Chatham County builder ordered to pay homeowners legal fees or go to jail
CHATHAM COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- There are new details in an ITEAM Troubleshooter investigation into a Chatham County contractor who a judge ordered to pay up or go to jail.
ABC11 Troubleshooter Diane Wilson first brought you this story more than a year and a half ago when James and Anita Muehlbach showed us their Chatham County home riddled with code violations. The builder of their home is Jeremey Lindley who at the time owned, Lindley Builders INC.
After our investigation, Lindley's contractor's license was suspended. The Muehlbachs also won a civil judgment of $225,000 against Lindley.
They say they still haven't received a dime, that is, until now.
In effort to get the civil judgment money, which Jake Muehlbach says is now about $250,000 due to interest, the Muehlbachs took Lindley to court to produce financial records of Lindley Builders INC.
Muehlbach adds, "We really need access to his financial records. So we can see what assets the business has. What money does the business have, if any, or if it doesn't, where did it go? So we really just need to take a look at those records."
According to court documents, a judge issued a contempt order after Lindley and Lindley Builders INC. failed to produce documents related to Muehlbach's civil case. The judge ordered Lindley to produce those financial records and to pay more than $14,700 to the Muehlbachs for their legal fees by Friday.
"The sanctions are for all the attorney's fees we've wasted over the last 15 months trying to get him to comply. So that's in addition to our original judgment, which is now over $250,000, with the interest," Muehlbach added. According to the court documents, if Lindley did not pay Muehlbach's attorney fees or produce the requested documents, he could be jailed.
Lindley's attorney tells Wilson they've paid the legal fees the judge requested and turned over the financial documents the judge requested. Muehlbach says in response to that, "We're happy to recover that, but it's not really, it doesn't really make us whole in any way."
Muehlbach says their house is still not fixed, and that can only happen if Lindley pays the more than $200,000 civil judgment that is owed, which Muehlbach says they will continue to have to fight in court. "We're going on almost five years of dealing with this at this point. So we would just hope that this pressure from the court would maybe make him comply and pay this judgment so we can all just move on," Muehlbach adds.
Lindley did not respond to Wilson for comment, but his attorney said Lindley is willing to bring this to a conclusion and do what the judge asks to be done.
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