you hired to reno your house, and you did a background check, and went over the terms of the deal with him, and he seemed on the up and up, so you signed a contract with him to begin work, at what point would you know it wasn't gonna work out?

Oh sure, he was really good in the beginning and showed up on time and made a lot of banging sounds with his hammer, but then he started showing up late, ( always with a really good reason.) So, you go on trusting him becasue you've got a contract, right?

Then, he starts missing work and you're getting a little concerned. He says "I'll make it up to you, and put in overtime on the weekend". So, placated, you go on with your prioir arrangement.

Worse comes to worse and you start to harbour serious doubts that this guy is EVER going to get the job done, but hey, you signed a legally binding document with him. However, you feel uncomfortable enough with him that you go and source out another contractor to take over when you can terminate the previous deal on legal grounds.

Meanwhile, the original contractor catches wind of what's going on and says "I'll have everything ready for you next week, and by the way, you still owe me for the work I've already done"

To me, this long-winded analogy is what has happened to Noront.

At what point would you as an individual KNOWN in all certainty that this guy was stringing you along?

JMO