ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY) -- Back in late August of 2017, O'Connor Plumbing and Heating, LLC. owner, John O'Connor, says he had a contract with hotel property developer and Finger Lake, LLC. owner, Tom Shen.

"I was written a check for $367,000 that I could cash on the 13th of October," said O'Connor. "I deposited that check on the 16th of October, I believe, and the check was returned to me for insufficient funds."

O'Connor and his crew left the site after Shen's check allegedly bounced and never went back. With O'Connor being owed a total of $439,200, he put a lien on the hotel in December of 2017 so it can't be sold without him getting paid. Now O'Connor says they're going to court to try and auction off the hotel to get some of the money owed.

"When you file a lawsuit and there's a property involved, you can ask the judge to auction the property like a foreclosure, just like a bank would do," said O'Connor. "If I'm not going to get paid, then yeah, I hope the court sees it my way and will auction the property off."

Shen was arrested on July 13th, 2018 after a 9-month investigation on charges of grand larceny and issuing a bad check. WENY News reached out to him today, but he refused to comment. Meanwhile, construction through a different contractor started back up at the site this week. But for O'Connor, he's still trying to stay afloat.

"You wake up in the middle of the night, trying to figure out how you're going to pay your bills," said O'Connor. "You go to bed at night, wondering how you're going to pay your bills. You come in here everyday, put a smile on your face and you go see clients and you bid jobs. If I can make a little on this job, and a little on this job, maybe someday I'll be back to even." 

Stick with WENY News as this story develops.