Contractor Ghosts Me, Files A Lien, Ghosts Me Again, Then Sends A Demand Letter

Location: Florida

I hired a contractor who pulled a permit but never scheduled any inspections. The day they completed the project, it started falling apart, so I didn’t pay the remaining balance. They ghosted me for three months. I finally annoyed them enough and got one single email that essentially said “You’re not due a refund, you’re not due repairs, and we will not be scheduling any inspections until you pay the rest of the money. Also, we put a lien on your house.”

I immediately checked with the county and they had put a lien on my house several weeks earlier and never told me. I file a notice of contest of lien same day and had the city mail a certified copy to the contractor. For two months, I attempt to contact them via a mediator to resolve this but they ghost both me and the mediator.

Finally gave up and hired another contractor who had to tear out the entire thing and redo it. In the end, I paid 23k for what should have been a simple project. I decided to eat the cost and move on because after half a year, I couldn’t handle the eyesore any longer and neither could my neighbors.

Tell me why seven months after filing the lien, the original contractor sends me a demand letter via email threatening a lien. First off, do emails even count as an acceptable way to serve someone a notice? Also the email didn’t even include a copy of the lien or any information about the lien, is that an issue? And finally, if I contested it months earlier, doesn’t that mean the contractor had 60 days to take legal action? I thought the lien was automatically extinguished by now.

Currently, I’ve decided to not respond to the poorly written email. With the company’s track record, I’m not sure they would even respond to me if I did.