General Contractor Did Not Pay Sub Contractor

[Andy Nowak]

So I have issue full of rookie mistakes. I added a second bathroom and got all the permits pulled. The electrical inspection was complete and we closed the walls up and finished the job and paid everyone. This happened middle of 2020.

We are getting ready to sell the house and I realized that we had to do a final overall inspection to close out the overall permit (of course). When I called the county to get the inspector out they told me the electrician who pulled the permit canceled the permit. The notes from the cancelation said the electrician "canceled the permit because the GC did electrical work under his license number for this permit." 

I talked to the electrician who told me the GC had never paid him and did additional electrical work on the project so he canceled the permit. He said he might come back to re do the permit, but is requiring the full amount originally agreed to which is not small but do able. 

The GC will not answer his phone and I have already paid him in full so I have no leverage there, just lots of painful lessons. 

I want to make sure the electrician is paid what he is owed for doing work on my house, if I have to come out of pocket to make this right on all fronts I will. But my question is if there is any action I can take against the contractor to recoup the money or at least hold him accountable? Thank you in advance for your advice!