If you've hired enough contractors, you've met the ones who vanish after the deposit clears, the ones whose "licensed electrician" leaves exposed wiring in the ceiling, and the ones who quoted four weeks and disappeared after six. Most people chalk it up to bad luck. But in almost every case, the warning signs were there before the work started. Every scam report we review at BetterBid follows the same patterns. Here are the five that come up again and again.
An unlicensed, uninsured contractor leaves you exposed to liability lawsuits, municipal fines, shoddy work, and voided insurance claims. If someone gets hurt on your property and your contractor doesn't carry WSIB coverage, that's your problem. Not theirs.
What makes this worse is how easy it is to fake. We've flagged a significant number of forged insurance certificates and trade licenses in the reports we process. Scammers know most people won't pick up the phone and verify. That's exactly why they get away with it.
Don't trust a photo of a certificate. Call the issuing authority directly. If you're unsure what documentation your contractor should carry, we built a free tool for that: betterbid.ca/tools/certification-lookup. It tells you exactly what to ask for by province and trade.
This is the single most common tactic in the reports we review. The contractor asks for 50%, does minimal work, and disappears. You're out thousands with no recourse.
The standard deposit in Ontario is 10-30%, depending on the ratio of materials to labour. Most legitimate contractors will agree to 25-30% without hesitation, as long as it covers materials and a reasonable portion of early labour. If they won't budge below 50%, that tells you everything you need to know.
During the Process: Behavioural and Financial Red Flags
Some red flags don't show up in paperwork. They show up in how the contractor behaves, communicates, and structures payments. These are the ones people tend to rationalize away until it's too late.
If a contractor refuses to provide a written quote, or insists on handling everything over the phone, they're building plausible deniability. When things go wrong, there's no paper trail. No proof of what was promised. No leverage.
This one is non-negotiable. No contract, no work. If they push back on putting it in writing, they've already told you who they are.
This one surprises people. Anger, impatience, and defensiveness are obvious warning signs. But in nearly every report we receive involving losses over $20,000, the contractor was described as extremely charismatic. Confident, likeable, full of reassurance. The kind of person you feel silly doubting.
Our data shows a strong correlation between emotional extremes (in either direction) and low reliability. The volatile ones blow up when questioned. The charming ones make you feel so comfortable that you skip the steps you'd normally take. Both are dangerous. A reliable contractor doesn't need to dazzle you or intimidate you. They just do the work.
Cash-only requests, bids that come in 15-20% below every other quote, and payment schedules tied to calendar dates instead of project milestones are all red flags.
Cash eliminates the paper trail you'd need for any legal recourse. Lowball bids typically mean cut corners, material swaps, or outright fraud. And if payments aren't tied to completed work, you lose all leverage the moment you hand over the cheque. "Saving the tax" means they're operating under the table, likely without liability insurance or WSIB.
If something feels off, trust your gut. Move on.
Report it. The sad reality is that most contractor scam victims in Canada don't recover their money. The system provides scammers near-immunity from consequences and makes collection extremely difficult.
That said, the success of any legal action, insurance claim, or police report depends entirely on the quality of your evidence. Save every invoice, text, and email. Take daily photos of the job site. Follow up phone calls with a written summary to create a permanent record. Good documentation is leverage. No documentation is their word against yours.
Going public matters too. Post the facts (the owner's name, the company name, and the specific events) while sticking to what you can prove. And report it to betterbid.ca/report-dispute so it shows up when the next person does their homework.
Verify the license. Cap the deposit. Get the contract in writing. Trust the early warning signs. It's not complicated. Don't rely on your gut. Stick to the facts.
If you want a quick gut-check before going deeper, betterbid.ca/tools/lookup gives you an estimated risk score based on a contractor's online presence. It takes 30 seconds and can save you a lot of headache.
Find a vetted contractor: betterbid.ca
Report a contractor: betterbid.ca/report-dispute
Check certification requirements by trade: betterbid.ca/tools/certification-lookup
Alex Kimmich is the founder and CEO of BetterBid, Canada's first consumer protection company built to eliminate contractor scams. After seeing how easily scammers exploit homeowners with no accountability, he launched BetterBid to give Canadians the tools to verify contractors, report fraud, and protect their neighbours. Through his leadership and background in AI, Alex has built BetterBid's contractor analysis technology to detect fraud patterns that traditional vetting methods miss, providing a previously unavailable level of protection and accessibility.
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