Legal Question in Construction Law in New York

You can bring a case. You have good claims. Do you have a tool for extracting blood from a turnip? Unless Judge Judy et al pick up the case, there is little likelihood that you can collect. The damage they did should be handled with a claim against your homeowners' insurance and against the contractor's insurance. See if he has the license required by Buffalo City Ordinances. If he did not, then he committed the crime of unauthorized contracting, and the DA probably has an ADA or clerk who is assigned to these cases. And that may give you leverage but neither I nor any attorney should discuss how that works. Fortunately, his crime is only a misdemeanor, so you're not breaking the law to say, "Pay back the deposit or I go to the cops." If it were a felony, then you would be committing misprision of felony, but there's nothing illegal in you saying that you will not go to the cops, if...