The problem that my family is facing right now.....
My husband has a brother that formed an LLC and bought property to build houses on. Our friend (who is incorporated) decided to be the general contractor and took a $40,000 deposit from him to start building the houses (DUMB!). That was a year ago this month. There has only been a survey of the lot. We found out last week that the contractor did not get a permit from the city to build. My brother in law  gave the g.c. the money to buy the permit a year ago and he called the town office, on gut feeling, and found out that the general contractor never picked the permit up and still owes $2,000 to the city for the permit.
He has had one excuse after another why the house is not built (and he still has the $40,000 deposit). Everything from "the weather has been so bad" to "the lot is so full of stumps that the lot has been very hard to clear". It has been a year, we live in Maryland, the weather is just not that bad here near the beach. We got in touch with the company that was going to do the foundation and he said that the general contractor had not paid him for 2 previous jobs so he was not going to do this one until he got paid. 
Then we found out that the g.c. did not have the money in an escrow account nor is he bonded. He has $1,600 worth of spec plans for the 2 homes he was to build and has he is too busy that he is not able to give them back to my brother in law. I told him to put them in a fed ex box (using my fed ex accout) and mail them back to us. This is an awful ordeal. The general contractor was also my husband's best friend. Now he's caught in the middle.
Sorry to go on and on and this may not have anything to do with this site but I had to vent this morning.
My brother in law is scared to death that he will not get a new home or his money back. He has spent $70,000 on this project so far and the money has from stocks that he cashed in to make quick money (yeah right).
I did a title search on the g.c.'s home and it may be assessed at $425,000 but it is in his wife's name. Our family is worried. He has hired an attorney that sent the g.c. a letter and told him to cease the project and return the money by the 24th of this month, that was last week, we'll see what happens.