You told him that you would host it for 1yr, so probably he is relaxed n on for a vacation. You are changing host, your mistake not his. Its your responsibility to keep the site running for 1yr no matter what, pay that hosting fee etc. No business to give him a downtime and in other words a hard time.
you got to pay the hosting fees dave, even if it is expensive. any revenue the site makes in his absense could maybe pay towards the hosting.