Mechanic's Lien on unfinished work, signed contract

[Heidi Gerhardt]

My husband and I recently purchased a home to fix up. Due to the home having asepsis, we had the home taken down to the studs. We then hired a company to put up drywall and knock down texture on the walls. I signed a contracted for the agreed upon price, gave a 50% deposit and was told 1 - 1.5 weeks to complete...well 3 1/2 weeks later, it's still not done. 

The contractor said the sales person underbid the job and asked for more money...we said yes to the first amount. The next day he came back and asked for even more, additional money, which we said no. He then said we knew he underbid the job and that we should be human and pay the additional amount. Mind you, his quote was not the lowest one we got, he was in the middle. When my husband refused he got angry, started screaming at my husband and said he was going by the exact contract specification. The walls were not even close to done and I originally asked for knock down texture, but he said was going to put orange peel on the wall and leave. He said the contract only specified 'texture' but didn't say what kind, so he gets to choose. Since he was upset that we wouldn't pay him a second round of money, we told him we would not pay the first round (mind you this was all verbal), because as he stated, 'he's going by the contract' and now, by his choice, so are we.

Also, come to find out, his 'team' of people was a sub contractor who hired day labors. The owner fired the sales guy, fired the sub contractor, put 2 of his people in our house and they only did one round of tape and bedding, left the house a mess, didn't do the texture, demands the rest of his money that we agreed to on the contract or he'd put a lien on our house and sue us. Unfortunately for him, he was not intuitive enough to know that my husband doesn't let people walk on him or bully him. He was very patient with him at first, even offered to give him the money for the work he did complete to walk away. He said if we didn't give him a check for the full amount, he'll proceed with getting his money. 

I have a copy (unsigned) of the contract and the 50% deposit receipt.

My husband now want to take him to small claims court (mind you we've never done that before, so that's another process in of itself) for the hotel costs we were not anticipating, emotional distress (because, honest to goodness, he's been dealing with this solo and working. I stay at home with our young boys and I had to pull my oldest out of school because he was acting out and falling behind because of the lack of routine and having to go back and forth from in-laws house to school/activities and then hotel to school/activities) and breach of contract.

Any advice?? In our 15 years together (and really in our lives), we've never experienced this much stress and unrest. Do we have a valid claim? Can he really put a valid lien on our house?