Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Utah

After my father's passing last year, my mother decided to get her house in Utah updated and sell it so she could move to Florida to be closer to her daughter (me).

She was introduced to a friend of a family member, who represented that he was a licensed contractor looking for work (we'll call him Jo). My mom agreed to hire Jo to do work in her kitchen, bathroom, and floors on her upstairs. With each of these 3 areas, Jo provided quotes to mom for what his labor would be and mom was to buy all materials, which she did. Jo requested to be paid in cash for these 3 jobs to which mom complied. When it came time to start work on finishing mom's basement, mom told Jo that she only had enough money to pay for materials in the basement and did not require his services for any additional jobs, as she had volunteer's from her church that had agreed to do the work for nothing. Jo replied that he would do the basement work for nothing to help out "family" (he intends on marrying my cousin). Mom felt this was quite gracious of him and agreed to let him do the work, but told him she would'nt let him do it for nothing, but that she would give him something when she sold the house. When the work was completed on the basement, Jo, out of the blue , presented mom with a bill for almost $9,000. Mom told him she could not pay him that kind of money, but that she would still give him something when the house sold. Nothing more was said. Mom received an offer on her house,and the sale closed the day before Thanksgiving this year. Right at the last minute the Title company informed mom that Jo had put a notice of interest against her house and that they would have to retain 150% of the amount Jo claimed he had interest in. In the following days we found out that Jo had lied, and was not licensed, bonded or insured, to do any work in the state of Utah, that he had represented. Jo became very nasty and began trying to intimidate mom into paying him by making threats against Mom when she tried to offer him what she had originally intended on paying him once the house sold. The state DOPL, was ready to go after him for criminal charges, until he left the state. Do we have any recourse to get the title company to release the rest of mom's money, other than to go through the filing of court action for wrongful lein since he had no legal authority to file the notice of interest in the first place? Thanks Michelle

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