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Does your state require contractors to have agreements in writing?
Are you licensed? If not, does your state require that to get paid?
Did he actually pay you the $10K already?
3 months of labor, $3K in materials, that's a lot to do without any written agreement or progress payments. No matter what happens, that should be a lesson learned.
Unless you have something in your state law that prevents you from being paid (like you need to be licensed, and you are not), you are always going to have rights. For example, you have an oral contract that you can enforce. You also provided labor and goods to him, for which you'd have a "equitable" right to be paid under various theories.
But, of course, justice costs money, often a lot of money, and time.
If you could get $10K from him, without waiving any claims, that'd be a great start. You will have then reduced an $18K dispute to an $8K dispute. That would be good because you then would be getting close to a small claims case in most states.
If he refuses to pay what you think you are owed, the remedy is simple - sue him. But if you hire a lawyer, file a regular case, etc. that is going to cost quite a bit. If you can get the dispute down to the small claims level, it would then cost you very little to bring a suit, and you'd at least have your day in court to see what happens.
The other method is to simply negotiate a resolution with him that you both can live with.
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