Hey, so I'm a business owner (remodeling, painting, bath remodels, etc) and also own a couple rental homes that I manage. I will both 1) tell you advice and 2) tell you a personal story where I was the contractor and actually the victim in the situation.
First, I was actually in a reverse situation. We were hired by a "GC", and we did a beautiful job on their home painting all of their walls, ceilings, trim and doing their cabinets. For the cabinets, we did the process correctly- take off doors and hardware; degloss and clean; sand; use high bonding alkyd primer; wait 3 days; then paint 2-3 full coats as needed. Cabinets were sprayed in a plastic chamber, quarantined and sealed on-site. There were no damages, job looked amazing. Our project manager, who is a master builder himself, took photos and videos of the completed job and the customer (The GC) signed the sign-off sheet stating they were happy.
Anyway, they made excuses for like 10 days after completion and were stalling us on the payment. We even gave him 3 days notice to pay otherwise we would lien the property, via email, and still no payment.
Me and my wife figured out they were actually SCHEMING WITH THE HOMEOWNER! The "homeowner" purchased it with a SHELL company, an LLC he freaking made a week before buying the house, with some really sketchy name (Iontaobhas LLC). AND HE DID THIS SAME THING BEFORE WITH A HOME PREVIOUSLY.
By the way, The name of the company isn't a last or middle name of the guy... It's like random hits on a keyboard, almost like he WAS HOPING TO MAKE IT HARD TO SPELL, so that when your average mexican construction guy tries to file the lien for non-payment, they will spell it wrong and invalidate the lien.
Well, long story short, we did everything proper. We mailed the official "Notice of intent to lien" (even though its not technically required) to both the homeowner and the GC. We sent it via certified mail, took pics and saved receipts. Then we notarized and filed the lien at our County Courthouse, then mailed that out via certified mail to both parties, (for the homeowner, we sent it to both his personal name and home, and ALSO his Iontaobhas LLC address and name).
So I just wanna make it clear, that the person filing the lien is NOT always the bad guy. We have hard working, religious, family men on our team, who busted their a*ss for a full week (5 guys for like a full week) and did a beautiful job, and these sociopathic rich jerks are posing at "helping the poor/cancer" galas, etc, while they are getting rich by literally making up fake companies, getting free work, selling the house, keeping the profits and then declaring chapter 11 bankruptcy on the fake corporations. They pretend to go to "charity galas" as they are literally getting rich by NOT PAYING POOR WORKERS and the owner of the company (me) who, admittedly, makes a good living, but still- we earned the money and they are thieves. And yeah, this probably happens more than you think in DC/VA area.
Oh also, after we sent the lien, then this a*ssclown has the nerve to be like "Oh, uh, actually there are some touch ups you still need to do. There was paint on the floor in one room." And I'm like buddy... I have photos. EVERYWHERE. And we have evidence that at the time we left, there was zero paint on your floors, and you even signed the release stating there were no damages and no clean up missed or needed. But I still promised him that I would clean up (I will, of course) AFTER he pays the final payment (If clean up is even needed- I noted in the email that I have seen zero proof of any supposed clean-up).
If he doesn't pay, I'm filing a motion to foreclose on the house, and I don't even feel bad. These people are the worst. They literally didn't pay this other plumber either (unrelated to my company). They gave him a check and THE CHECK BOUNCED, so he left. They paid me a down payment which cleared... but they bailed on the final 75% or so of the check.
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As for what you should do, in your situation, to avoid these issues:
1) Obviously, don't be a scammer like these guys. Never hire guys thinking of sneaky ways to avoid paying them, such as making fake LLC's that you declare bankrupt later, or dodging their phone calls. That is not right, moral, fair, and it's also "unjust enrichment" in a majority of states.
2) Only hire licensed contractors like myself, PERIOD, don't hire unlicensed people or the cheapest bid, because then you will sometimes get scammed or assaulted or stolen from. Be responsible, and vet who you hire.
3) To be specific- check their license, insurance, workers comp if required in your state (or at least make sure their subs have their own liability insurance if they use subs), and also online reviews and references.
4) DO NOT file a BBB claim on this guy unless it is 100% accurate- the one black girl on here gave bad advice by saying to complain to the BBB (I forget her name sorry lol)- IF YOU COMPLAIN TO THE BBB, IT CAN NEVER BE UNDONE. That makes a contractor a lot less likely to "negotiate", once you have scrambled an egg that can no longer be unscrambled. If you review them on Yelp or Houzz, those can be deleted, same with Angie's I'm pretty sure. But if you do a complaint on BBB, it sticks for 2 years whether it's true or not. The only way they can remove it is by suing you for defamation if the complaint was based on lies.
5) Make sure you sign a legal contract. Obviously. It should specify time frame if needed, both parties complete contact info, license number of contractor, address of property, complete scope of work, payment schedule, payment terms, other terms, days and hours to be worked, and anything else legally required to be on the contract in your state- or anything else that is common sense that I'm forgetting to put here.