The situation is this... The contractor my wife and I hired, from November, 2017 to June, 2018, for our extensive home remodel is taking steps to place a lien on our residential property (using the zlien service) for non-payment on three invoices (totaling over $10k) we received after he walked off the job. Much of the work described in said invoices appear to either 1.) have been billed in previous fully-paid invoices, 2.) work that wasn't completed, and 3.) have listed 59 labor-hrs without explanation or association to work performed. Our inquiries to the contractor to settle the open balances have gone unanswered, yet he's going through the process in an attempt to place a lien on our house. Additionally, we found out today that this contractor has no valid General Contractor license in our state, North Carolina. My wife and I were always under the impression he was a licensed GC because the amount of work we needed him to do far exceeded the $30K threshold that requires a GC license in North Carolina. Thus far, we've paid this contractor over $30K and he says we owe him another $10K. As homeowners, how should we handle this situation in order to protect ourselves? Thank you in advance for your help on this. - Peter La Fond