Josko,
You are not stuck......if you have kept all the records you can transfer to another accountant. $8000...is ridiculous! I had double digits in properties last year and paid my accountant less than $500. However, he is not as property savy...but I have read most of the deductions and have been able to check and challenge of his assumptions. Even if he missed a few minor deductions here and there which I did not pick up....it is still less than $8000 per year!
I also got advice from C&N...to their credit they did say it was at the higher end risk. On this basis I did not proceed and also due to costs...they were pretty upfront about this. They also suggested ways I could cut the costs by preparing a spreadsheet ledger...I did take this advice. These days trust protection can be set aside. Further, there are caps in liability so long as you have insurance and take
reasonable care in your dealings the risk is small unless you are in one of the high risk professions - i.e. doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.
Also, as C&N gets bigger (this happens not only with C&N but as any accounting firm get bigger) you will be allocated with less experienced staff...the chances of errors happening is higher. The partners are more expensive and will concentrate on the larger clients. To be fair they also need to survive. That is why I use a suburban accountant where I deal with the owner of the business
.