Thank you for answering my question. I hired a contractor for 2 specific contracts on a home renovation to be done simultaneously. I paid the down payments in May but then had to request the contract be put on hold for 3 weeks before starting the work. After begging them, it wasn't until late September that they started work on my home and it was like pulling teeth to get them there ( constant begging as to when they would begin), it took almost 2 months to demo 2 small partition walls (only one or two day laborers would show up). another month before they started framing a new partition wall and then another month to start a pretty basic plumbing/ electrical package. All along the way I was given excuses for delays from lack of man power to "my guy is in the hospital) and that supplies were ordered and they are delayed (they were never ordered). They would eventually hit contract milestones that required me to write them checks ( which I did) but then would disappear for another month as described above. Eventually they got to the point of digging and exposing my foundation for a new addition. Not only was the excavation done wrong ( they failed to dig to the correct depth and we failed the inspection) They did not remove the concrete ruble from the site as agreed upon, leaving my property a mess. They then disappeared for 2 1/2 months and left my original foundation exposed to a couple of freeze/thaw cycles. I soon realized that they were sending people to work just enough to get to the next milestone to demand a check and the reason for the delays was due to them bouncing checks to subcontractors and the subcontractors wouldn't work with them anymore and they had burnt so many bridges that they couldn't get anyone to work for them) . It was at this point that i had enough and i fired them and went with another contractor I had on site working another job for me and everything is running smoothly. The original contractor is now threatening me with a mechanics lien because he's out of pocket (as he states) above and beyond what I paid him (over $30k). The work done? - demo of 2 partition walls, framing a bathroom, plumbing (which had to be ripped out because it was wrong) and rough electrical (which had to be ripped out because it was wrong), and digging a footing trench ( which had to be re-dug because it was wrong and failed inspection). Bottom line is the work done ( in my eyes) wasn't even close to the $30k spent. That's the background, my questions is/are the following: Can a contractor legally file a mechanics lien for the work completed even when i paid him? I thought the mechanics lien was for doing/completing work and not getting paid. What value would the contractor's lien rights be based on? - only on the work/supplies completed to the date of firing ( he's claiming yes, I paid him $30k but he's out $38k, so I owe him another $8k) would the lien be for $8k? or the full contract price?- which he never did the work. Does it matter that they broke the contract at all? Does it matter that after hiring a competent contractor, they had to rip out all the work because it was wrong?