After he had walked off the job with all of our money, we found out that he is not even an electrician in the Province of Ontario. He told us he is an electrician and that he would get our permit for a $17k job. He kept asking for more and more money upfront. We stupidly gave it to him. He spent a few days slapping up some wire and none of it was done to code, switches were in the wrong locations, he randomly decided to deviate from the electrical plan and he did not install CO detectors in all the bedrooms. He actually took our panel which we had purchased. He then convinced us that he would provide a turnkey solution to get us into our basement by the time we returned from our Christmas vacation (he convinced us that he was a general contractor). We paid him 50% of the job cost and the day we left on holiday, he walked off the job. The drywalling he had done before we left had to be essentially redone. He walked away with $19k and we had to remediate for an additional amount to fix everything so all-in about $30k out of the money. Be careful - he looks like such a nice guy when you meet him and you actually feel sort of sorry for him but it seems much of this was premeditated. We are taking him to small claims court after repeatedly trying to reach him on his mobile to no avail.
