Since this is for a residential remodel, the city allows general contractors to do plumbing and electrical work. Currently, the generator contractor is on the plumbing and electrical permits. Framing passed inspection ok. The problems with plumbing and electrical are not related to plans or anything. They are due to general incompetence. Just a few examples: -he used 14-ga wire on a 20A circuit -he ran ONE neutral (yes, white neutral!) for 4 circuits--all regular single-pole 120V circuits. -grounds are not spliced properly inside outlet boxes -he used the wrong plumbing fittings; like he used tee's when he's supposed to use combos -he stapled the shower pan liner, which basically makes it useless -he didn't preslope below the pan liner -electrical emt conduits were touching copper water lines -he used copper water pipe clamps as emt clamps -he left old abandoned k&t wiring just dangling, not properly terminated at the knob -he used old electrical outlet boxes, and just screwed them to studs from the inside The list goes on, but that's the idea. See, none of this is due to plans being wrong, or not following plans, or anything of that sort. It's all due to incompetence/negligence/ignorance. Now, the inspectors (especially the electrical inspector) are picky, but I don't think they're unreasonable. I paid for the permit (I had him write a letter authorizing me to get the permit in his name). This is somewhat of a problem because my contract with him therefore doesn't say anything about permits, inspections, or anything like that. I had just assumed (incorrectly on my part) that he would do a fine job and everything would pass, given how simple of a job this is. Since additional inspections (and in the case of electrical, getting a new permit) costs plenty of money in my city (about ~$300 for a new permit and $170 for every additional inspection), I don't want to be on the hook for this if he just keeps failing inspections time after time. Hopefully this clarifies the situation a little bit. I just talked with him this morning, and he said he'd get a licensed electrician that he knows to get the permit and oversee the inspection. He'd pay for the permit and pay him. This is easiest for me, but I'm not sure that I really trust his work any more. I LOVE my house--and I can't have him do the kind of s**t that he does. It's good that the inspectors seem to do their job, but they can't possibly inspect everything, which gets me worried. However, hiring another contractor is difficult too. My building permit is ~$2500 is NOT transferable. To make this feasible, I'll probably have to recover some money from this contractor, which I imagine would be time-consuming and difficult. Also, the construction business is crazy right now--I called a few electricians and none of them got back to me. I had to wait 4 months to get a roof done. Good, competent contractors are booked at least 3-4 months out, if not until fall/winter, and that's too long. (It would've been fine if work hadn't already started--but now the house is a construction zone and I can't live here like this for too long.) So there's another piece of my dilemma. Sorry for the long post and the ranting. Thanks for reading. And as always, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Vegiegardnr- Did you talk to you flooring person about thier hours? Not that it really should need to be any of your concern what it takes to run their business as long as you get the finished product that you are paying for (and of a reasonable quality), but there probably is a lot more to it than you seem to assume. You saw work from 10:30 -4:30 and decided that was lazy. There could have been other work that is necessary to their job that was happening during those "lazy off hours": Meeting other potential clients for quoting work, billing and paperwork for jobs done, billing and paperwork to pay supplier accounts, getting quotes or filling out forms for insurance and/or licensing, filling out forms for employees or past employees that need employment verifications for loans/apartment renting/new jobs, picking up materials for jobs or tool expendables, servicing of their truck or equipment that they use to do the work, researching and/or buying a new piece of equipment, going to a class about a new floor surfacing product, etc.. Based on how you present yourself here it seems you don't view contractors as human beings that "just might" be working hard to try to do good work. There are bad guys out there in all fields of work, but most contractors do not deserve the assumption that they are all just trying to find ways to overcharge and be lazy. Or maybe in your experience those are the only ones you've worked with - because as others have pointed out, contractors look at their potential clients in terms of risk of loss/stress/hassle/not getting paid/not getting sued, and the good self respecting contractors who have a good reputation and referral base don't need to take on risky/unpleasant work and probably steer clear of working with someone with those attitudes. Maybe next time - still protect yourself with reasonable due diligence, but treat the contractor as a human, ask (a reasonable amount) of polite and non judgemental questions if you don't understand where charges come from or why things cost what they do. Maybe then you'll have a better experience with your next contractor and start to shift your views away from assuming they're all bad.

So, the fun keeps going on this. When the guy was in my house, he did state that it was not urgent to fix my issue immediately - I had a "couple weeks until it would be a huge problem" - his words. I had the water draining to the sump pump and it was only a drip. However, he did a very "hard sell" to get me to sign up for the work. He said scheduling somebody else would be hard and it would need another initial visit if I didn't schedule that day and I might run out of time. I asked if I could cancel if I changed my mind and he said "yes" and I could use that time for other estimates if I wanted to and just cancel and get my deposit (1/2 the job price - $1000) back. We signed the form and sent him on his way. The form has nothing on it about cancellation or refund policies. I called and cancelled this return visit on Thursday - three business days after his visit. (remember this was on Christmas eve) and confirmed I would receive my full down payment back, minus the $85 trip/diagnostic charge. They called me yesterday (Friday) and said I could only have half my deposit back because I need to cancel within three days. The "salesman" said nothing about this in our discussion and neither does our paperwork. Needless to say, they got a bit of an earful from me and the customer service rep said she would go back and discuss with management and get back to me. As a side note, I am still confirming if it applies to this type of work, but there are specific rules about cancelling contracts in Illinois for estimates given by a salesperson in a home. One is that it is always "3 business days to cancel any contract" and the other is that they need to leave me with a copy of paperwork for a cancellation policy. This policy is at http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/consumers/threedaycancel.html I will say that my history with company until the last two years had been good. My father always used them and recommended them to me. I used them for years for the basics - annual furnace and A/C checks and they have come out and worked on the boiler and heater a couple other times with basic fixes with reasonable prices. They became bad when I needed a hot water tank replaced. They charged me $1700 and I thought it was a bit high, but I trusted them and didn't want to get other quotes while my family didn't have hot water. After the fact, I checked around and found that I paid more than I should have - I talked to others in the neighborhood who had the same job done (our houses are all similar 60's quad levels built by a single builder who did the subdivision). I shook that one off and now I get this issue. My dad used to say "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me". They will not fool me twice. This company has simply grown very large in the area over the years. I feel they are losing sight of what helped them grow. They lost me as a customer. On the $200 to drill the hole, I get that. You have a specialty saw, you are taking accountability for the granite chipping or cracking, and you probably know if you need to add any extra support prior to drilling to avoid such issues. To make it worth your time to drive out, do the drilling, wear and tear on your tools, etc, $200 or $300 could make sense. I would be fine if they said $500 or $600 to do the basic pluming work for an hour or hour and a half and I get the work guarantee and continue to do business with a company over the years. $2000 is just taking advantage of somebody who thinks they have an emergency problem on their hands. I found a lot of reviews of this same company online just like mine. Some even called out the same first name of the person who came to my house of this situation. Can't be sure it is the same guy, but this is looking fishy. They only have a B rating on Angie's list with over 1600 reviews. I had never even checked until now, again, because of the decent history with myself and my father. All the more reason to be done with them.

Tax Status of Employer-Provided Lodging Like other fringe benefits, free or discounted employer-provided lodging is usually subject to income and other taxes. To determine the fair market value of the housing provided to an employee, an employer may check local newspaper listings for comparable rental properties or ask a local realtor for an estimate of the property’s rental value. The employer reports the net value of the employee’s lodging fringe benefit in Box 1 of the employee’s W-2 form, and the employee declares this value as income on Line 7 of IRS Form 1040. For example, if the employee pays the employer $300 a month for the housing and the property's fair market rental rate is $600 a month, the employer must add $300 a month to the taxable income it reports on the employee's W-2. Lodging Not Subject to Taxation An employer can exclude the value of housing provided to an employee from an employee’s taxable income if the lodging meets three conditions. The employer must furnish the lodging on its business premises. The lodging must be furnished for the convenience of the employee, which means that the employer must have a valid business purpose for providing housing beyond giving the employee additional compensation. For example, if the employer’s work site is located a substantial distance from other housing options, the IRS would likely conclude that the employer is providing the lodging for the convenience of the employee. The employee must also accept the lodging as a condition of employment, which means that the employee cannot have the option of accepting or declining the lodging. If any of these conditions are not met, the employer must include the net value of the lodging on the employee’s W-2 form, and the employee must report that amount as income on his tax return. So Jasdip's friend could very well qualify under the 'Lodging Not Subject to Taxation'...under US tax law. Given that the lodging is the sole compensation for labor rendered, would that make a difference? In Canada? I don't know. US tax law is complicated enough w/o trying to delve into Canadian tax law.