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What action can a person take to collect money owed for repair work done based on a verbal agreement in state of CA

My husband does odd jobs to make a little extra money. He had a verbal agreement with a friend of a friend to paint the inside of their house. He gave them a quote of $2,700.00. 3/4 of the way finished they decided that they wanted to finish the job themselves. 2 days later my husband leaves a billing statement in the amount of $825.00 (which is considerably cheaper than what he should have billed for. A week later he is told that they did not receive the statement. And they ask if he could leave another one. He leaves them another one. But hears nothing back. He tries calling numerous time but to no avail. He does not have a written contract nor a contractors license which the other party knew in advance before they agreed to hire him for the job and give him a $300.00 deposit. My question is since there was no signed contract what can my husband due to collect this debit

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Simple... file a small claims court action since this matter is clearly within the jurisdictional limits of the court.
Gather up all your bills for materials and account for the hours put in on the job before your customer forced you off the job. If you could bring a witness that would testify that you actually performed the work and even something about the quality of the work.. it wouldn't hurt. You will not collect the full contract amount but will be entitled to the value of the service performed because it would create an unjust enrichment in the homeowner to get you to work for nothing !
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