17 Year Old Not Wanting To Go To Dads House

Location: California

My 17 year old son has been expressing his desire to stay primarily at my house for the past 6 months. I have been encouraging him to talk to his dad about his feelings as I don’t want to step in the middle of this. Well last night my son was supposed to go over there and he drove over and then called me crying and emotional saying he didn’t want to go. For some reason the two of them can’t get along for anything. His dad is very hard on him and they butt heads often. My son is quiet and sensitive so yelling or being extra critical is not helpful.

The back story too is that his dad for most of his life lived out of state and my two boys would go see their dad for the summer, they traveled a lot and enjoyed that time. About a year ago their dad moved back here and wanted 50/50 custody which I agreed to but no formal agreement in place. We have a light agreement that just stated 80/20 (80 being my house). Their dad has 3 little kids and it’s a lot.

I’ve tried asking my son why he doesn’t want to go and he says it’s not comfortable, he doesn’t have a bedroom with his things, he’s an athlete so going to his house 20 min away after a late practice is hard. He said it’s not like he wants to cut off contact but just have my house as a consistent place to be. I think the straw that broke the camels back though was he accidentally bumped his dads car with his (light damage) and his dad lost it on him took his garage remote and told him he needs to find street parking. I know there needs to be consequence there with my son paying the damages or running through insurance but his dad doesn’t want to do that. My son is turning 18 in 3 months and moving away to college. I let him stay here last night and his dad is really upset and I’m scared. Any advice on how to handle this? I don’t want to force him somewhere he doesn’t want to be.