Legal Question in Business Law in California

Depends on whether he's a licensed contractor or not. If he's not licensed, you owe him nothing, regardless of the amount or quality of work done -- you get the labor and materials for free. If he's licensed, he can file a mechanic's lien against your property (you would be the person who would have to sue to remove it) within 60 to 90 days after completion of the work.

Up to 4 years, but in all likelihood, the contractor will file a lien against your property fairly quickly.

Contractors have 90 days after actual completion of a work of improvement to record a mechanics lien. That time is shortened to 60 days for prime contractors and 30 days for subcontractors, material suppliers, etc., if you record a valid notice of completion after the work of improvement is complete. Warning, "completion" is one of the most litigated words in the construction vocabulary. It does not include touching up defective work, sometimes called "punch list" work. So if they painted the rooms the wrong color and have to repaint, that is not original work. The project is still complete. It can, however, involve a minute amount of incomplete original work. In one famous case involving an office building, all the "punch list" work was true remedial work for minor defects, EXCEPT for one item: soap dishes that were called for in the specifications were not yet installed in the mens rooms. Ruling: completion had not occurred.

After a mechanics lien is recorded, an action to enforce it must be filed within 90 days after the lien recording date, or the lien is void.

If the contractor blows the mechanics lien deadlines for any reason, then Mr. Firemark is right, the standard statute of limitations for breach of contract applies: four years from the date of breach.

4 years on a written contract, 2 on an oral agreement, which none should be.