Fired contractor and need advice

[Danny Lee]

Hello, we had hired a contractor back in September to gut and renovate our 3 bathrooms and kitchen, as well as apply 600 sq ft of flooring. The contract stated timeline is an estimated 8-10 weeks. As of January, we barely hit the punch list portion of the first bathroom. We paid probably about close to 50% of the entire project (our mistake to learn from).

Other than being slow and not hitting any timelines, there was a period of about a month when the contractor just did not show up. After January, he showed up to work on our property for about a grand total of 4 hours after 2 weeks.

I had a lawyer draft up a letter to terminate the contract, which was successful. However, we were sent a final invoice of $2000, where cabinets were marked as $18k (these are cabinets from cabinets.com, not customized or anything special) and there was an increase in the cost of finishing the bathroom. This obviously is a final push for a cash grab, as we had paid 50% and did not receive 50% of work. I was going to chalk this up as an expensive learning experience, but annoyed that he wants more money after terminating the contract. Furthermore, my wife never signed the contract, so I am unsure of how much can be enforced here.

With the $2000 invoice, the contractor is now threatening filing a Notice of Unpaid with our county clerk, and likely will file a lien. I am working with a lawyer, but wanted to know my options on fighting this as well. We are based in NJ, so wanted to know how much leverage we have in this case (and how much we can leverage the Consumer Fraud Act in this case). Is this worth fighting or is this an expensive lesson?

Any advice is appreciated!