Lien Law Changes Approved in Missouri and Effective August 2010
On May 25, 2010
By Scott Wolfe Jr
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The St. Louis and Eastern Missouri Home Builders Association Blog alerted us to a change in the Missouri Mechanics Lien Law starting August 28, 2010. The Missouri General Assembly passed House Bill 2058, which “establishes procedures for asserting a mechanic’s lien against certain residential real property.” (Read Bill Summary) (Read Full Text).
What has changed?
Most of the changes affect a claimant’s lien rights on residential property that is being sold. Presumably, the state legislatures were concerned about innocent purchasers of residential property getting stuck with mechanics liens that weren’t filed at the time of closing, or were filed too near the closing date to get picked up in the title search. To address this issue, they added the following procedure:
Step 1: The property owner intended to sell the residential property is to file (and post at the job site) a Notice of Intended Sale, which identifies the closing date for the residential property.
Step 2: All claimants (subs, contractors, suppliers) who have lien rights must file a “Notice of Rights” at least 5 days before the posted sale date.
Claimants must keep in mind two tricky features of the new rule: (1) If the closing date changes, it doesn’t affect when the Notice is due – it’s still due at least 5 days before the posted closing date; and (2) This does not effect the claimant’s lien deadline, before or after filing the Notice of Rights (depending on timing), the lien is still due and must still be separately filed.
The new bill makes other changes as well, which we may post about in the future. This law goes into effect on August 28, 2010, if it is signed by the governor. Zlien’s forms and deadline database has already been updated to accommodate these law changes.
Related posts:
- Missouri Staying Strong for Contractors: Recent Litigation Shows Edge Over Owners
- The New Georgia Lien Laws are Effective Today. Will Your Lien Comply?
- Illinois Contemplating Amendment to Mechanics Lien Statute
- Construction Outlook Grim through 2010 – Staying Ahead of Accounts Receivables To Retain Its Importance
- Use Zlien To Stay Organized in 2010
About the Author: Scott Wolfe Jr
Scott is the founder of Zlien, a nationwide mechanics lien and preliminary notice filing service. Zlien publishes the Construction Lien Blog, and has done so since 2007. Scott has been a leading contributor and author on the blog since it's initial publication. Scott is also the founder of Wolfe Law Group, a construction law firm that practices along the West Coast and in Louisiana. He lives in New Orleans, LA, where he was born and raised.
Here is an update: Governor Nixon (Missouri) signed this bill into law.
http://www.libertytribune.com/201007139962/news/community-news/nixon-signs-bills-for-zoo-district-port-authority-urban-farming-clean-energy-projects.html
Changes take effect on November 1, 2010, as per the recent signature on the bill…not in August as previously reported.
[...] that Missouri’s Governor Nixon has signed the Lien Law Changes bill into law this week. We previously wrote about this bill on our blog here. The changes take effect on November [...]
[...] legislature approved some fairly significant changes to the mechanics lien laws in Missouri. We summarized those changes back in May, and posted a reminder to folks just last week as the new laws took effect August 31st (see all [...]
[...] legislature approved some fairly significant changes to the mechanics lien laws in Missouri. We summarized those changes back in May, and posted a reminder to folks just last week as the new laws took effect August 31st (see all [...]