ANTONI SHKRABA production, PexelsYou're standing in your half-finished kitchen, surrounded by exposed drywall, disconnected plumbing, and cabinet doors leaning against walls. Your contractor stopped showing up two weeks ago, won't return calls, and now you've received legal papers claiming you breached the contract. The audacity is stunning. How can someone who abandoned your project turn around and sue you for breaking an agreement they clearly violated first? Unfortunately, yes, a contractor can file a lawsuit even when they're the one who walked off the job. Whether that lawsuit has any merit is a completely different question, and understanding your rights here matters more than you might think.
The legal system doesn't prevent people from filing baseless lawsuits, which means anyone with a filing fee can take you to court, regardless of how ridiculous their claim seems. Your contractor might argue that you failed to make payments on time or changed the scope of work without adjusting the contract. They could claim you created an unsafe working environment or interfered with their ability to complete the job. These allegations don't have to be true for them to appear in legal documents. What matters is whether they can actually prove their claims in front of a judge, and that's where most contractor lawsuits like this fall apart.
Why Contractors File Lawsuits After Walking Away
Some contractors genuinely believe they're in the right, even when the facts tell a different story. If you withheld payment because work wasn't done properly or materials weren't up to code, they might frame that as a breach of contract rather than acknowledging their own failures. Others file lawsuits as intimidation tactics, hoping you'll settle out of fear or exhaustion rather than fight back. Legal action sounds scary, and they're counting on you not knowing your rights or lacking the resources to defend yourself. There's also the possibility that your contractor overextended themselves financially, took deposits from multiple clients, and is now trying to squeeze money from anyone they can to cover debts elsewhere.
Construction contracts create obligations for both parties, and courts examine whether each side fulfilled their responsibilities. If your contractor abandoned the project without legitimate cause, they violated the agreement first. That means they likely can't collect additional payment and might actually owe you money for the cost of hiring someone else to finish or fix their mistakes. However, if you stopped paying before they stopped working, the situation becomes murkier. Refusing reasonable access to the property creates problems too. Making unauthorized changes that derailed the timeline could shift blame in their direction.
What You Need To Do Right Now
Don't ignore the lawsuit, no matter how absurd it seems. Failing to respond means the contractor could win by default, even with a weak case. Reach out to a lawyer experienced in construction law or contract disputes immediately. Many offer free consultations and can assess whether the lawsuit has merit or if it's pure intimidation. Gather every piece of documentation related to the project, starting with the original contract. Pull together all invoices and receipts you've collected. Bank statements showing payments made become crucial evidence. Photos of the work at different stages tell the story visually. Text messages and emails exchanged with the contractor matter just as much as formal documents. Any witnesses who can verify what happened should be noted as well.
File a counterclaim if your lawyer advises it. You likely have grounds to sue for breach of contract yourself, along with claims for shoddy workmanship or code violations. The extra costs of hiring another contractor to complete the job can be recovered in many cases. Some homeowners also pursue claims for negligence or fraud if the contractor misrepresented their qualifications or never intended to finish. Your state might have specific contractor licensing laws that work in your favor, especially if this person wasn't properly licensed or bonded. Check with your state's contractor licensing board to see if complaints have been filed against them before, because serial offenders often have patterns of abandoning jobs and threatening legal action. Ultimately, stand your ground and respond to the lawsuit properly. There's a good chance this backfires on the contractor who thought intimidation would work better than actually finishing your kitchen.
