[Hucky]

You already know this,
Without a Written Contract providing the Scope of Work to be performed by the Contractor and a Money Schedule, you are in a long fight of Arbitration.

I dont know how the Contractors Licensing Board or lack of works in the state that you mentioned but here in California, we have the California State Contractors Licensing Board that helps situations like these. We are all Issued a Contractors License for the Trade that we do.

The first thing that your taught as a Contractor and also on the test of business law is, Do not do a job without a fully detailed contract, including, Notice to Owner, Lien Rights, etc.... It gets thick.

I have only been taken to the contractors board once and they were definitely in the favor of the Homeowner.

I have a sister in law who took a contractor to the Courts and they were definitely in the favor of the Contractor.

Here in California if we do any advertising, T shirts, business cards etc... They must have our Contractors Number on them.

Get his license number, call the Board, Call the City ask about his business license in that city, call the better business bureau.

Act quickly and be relentless

Good Luck

Remember, there is always 2 sides to Every Story Like This?