Evening Legal Advice, got what I'm sure if a very common scenario here, but wanted to ask in hopes someone might see this and take pity on me with some advice about what my recourse may be.

About 9 months ago I had a pipe burst in my home right as I was gearing up to put said house on the market. Lucky for me I had a decent homeowners insurance package and was able to get a claim started the night of the incident. I had just started working about 2.5 hours away and was in the process of moving for work, but this put all that on hold.

Insurance sends a water remediation specialist the next day, I make the minor repairs to the plumbing, insurance tells me they will handle the rest. Water remediation specialist turns into general contractor even though he's not local to my small town, and I spend the next four months attempting to get movement on the claim - turns out he hasn't even submitted his estimate and insurance tells me it's my problem. I eventually get him to submit, it's approved almost immediately, and he is paid beginning of May and says he'll start right away. Also of note in here is that I removed all my belongings from the back half of my house at his instruction and spend December through end of March living on the floor of my living room - eventually having enough of the 250 mile daily commute (and cost of commute) and saying surely this can't take much longer, I have to move to my job.

It is like pulling teeth to get this guy to show up to work on my home. Work finally begins at the end of August after I tell him if it isn't started that week, I'll get a refund and move on with someone else. He begins, I tell him I have to get my house on the market and he is costing me an insane amount with his delays. I am also not there in town to keep an eye on the work, although precious little of it is being done.

Long story short, I have interested buyers, so I go to clean the house up the best I can, find out that he has done insanely shoddy work, not done the work as determined in the estimate, will not send me a contract that I never signed, and is now threatening a lien on the house despite not having completed the work. Also committing insurance fraud as there are dozens of line items he has charged them for by not performing said work. Main points that were changed were that he was supposed to sand, stain and finish my floors, instead he painted them (they were originally painted but according to him it's "the same work" and I should "be happy because the paint is more expensive"). He also added crown molding in the damaged bedroom to cover his shoddy paint and drywall work and had no answer for why when I asked why he was adding things that were never approved.

Insurance has not been a ton of help - I even contacted an attorney and he said that we could definitely get something out of them, but it may take a year or more to work its way through the courts and I just don't have that kind of time to burn paying for two homes. Insurance will barely speak to me, much less return my phone calls at this point.

All this to say, what, if any, is my recourse? Can he actually file a lien, especially without a contract signed and no actual discussion of price (I assumed insurance estimate was enough as it would be in my own line of work which is automotive)? Is he not in breach of contract due to the work change without authorization and would that matter in a small claims court or in regards to a lien?

I'm in Texas, FYI. This is my first time dealing with a general contractor, and honest to god hope it's my last. I know I made several personal mistakes here - just wondering if I have any way out now. Thank you all in advance.