counsel of despair — it is the reason the smartest money you will ever spend is the hour of checks that stops it happening in the first place.