When can I fire a contractor on a fixed price job?

Youre the owner, fire him whenever you want. Document everything.

I just finished going through this with a remodeling contractor. His people did a substandard job on my home's siding. They also did window replacement and bathroom remodels. Every step of the project had issues. The siding was the last part of the project, and by then, like you are now, I was fed up. When they claimed they were finished and submitted the final invoice I told them to go pound sand. I wasn't paying them the balance for this work. Naturally they filed a lien on my house, which cost them almost $400. I know this because when it was resolved the company owner cried about what the lien cost him, and claimed I had to pay to have it rescinded. I didn't, he did. I have a long time lawyer friend who I contacted when this went down. He's retired like me, but he did hook me up with a very good real estate attorney. I visited with this attorney and up front he informed me that property liens in Louisiana expire every 12 months, and have to be refiled at an additional cost. He said that I could file a demand letter to the contractor and give him 2 weeks to make the work right, and after that, if he didn't make the work right I could hire someone else and deduct that cost from the previous contractor's contract amount. I went that route, the attorney charged me $500 to generate the demand letter and file it with the clerk of court. He also provided me with further advice as needed during this process. To make a long story short the contractor made the siding install right, corrected the other issues, in a very timely fashion I might add, and then asked if there was anything else as he requested the final payment again. I was satisfied, almost, at this point. I paid him for the work but with held 5 grand until he removed the lien from my house. He cried and claimed the home owner has to pay for that. I told him no, and he removed it. That cost him another 500. I also deducted my lawyers fee from that final invoice. He didn't complain about that, but I am sure he thought the lien would intimidate me into doing what ever he wanted. He found out otherwise. If you live on the north shore I can hook you up with this lawyer, if you feel you might need one.

Some things to consider when you hire a contractor at a fixed price.

1) make sure he’s insured. You don’t want to pay hospital bills for one of his workers.
2) only pay him for materials delivered to your property and for work performed.
3) ask for proof he had paid for materials he’s charging you before you pay him for those materials.
4) hold at least 10% retainage on all work until he finishes the project and after the lien period expires.

Any good contractor should have no issues with any of that.

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4) hold at least 10% retainage on all work until he finishes the project and after the lien period expires.

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You don't pay your contractor the final 10% until a certain time has passed even if you're satisfied with the work? Or am I reading that wrong.

A contractor can put a lien on your house if you haven't paid a week after (no reason to do that unless you know for sure they don't plan on paying you) the job is done or two years after, there's not a lien period that expires. You have to renew the lien every year because they are only good for a year but you can put one on a home whenever you want if they haven't paid.

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it’s not an item we will agree to after pricing is agreed upon

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Of course.

I had a similar situation. Contractor did a terrible job, but in the contract, he had a penalty of X% of the total job for every week he was late. This was a 6 week job and I fired him at about 12 weeks in or so. I was tired at listening to excuses and I did the math in Excel, and if I was true to the contract, the contractor would have owed me LOTS of money, just in late fees. I told him that I'm not going to ask for all those late fees but will ask for about half of what the contract required to fix all the shite he screwed up. I sent him a certified letter in the mail with all the details of the money he owed me and why he was fired. I told him that we expect payment within so many weeks and if we don't hear from him, we'll dispute the charges on our credit card. We disputed the charges and got the money we wanted back, and never heard from him again.

step 1 is to file the contract with the clerk of court, before the job starts. This is in effect a lien.
step 2 is file waivers of lien at each progress payment
step 3 is to file a final waiver of lien at the last and final payment. The “lien period” begins 30 days after the last payment application is filed

If the last payment is not made, the contractor is entitled to not clear the lien and go to arbitration or small claims. If work is in dispute, the owner is entitled to demand relief before the end of the lien period.

All of this is outlined in a standard lump sum contract between an owner and a contractor