What is code? The contractor might believe one thing because they work with the village or city often enough, it's passed bc of historically good work. That's often when corners are cut because inspections take time complete, and inspectors could be too trusting having a long standing working relationship.
If your contract says it'll be to code, then it gets done to code. If it's get done "enough" to pass, then that's relative to whomever decides enough it's good enough, etc.