Hi Guys I need your urgent valuable advice. Being new in the country and living here for almost 2 years we bought our house last year. As this is an old house and requires some renovations. My wife found a contractor through a weekly flyer and contacted him. When the contractor came he mentioned that he will give some discount if we award him multiple projects at the same time. We gave him 50% down payment and he agrees that he will finish the job in 2 weeks. However he finished only 25 percent of the work in 7 months and then disappeared. I realized after discussing with my colleagues that I did a big mistake without checking any references prior to the award of this contract. Even I send him a registered letter once warning him to finish the work else I will consult consumers protection but I never contacted consumer protection afterwards. Some friends advised to contact small claims court but with my hectic job I didn’t feel comfortable doing it and hence almost forget the money I lost.

Surprisingly yesterday I received a letter from one collection agency asking for paying rest of 50% of contract money. I am really so frustrated now that even he didn’t showed up and finished any of his job and now asking for money directly through credit agency. I am afraid if this can affect my current credit rating. Also being new here I don’t know what are my options currently ? I have all the contract document evidence showing the job never done completely even in 7 months. Please help me here.

Thanks in advance.

if in ON, may be this could guide you - has info on consumer protection & options

http://www.gov.on.ca/MGS/en/ConsProt/STEL02_045911.html