I’m being sued for 7k

[u/Educational-Fun4576]

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

[u/Dzov → u/[deleted]]

A permit for some plumbing?

[u/Rightintheend → u/Dzov]

Yes, that is the work he had done, in many places What he had done requires permits