We bought a single family home in San Francisco Bay Area and needed to do some remodel work so our realtor recommended his friend/business partner to do this work. This friend of his is an unlicensed contractor. After some negotiations we agreed to pay him $X for the remodel and $Y for an extension, the agreed payment was only for labor and we were paying for the material. We all agreed that the remodel work will not take any longer than 6 weeks to which our realtor confirmed over email. We have not had any written document signed for the entirety of the work. Work began at the end of September, however we started seeing delays. Till now, we have only gone through 1 inspection for the remodel and so far we have paid our contractor about 40% of the remodel work. Because of so many delays and no clear visibility on timeline, we sent an email and text to our contractor and the realtor that we do not wish to continue our work with them anymore. We gave them a deadline to respond by today if they think we owe them anything (honestly we feel we have paid a lot more). On Friday, our realtor stated that he talked with the contractor and the contractor stated that we owe him almost the full payment left for the remodel. This felt like a harassment. We just had the below questions: * Can an unlicensed contractor or a realtor come after a homeowner in such a case? * Can they file any sort of lien on our property in such matter? * Any other legal implications that we should be aware of? All we want to do is let them know that we don't owe them a penny and actually they owe us a lot more based on the amount of work done and to not bother us (legally or physically) in future. What would be our best approach?
The unlicensed contractor cannot lien your property (he can, but any such lien would be subject to a petition to expunge) and you don't owe the unlicensed contractor a penny and, in fact, you can sue him for every penny you paid him. See Business and Professions Code Section 7031. You are not in privity of contract with the realtor, as it relates to the remodel, I believe, so the realator is out of luck, too. Your best approach, based on the facts as I understand them, is to tell them to get lost or you will sue them for every paid to them. Good luck and Merry Christmas...
Under Business and Professions Code section 7031, an unlicensed contractor cannot maintain any action to recover money for a project. That means that even if he records a lien, he cannot file suit to foreclose on it; you would have a total defense. This would apply to any action brought by the real estate agent to collect for construction services. Moreover, you can sue the unlicensed contractor to recover all monies paid to him, even if you knew he was unlicensed at the time he did the work. Lastly, it is a misdemeanor to enter into a contract for construction for more than $500 without a valid license.
Under Business and Professions Code section 7031, an unlicensed contractor cannot maintain any action to recover money for a project. That means that even if he records a lien, he cannot file suit to foreclose on it; you would have a total defense. This would apply to any action brought by the real estate agent to collect for construction services. Moreover, you can sue the unlicensed contractor to recover all monies paid to him, even if you knew he was unlicensed at the time he did the work. Lastly, it is a misdemeanor to enter into a contract for construction for more than $500 without a valid license.
Since my initial message, the contractor sent a text asking for a little less money but also threatning to put a lein on the property.
Any particular advice on how should we proceed. We really appreciate your help.