Think some of you have the wrong idea about what stop payment order is meant to achieve, and or how it affects holder in due course.
By law when you utter/write a check once you've affixed a legally valid signature and send/give it to payee you are saying that funds are in account to pay said amount *at that time*. All banks spell this out in the paperwork given to new account holders. Post dating checks is also against all banks TOS, and customers are nearly always agree (by opening and using account) they will hold bank blameless if such checks are presented and cashed before date written. This includes any fees if the check bounces.....
All a stop payment order does is prevent a check from being cashed by account holder's bank. In of itself stopping payment on a check does not cancel the legal obligation created when thing was issued that it would be valid and funds paid. In short a stop payment order does *NOT* eliminate issuers obligation to pay said amount.
https://www.safechecks.com/fraud-edu...due-course.php
Yes, people use stop payment orders to settle contact disputes all the time. What happens then can go a few ways. If a third party (check cashing place) accepted the instrument, and it isn't invalidated by fraud or deceit, having paid out against the check, they now are fully entitled to get their money. The dispute with payee (contractor) in this situation is meaningless far as holder in due course is concerned. He was given a legally valid instrument, and cashed it, end of story. If check had been defaced, altered or something that may be a different story.
Banking system is not the place for settling disputes such as this; the legal system is the place to go.
Unfair as it may seem OP and anyone else who has issues with contracts, goods and or services that were paid for but not completed/delivered as promised must seek satisfaction from small claims or another part of court system.
To OP. You *did* authorize payment on check moment you signed that instrument and handed it over to payee. Telling someone to give it back, putting a stop payment order or whatever does not change this fact. Banks will happily issue stop payment orders, but they aren't going to involve themselves in reasons why (other than perhaps asking for information to complete the transaction).
At this point you can be accused of basically issuing a bad check. Extraneous issues aside, you wrote a check, signed it, and delivered/gave it to payee. If this check were lost or stolen and you issued a stop payment order, that would be different.
It seems more than usually certain the check cashing place prevail in getting their money one way or another. They have no legal case against the contractor, but do against yourself. At this point you likely are going to have to take legal action against the contractor to get back some or any of funds paid.
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