Situation with the builder

kapszone

Hi Everyone.

Not sure where we need to post this.
We have recently hired a landscaper who agreed to do with turfing and patio for our garden. He finished the turfing and started on patio but didnt finished the patio. He is asking for the money now, which we are reluctant to pay as we know he will not come. We have told him that come we will pay you and you finish the job and we will pay rest.

He did came to talk today but not sure what he came for as he did not started the job and told us he will see us in court. There is no contract for this work and we had not paid him the money.
Once he left, we paid him deducting the money that we think it will take to complete the leftover work.
In total labour price agree was £2100 and we paid him £1700 and mentioned in the message that if he wants the rest of the money then he has to complete the job.

Seeing that message he replied back saying i did this extra and did something else extra (which he did not), and asking £800 more and threatening us to go legal which we dont see any problem with as we have paid him for what he did and rest holding up until rest of the work is finished. But not sure what our rights are and what shall we do given there is no contract in place at first and he is now not finishing the work and rather threatening us.

Thanks
Kaps