My husband and I did major repair & remodeling work on a home that we planned to rent from a (former) friend. The original oral (I know) agreement was that our labor and materials expenses would be used toward our rent - so no rent to pay for nearly a year! However, once we finished the remodeling, my husband got a new job that required us to be closer to his work. So we opted to move into a different rental. How do we get repaid for all the labor & materials we paid for to fix up our former friend's house? It was about $18,000, so not sure how to do this. And it has been several months since we asked him to pay us back. He just ignores us. (and there was nothing in writing. we just have all the receipts) Thanks
I am sorry for the issues. These facts create a slew of complicated issues as this is not the standard where work was done for payment. Work was done in exchange for a rental and you later decided that this arrangement did not work for you and, therefore, you decided it was best to breach the agreement, in part.
So this complicates issues as to filing a lien and complicates legal claims as you admit that you decided to breach your agreement when you opted to rent from a different premises.
I know you are hoping for some simple answer, but there is none. You really need to hire an attorney to review and try to resolve this. I think you have a good basis for a claim for unjust enrichment but I don't think that is for the total amount of labor you believe is at issue and even for all the materials as you have issues as, again, this whole agreement was premised on an exchange and you breached that agreement. If money is an issue, you could consider getting advice and then proceeding in small claims for up to $7500. As noted, the issues are your damages given your breach of the agrement.
Reach out to construction attorneys and get a consultation. Most of us offer free initial consultations. I am sorry about the issues but this provides some serious lessons being to have written agreements and then talk to an attorney before taking actions that could lead to further problems. A simple and absolute rule is that the cost of legal advice upfront is a fraction of what it will be if things go south, like here.