Can my contractor retain my entire deposit and charge an additional $22K for “correspondence and 3 meetings” before a single nail has been hammered at my property? I have not received, purchased or approved any materials from him b/c he tried to increase my contract by $66k prior to starting any work, to make up for lumbar costs. (My contract does not allow for this). Going through my zoning committee, it was discovered he had incorrectly estimated costs (he was removing my existing chimney on a oil burning heating system that is going to be staying in the home) which is now going to need to be built up two stories for a second floor addition. Electrical work was not included at several thousands of dollars. And he refused to give me pricing unless I accepted a formal change order for this work, which I wouldn’t. I decided I could not proceed with an 8 month home improvement project with him, so he refused for almost 2 months to communicate with my attorney about cancelling the contract. He states that he will NOW do the job for the previously contracted price point (except for the chimney, electrical, etc) or is demanding that he keep my $50k deposit and an additional $22k for “expenses”. I have also discovered from several of his vendors, that they will no longer work with his company b/c he requested that they write fake online reviews posing as customers and they refused. His contract has small line typing saying he can sue you for $10,000 every time you write something negative about him online. Many of the reviews I relied on to vet him I now realize were not real reviews on Angi’s list and I feel very deceived.