Pay your contractor “cash”, no invoice and no taxes … Do you still have a recourse in case of poor workmanship?

The decisive question is: was the “cash” payment, in order to avoid the payment of the applicable taxes, an essential condition of the contract? If so, the contract is void and deemed never to have existed and, in the majority of cases, requires the parties to return the benefits they have received from each other.

Indeed, the judge has the power and the discretion to apply the full restitution of the benefits or to fix the modalities. For example, if the work paid $ 30,000.00 in cash has been improperly executed, the judge may order the contractor to pay the client $ 10,000.00.

Finally, know that in the most serious cases, the judge will not order the restitution of the benefits. Some judges do not want to be accomplice of serious illegalities that are downright immoral. For example, a customer who pays a contractor knowing that he makes minor children work without paying them for a good price. In this case, the dissatisfied customer will have no recourse and the unpaid contractor either.

In summary, although paying “cash”, in order to avoid the payment of the applicable taxes, is illegal, you will have a recourse against the contractor, unless it is immoral …