lien on property

I'm not certain how to answer this but I wanted to acknowledge your post, please keep checking back, someone may have some helpful info when they are available. :)

Verbal agreements are not illegal, just hard to prove. Depending on the type of work being done, he may not have been required to be licensed. In order to get a mechanics lien, I would think he would have had to go through court and get a judgment first.

If there is a judgment in place, really all you can do is pay it off to release that lien. Otherwise you might consult an attorney who knows about mechanics liens, and may be able to fight it for you.

In the case of a lien on your property, firstly the onus of proving the lien on the property should be that of the person claiming this lien. If this person is able to give substantial proof, you are bound to pay the dues to the person in order to make it a clean sale.

On the other hand what you could do is an out of court settlement with this person, pay a certain amount to the claiming party, and take a no objection letter from them. This will then enable you to go ahead with the sale smoothly.