It's going to trial. The asshole contractor and his shady wife contested the allegations. The law is on our side tho. We have a guarantee on their contract, a breach of implied warranty, and their reputation in past dirty dealings in our favour.
If you enter into a contract when you know you don't have the proper license and then falsify a government application to get a permit you leave a paper trail of deceit. There's no way to deny something like that.

Ironically, it has been exactly one year since we signed the contract to have the addition built onto the back of the house. And it's still not done.
Over the past couple of days I've managed to reduce page upon page of bitching and moaning over the addition onto 4 index cards. I think I hit all the high points. We're suing because he didn't build the room we negotiated for, he built it his way, poorly, and illegally. That about sums it up.
His contract (illegal) guaranteed materials and workmanship. He deviated from the materials AND he had no skills. We're asking for all of it back. Everything we paid him.
It's like going to a Honda dealership, ordering a silver Civic, and getting a baby blue Pinto hatchback...or the "family truckster" instead. Unfortunately, this is not the last thing we have to do. If we win a judgement, we have to try and collect it. If that doesn't work, we have to apply to the state's contractor's fund. We may never see a dime.

The room was inspected Tuesday. It didn't pass. We need a final electrical inspection and we need to install handrails on the deck even though it's not in the code. We specifically built the deck at a certain height so we wouldn't need rails but the inspector said that since it had 3 steps we had to have rails. WTFever. Besides that, the deck isn't even on the building permit and we may have to pay an additional $48 for an amended permit. Logically, since the deck isn't on the permit, the inspector should have passed the room. *sigh* I'll be so glad when this is all over.