Legal Question in Business Law in North Carolina

Outstanding Check

I suggest that you not deduct your check for some time. I do not know the law of your jurisdiction, but usually six months is considered a reasonable time. If you really want to be protected stop payment on the outstanding check. If the services were legitimate I would not assume the check would not be cashed. It might have been misplaced or lost.

when does a check expire

I agree with Mr. Hershenson, but would go further. Most states which have adopted the Uniform Commercial Code and its banking law provisions, allow 90 days until a check becomes "stale". If you got the work done and it was satisfactory, contact them and ask why they have not deposited it. Maybe they lost it; in which case you are obligated to give them a replacement check and stop payment on the one that is lost,

Outstanding check / reclaiming funds.

You owe them the money and if they haven't picked it up from your outstretched hand, thatdoesn't count as a refusal. To sound even less "legal", their failure to cash the check does not erase your debt to them in any way, even if the check became stale. And since they have a right to it, under contract law they have rights to get it from you for as long as 6 years in this and in most states. It's their money, not yours, even though it's in your account. I agree with the suggestion that you actually call them and ask why they haven't cashed it.

Now, you might be hoping that they've lost it and have forgotten about it and will never claim it. In that case, the strategy changes and you're under no legalobligation to them and you can keep the money andkeep hoping, but there is a slight chance you'llpay interest charges on top of the bill if theyever catch on again. Meanwhile, either way, justlet the money sit there pretend (and it's true) thatit isn't yours, and pretend it isn't there even exceptthat it's paying you interest.