We are splitting time between two homes. We claim one home as our homestead for taxes. We had a general contractor working on a metal building on our second home (25-60% residence over the past year). We do not have a written contract. He is threatening to put a lien on our property because we are terminating our working relationship due to his refusal to take our calls, answer our texts, or come to our project site. We are trying to compromise with him based on our out-of-pocket costs to remedy his construction errors that do not meet code, but he will not budge. (Straight math: what he wants us to pay minus what we are having to pay other contractors to fix his errors. We had already paid in full for the part of the project that included the errors that have come up in inspections.) Our understanding is that a written contract is necessary for a general contractor to take out a lien on a homesteaded residential property...how do we know if we clear that bar?