how much do I owe You?

I had to fire our contractor before he had finished painting the insides of the hotel. He was doing a terrible job and a lot of local expats said he was overcharging and he simply could not understand why we wanted him to pull out the mold infested 1/8” plywood ceiling in room six; he wanted to paint over it. So we had to figure out how much of the job was done and how much we owed him. This was the most stressful day I’ve had in Kampot. He was convinced he was 90% done. I would be generous in suggesting that he was almost halfway done. The main problem arose as he started painting room six before he had finished downstairs. Room six requires a total gutting, not just for the mold but the electrics are all fucked and the floor is sinking. He seemed to think it was amusing that I insisted on taking down the plywood, and I decided to fire him. It was just down to negotiating a price for the shoddy job he had already completed. The original contract for all the indoor painting was $2100. We had given him a $400 deposit to start the work. I asked my manager to find out how much the paint cost ($380) and how much his workers were paid per day ($5 for the supervisor, $.75 for the others) and I began to get an idea of what was going on. They had worked four days, sometimes only two or three workers, never on time, long lunches, and off by five. They splattered paint on the tile floors, ruined a lot of furniture which they used instead of ladders (even though I loaned them my new ladder), poured paint down our drain (clogging it) and didn’t mask off any of the light fixtures. So he wants $1000 on top of the deposit. We have our “fixer” Mr Sovaan, an ex KR who was doing the books for the FCC mediate and he keeps taking the contractor’s side, saying we had agreed to pay and he was almost done. I was smiling all the time, explaining that we needed to finish the electrics before we painted and just needed to sort the expenses. Long story short, we agreed to pay $500 and let them take the remaining paint. The contractor’s name is Mr You. So I owe You nothing...