WOW, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!! Of course you should get paid!! That's the point.... you preformed a service! Sounds like they plan on not paying you and that is their convienent excuse.

Our county has a black list where we can put up clients names who don't pay, pull crap like that, etc. This way when they try to get another vendor... they simply let them know that they already know what kind of company they run. Basically black balls them from finding another "sucker" to do their work. I think every county should have one. I also check names on the "Abstractor Watchdog" web page before I accept any work from potentially new clients.