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A Kelowna flooring company has been ordered to pay thousands to former customers after it failed to follow through with its work.

A judge ruled in favour of a Kelowna construction company twice in one month after Woody's Hardwood Flooring Ltd. failed to respond in court. The near-equal awards came to a combined $52,657 in the July small claims orders, according to court records.

Weninger Construction and Design Ltd. filed against the flooring company twice on July 2.

The company claimed Woody's was contracted to provide custom wood flooring on two separate projects. The delivery date came and went, but owner Ken Petersen soon stopped returning phone calls and appeared to close the business, according to the claims.

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Weninger said Petersen claimed to have ordered the product and was working to prepare it for installation, but there was no evidence that had happened.

Weninger paid a roughly $23,300 deposit for one project and $26,100 for the other. It looked to the court to order those deposits repaid on July 2. Weninger proved Woody's had been served, but the defendant didn't respond in court, so the court ordered default judgements in Weninger's favour last week.

Petersen did not answer a phone call from iNFOnews.ca. His voicemail inbox was full, while the company's phone number no longer exists.

Weninger isn't the only company taking Woody's to court in the wake of its closure.

Revelstoke company Appenzell Construction Inc. filed against Woody's on July 5 for the return of a nearly $13,000 deposit. Appenzell paid the deposit in January, amounting to half of the cost of the flooring job.

In May, Woody's told Appenzell the wrong flooring was delivered, expecting another six weeks until the correct materials arrived. Woody's told Appenzell "everything was still on track" on June 12, according to the statement of claim.

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Since then, the company hasn't been able to reach Woody's and the flooring was never delivered to the Appenzell job site.

Appenzell applied to the court this week for a default judgement against Woody's as the defendant hasn't responded.

Woody's has responded in court to an older claim launched by Kelowna company MJI Contracting Inc. That claim was filed in July 2023, seeking a $31,350 award from Woody's.

Part of that was a $15,000 deposit to Woody's made in March and the remainder was for the work done by another company. Woody's did install flooring at a customer's home, but MJI claims the flooring was deficient and it wasn't cut properly.

Woody's disagreed in court that the wood was improperly cut or deficient, but did offer to pay roughly $1,000 to MJI. The matter hasn't been resolved and is expected to go to a trial.

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