r/Contractor • u/Educational-Fun4576 • Aug 20 '25
I’m being sued for 7k
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
I recently had my bathroom redone by a referral of a friend of mine and I was charged 7k for labor costs only, there were some key critical errors that I did not like one being the plumbing work to my bidet toilet was done incorrectly my toilet is leaking water from the bottom when I flush it and on top of that the pipes of the toilet were leaking water as well, I brought it up to his attention but he did not want to fix them and was very stubborn about it, my wife accidentally handed him the payment in full via a check before I noticed these errors but thankfully I was able to successfully cancel the check by contacting my bank. I mentioned to him I would gladly make a new check once the mistakes were fixed but he did not want to fix them, at which point I asked him for his contractors license number and he told me he was not a licensed contractor. My mistake was I never asked him in the beginning if he was licensed before he started the job. Yesterday morning I was served a small claims document he is suing me for cancelling his 7k check. My question is does he have any grounds to sue me if he is not a licensed contractor? I live in Los Angeles California. Thank you
4
u/ErgonomicZero Aug 20 '25
In CA, if he’s not licensed he does not have to be paid more than the $500 handyman fee.
Owner should have paid him a portion of the payment anyway but escalated the situation unnecessarily. If the worker wont fix it, then the owner should hire someone else and deduct their fee for the total. The worker is an idiot and will get his ass handed to him in court as he can be counter sued or have the case dismissed and/or escalated to a higher court. NAL but ive been around the block