(Using false names for privacy). I hired ABC company to do work on a rental property. John Doe wrote the contract, signed the contract, received payments, and did some of the work. Jim Smith has a truck with 'ABC company' written on it but was never apart of contract negotiations. Whenever I had an issue with the work, I would go to John Doe to address but he would blame it on Jim Smith and refuse to take accountability for the quality of the work. There is a line in the contract which states "final payment shall be withheld until contractor signs final lien waiver". When I presented the lien waiver to John Doe, he refused to sign bc he had not received full payment. At the same time, I asked for a w9 for tax reporting and that's when i realized that ABC company is not a real company (not registered anywhere). Also, Jim Smith claimed that he had not been paid and John Doe was not honest about the full contract amount. Because we learned that Jim Smith had not been paid, we decided that we definitely wanted to have the lien waiver in hand prior to making final payment. Since the contract ended in Nov 2020, they have been going back and forth with each other about who should get paid what. Fast forward to today, I received a letter with a claim of lien. Looking for an attorney's advice on this. Who should I pay? Who would sign the lien waiver and should I wait for that first? how do I contest the lien? Does his poor work factor into the amount owed at all? (Small example; he was paid to install kitchen countertops---2 months later, i discovered the countertops were not secure on the cabinets. I could literally pick them up off the cabinets.) Sorry for the lengthy question!!!