Contractor Gone · Minnesota Rusco, LLC

Minnesota Rusco, LLC customers: what the filing means and what to do

Minnesota Rusco, a New Hope remodeling company in business for 70 years, ceased all operations on October 29, 2025, when its parent, Renovo Home Partners of Dallas, shut down its network of regional brands. It filed a Chapter 7 petition on November 3, 2025, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, case 25-11951, jointly administered with 18 affiliated debtors under Renovo Home Partners, LLC, case 25-11937 (TMH).

Closed	October 29, 2025
Filing date	November 3, 2025
Court	U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware
Case number	25-11951 (Minnesota Rusco, LLC); jointly administered under 25-11937 (TMH), Renovo Home Partners, LLC
Chapter	7 (liquidation)
Trustee	Ricardo Palacio
Trustee's counsel	Gregory A. Taylor, Ashby & Geddes, P.A., Wilmington, Delaware
Parent	Renovo Home Partners (HomeRenew Buyer, Inc.), Dallas, Texas
Creditors listed	Up to 1,000; assets at most $10 million
State fund	Minnesota Contractor Recovery Fund: up to $100,000 per consumer and $550,000 in total for claims against one company, prorated if claims exceed it

Where things stand

Chapter 7 is a liquidation: the company is closed and will not finish jobs, and a trustee, Ricardo Palacio, collects whatever the companies own. The filing listed up to 1,000 creditors, many of them homeowners with deposits, against at most $10 million in assets, so a bankruptcy distribution is likely to be small. For most customers the card-dispute window on payments made before the closure has run by now; if your contract's completion date was well after the closure, ask your card issuer anyway. The route that is still open for Minnesota homeowners is the state's Contractor Recovery Fund, and in May 2026 the bankruptcy court approved a procedure that makes it reachable without a lawyer. It is laid out step by step below.

The court-approved route to the Minnesota fund (May 2026)

The bankruptcy stay normally blocks any lawsuit against a debtor, and the Contractor Recovery Fund only pays on a court judgment. In May 2026 the Delaware court approved a procedure, asked for by the trustee and announced by the Minnesota Attorney General, that lifts the stay one customer at a time so a judgment can be obtained for the fund. Filing fees for these declarations are waived.

Fill out the declaration, the court's Exhibit 1 form linked from the Attorney General's May 22, 2026 release. It states your contract date, your deposit, and that the project was not finished. In it you agree to reduce any bankruptcy claim by whatever the fund pays you, and you give up asking the trustee for documents for this purpose.
Send it to the trustee's counsel: gtaylor@ashbygeddes.com, or by mail to Ashby & Geddes, P.A., 500 Delaware Avenue, 8th Floor, Wilmington, Delaware 19899, Attn: Gregory A. Taylor. Counsel files it with the court and serves it.
Parties in interest have ten days after service to object. If no one objects, the stay is lifted for you at 4:00 p.m. the day after that deadline.
Sue Minnesota Rusco in Conciliation Court (small claims) or District Court and obtain a judgment for your loss.
Apply to the Contractor Recovery Fund with the judgment: Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, contractor.recoveryfund@state.mn.us, 651-284-5057. The fund runs two application cycles a year; the Attorney General urged customers to apply before July 1, 2026, when that cycle closed, so anyone applying now is in the next cycle. Ask DLI for its dates.

Only Minnesota homeowners and lessees are eligible; subcontractors and suppliers are not. The same order lets the trustee set up this procedure for similar funds in other states, which matters to customers of Renovo's other brands, such as NewPro in Connecticut, where the state points homeowners to its Home Improvement Guaranty Fund.

What a customer can do, in order

Card payments first. If any payment went on a credit or debit card, call the issuer and open a dispute for services not rendered. The bankruptcy does not stop a chargeback; the card network's clock does.
File the proof of claim. If a case is open, the court will mail a notice with a bar date. Official Form 410 is free, no lawyer needed. A deposit for household services is a priority claim up to $3,800 for cases filed on or after April 1, 2025; mark the priority box and attach the contract and receipts.
The state path. Minnesota has the Contractor Recovery Fund (up to $100,000 per consumer; $550,000 in total for claims against one licensee, prorated when claims exceed it). Precondition: Licensed residential contractor; a court judgment for a loss from the licensee's conduct. The Minnesota page has the license lookup, the deposit rule, and the small-claims cap.
Subcontractor notices. Subs must give a pre-lien notice; an owner who paid the contractor before receiving it is protected to that extent (Minn. Stat. 514.011).
Financing. If the contractor arranged a loan, write to the lender. A lender on a contractor-arranged consumer loan generally takes the loan subject to the claims you have against the contractor (the FTC Holder Rule); ask for a stop on payments while the claim is resolved.

Run the free check as a Minnesota Rusco, LLC customer

The paperwork, done

The Contractor Gone kit, $39 builds the chargeback script, the proof of claim worksheet with the priority box explained, the Minnesota licensing complaint, the fund or bond paperwork where it exists, and the lien-defense letter, all with your dates and amounts in place. What's in it.

Sources

Facts checked 2026-09-11 against the sources above. Case details change; the PACER docket is the record. Nothing here is legal advice. If you are a customer and something on this page is wrong or out of date, email jon@homestillworks.com.