Sounds complicated and they say legal advice is required so could be very costly in legal advice fees to recover the remaining amount, he had already paid a part payment then stopped. I was originally under the impression that liens were for much higher sums of money and invoices of $300 were too small.

https://ltsa.ca/property-information/file-claim-builders-lien
https://www.cbabc.org/For-the-Public/Dial-A-Law/Scripts/Housing/268

I believe the minimum is $200.

My last court judgement, I mailed the judgement with lien application to BC Registry from outside the courthouse. The guy was not thrilled, but he paid, then he had to pay $400+ to have the lien removed so he could sell his house. He sued me, don't think he will rush into doing that again!

I just checked and i am outside the 45 day limit now so its a no go. The mans a fruitcake and likely will never pay, i contacted his selling realtor saying he was owing me money and i was concerned if he sold house i would have no address to chase this through, she ignored my mail but told him as he mentioned it in his next mail. I now see house has been removed from market and appears not to be sold as there is no records on any listing realtor saying "sold" just removed from listings. I have searched online and can only find one thing about him that happened 3 years ago, he lost a court case where he had refused to return a potential renters deposit after renter backed out before signing agreement. It went to court, he didn't show up and lost case and was ordered to repay money plus costs, so clearly a difficult man yet he seemed so friendly and genuine when we were there.

Go to your nearest builders merchant, order 4 tonne of gravel, use his name and address, pay cash, tell them you will be at work on delivery day and specifically request for it to be unloaded on the driveway.

I knew a window cleaner in the UK who, if a customer didn't pay, would use an extra soapy mixture on the windows and wouldn't clean it off - just let it dry.. resulting in white chalky smeary streaks and dirt everywhere, lol. Karma!

I like this idea

And despite the online process purportedly being more efficient, a claim my wife submitted for a $5k unpaid debt is still in process 10 months later. Every deadline the court has set has been broken by the defendant and they seem indifferent to any sort of enforcement or consequence.

In BC there just has to be an improvement made to the property by the claimant (would have thought so in AB too). Certificates of pending litigation are useful tools too when real property is involved.

Use 'interest' accumulation to get that sum over $5,000 and then sue in the real small claims court?