Contractor question

[Deleted]

I seem to recall that some of you are related/married to contractors, and I have a question. We did some house renos in November of last year, and the contractor wasn't the greatest (slow, didn't finish what he said he would, damaged our appliances and didn't tell us, etc.) We ended up paying him for the work he'd completed and kicked him out with the job 3/4rd finished. He agreed to leave things as they were, and agreed to how much we would pay him for the work he had completed.

Since then, we've been gradually doing what we can to finish the job ourselves, and hiring neighbours for the stuff we can't do on our own. Now, the original contractor just called my H and told him he had found a bunch more receipts for supplies he had bought for our renovation but didn't give us. My question is, can he seriously do this? It's been three months since the job was "done" and he left fully paid up to the day he left. I think he's trying to pull one over on us. What would you do? I'm just not sure how to approach it. TIA!!

[minismama]

Did you have him sign anything stating that he was paid for the work he performed? The only thing I can think of is that if it is going to be his word against yours, the most he can do it take you to small claims court for the money he states you still owe.

[quesyrah]

First I would ask for proof that the materials had been bought for my Reno.

[Deleted]

I didn't get him to sign anything (I know, very stupid of me.) At that point we were just so fed up with him, needed him out of our house, and he seemed so apologetic and ashamed of himself that we never thought of him coming back to get more money later. At the time he acknowledged that he hadn't done what he promised, and said he felt awful about leaving things undone. I should have had him sign something. I guess I'll see if he chooses to pursue it, but we know he was fully paid for all supplies. We saw receipts for everything, it was all stored in our garage, and we paid him based on those receipts. So I don't think he really has a leg to stand on. I hope it doesn't get to that point, though.