Last April a friend came to my house and asked me if he could stay at my house for 2 months and do work on my house in lieu of rent. I agreed and around June he got a large puppy. He was living in my basement apartment. The puppy started digging everywhere on my property and his owner never cleaned up after him. I allowed him to stay longer as he kept starting new projects. In November, I politely asked him to clean up his dogs mess in my yard and he got mean and said, “I won’t be here for Thanksgiving. I certainly don’t give thanks for you”. At that, I told him to leave my property and I would help him pack. He said I have rights and that’s how the mess started. He said to me, I’m staying until the end. To have someone in your home who you dispise made my life hell. He refused to leave, kept using my utilities until I finally hired an attorney to get him out. He was given a notice to quit. At lease on 7 separate occasions I called the sheriff on him as he was pounding on the stairs late at night and trashed the downstairs. He would throw trash,cans, etc on the carpet. On Thanksgiving he handed me a notice of intent to lien. And filed that lien against my house. There was never a written agreement and finally on Dec.31st 2021, he left after 3 sheriffs had talks with him. I hired an attorney to only use his letterhead to send him a letter asking him to remove the lien. He sent a long letter and attached an agreement for me to sign saying I would pay him $4,200 by March 14th. This lien is spurious and I can’t understand how doing a favor for a friend has made it impossible to sell or refinance my house. This man wants to take my house of 21 year away from me. I’m 73 and on a fixed income. I am a glass artist and work to supplement my income in my home studio. I applied for a reverse mortgage and it was ready to close in December and got a call that the reverse mortgage couldn’t close until the lien was paid. The person who filed the lien has done this before. I had no idea the kind of person I thought was a friend. Then yesterday he replied to the letter with the attorney’s name on it and threatened me and my house. I do not have the funds to hire an attorney. I already charged about $2000+ on credit cards and I’m maxed out. This lien should never have been filed. I’ve been to adult protective services, and other places to try to get help. The attorney who let me send the letter on his letterhead wants $5000 as a retainer. I can’t do that. I was going to take him to small claims court to ask for rent of $1300 for 8 months. Since he filed the lien for work and materials with nothing signed, I feel I have the right to collect rent for the 8 months he stayed here. My utilities tripled while he stayed and he used my electricity to charge his Tesla.