Contractor Ordered To Pay But Supposedly Closed Business

Location: Iowa

We hired a contractor to do concrete work at our house which resulted in poor workmanship and damage to our neighbors property. You can read more of the details below, but the small claims judge ordered the contractor to pay us $6500. The contractor did not appear on the final court date and is claiming they dissolved their business at the end of the year. Is there anything we can do to actually make them pay?

Backstory: After a year of back-and-forth after the contractor’s defective work, the neighbor filed a small claims suit against us and the contractor in October 2025. Given we were already headed to court, that helped us decide to file a cross claim against the contractor for our poor workmanship for the full amount allowed of $6500.

The original court date was set for early December, but was changed by the court to early January 2026. When we met on the hearing date in January, they sent us to mediation where we learned that the father actually owned the contractor business and we had been working with the son the entire time. The father said that he had been stepping back and letting his son run with everything as they prepared to transfer the business to him and was not aware of the issues at length - he did not say anything about already closing business on 12/31/2025. The father wrote the neighbors a check for damages in that mediation and committed to work with us for a resolution on our issues. We agreed to a 4 month continuance to allow the snow to melt and properly see the concrete defects.

The father contacted us a couple times and sent someone else out to quote the work, but a day before our court hearing, he sent us an email that the repairs were basically too costly and outside the scope of his work and that he actually closed his business 12/31/2025 (2 weeks before the court mediation where we agreed to the 4 month continuance). He offered us a settlement of $2500 and 10 days to reply (we still have a few days left).

He did not appear in court and we proved our case where the judge awarded us the full small claims limit of $6500 even though actual cost to resolve will be closer to $13,000.

The father’s LLC is perpetual and still showing active. The son created his LLC with fictitious names nearly identical 5 days after the small claims notices were served to everyone. I can only find the father’s contractor license, so it appears the son might be doing work under that license still. I do not find that they own any property under either LLC. The son is operating under the same public name and using the same website with the contact address updated.

We have not submitted any negative Internet or social media, and have not sent anything to the Better Business Bureau.

It’s been a long process to get this “win”, that really doesn’t seem like it’s a “win”.

The contractor has 20 days to appeal with $500 appeal bond.