I saw this coming years ago....

[sally]

when i put a new roof on last year, i paid half before the contractor purchased the materials, and the remainder before they started the job! i would have had to hunt them down if they hadn't been legit. i did check occupational license and references however.
don't most contractors get at least some money up front to protect themselves?

We always get a deposit for roofs and big jobs, but we also do small jobs between $150 and $1200 and don't ask for a deposit because competition doesn't allow it. It's not so much the commercial work that doesn't pay, but it's these small residential jobs. It isn't much but it adds up when there are 20 other scumbags taking their sweet ass time to pay or just not paying at all. They're the ones who insist on a certain time to be there and then they conveniently leave 15 minutes before the job is done.