I received an interesting telephone call from a client recently, which caused me to dig a bit deeper into California’s recent mechanics lien law changes with respect to the “new” requirement that general contractors send preliminary notices. As you’ll see from this post, general contractors certainly have a preliminary notice requirement under the new law, [...]
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California Mechanics Lien: New Service Requirement Explained
The California mechanics lien law has always required claimants to deliver a copy of any filed liens to the property owner. Prior to the recent 2012 amendments, however, there was very little detail about how and when to do this. California’s recent mechanics lien law changes is now pretty specific on these points, but it [...]
Do You Know The 9 Most Dramatic Changes To California’s Mechanics Lien Law?
California’s mechanics lien laws changed on July 1, 2012. Over the past few days, Zlien has selected important components of the changes and published articles about each on its Lien Blog. This is a summary of all those articles, and thus, a summary of the important changes to the mechanics lien laws in California. 1. [...]
Get Fined If You Don’t Send California’s Preliminary Notice
California’s new mechanics lien laws are serious about their preliminary notice requirements. Under the new statutes, failing to send a preliminary notice will not only forfeit your mechanics lien, bond claim, or stop payment notice rights, but will also earn you a fine from the California Contractors’ State Licensing Board. What? A fine? This is [...]
General Contractors Must Now Send Preliminary Notice in California
California’s mechanics lien law changed significantly on July 1st, 2012. One change to the preliminary notice provisions effects those who contract directly with the property owner. These previously exempt parties must now deliver a preliminary notice. §8200(e)(2) of California’s new preliminary notice laws states that those ”with a direct contractual relationship with an owner or reputed owner [...]
New California Laws Make Mechanics Lien Claims Stronger Than Ever?
California never was a jurisdiction that construed mechanics lien claims very strictly, but the laws that took effect on July 1st appear to legislatively require courts to uphold mechanics lien claims whenever possible. In the past few months, we’ve published a few articles about how important it is to mechanics lien claimants whether courts will [...]
1 Thing California’s New Mechanics Lien Law Should Include, But Doesn’t
The new mechanics lien laws in California are nice and neat, and make a number of substantial and needed improvements. Nevertheless, I believe the new law fails in one area: empowering subcontractors and suppliers to know when a construction project ends. Knowing when a project ends in California is a big deal, and that’s because [...]
Watch Out For Unexpected Mechanics Lien Deadlines Under New California Law
The new law change that most significantly impacts the California mechanics lien law landscape may be something everyone is overlooking, but only time §8186 creates the possibility that a single construction project can be broken up into sections, such that multiple “notices of completion” can be filed on a single project. Here is the full [...]
Zlien’s Resources, Forms & Service Updated For New California Lien Laws
Changes to California’s mechanics lien laws went into effect this July 1st, 2012. The most recent law update contain the final changes to the lien and bond claim laws which have been progressively taking effect since 2010. The legislative momentum behind these changes began all the way back in 2008. [pullquote style="right" quote="dark"]Since Zlien provides [...]
Best Practices For Sending California Preliminary Notice Under New Law
New mechanics lien laws took effect in California this July 1st. The new laws impact preliminary notices sent on both public and private projects in California. This post examines three best practice to employ when sending a preliminary notice document in the state. Request The Lender and Owner One of the most significant changes for [...]
How To Find The Lender On A California Construction Project (New Law)
To preserve the right to file a mechanics lien in California, subcontractors and suppliers are required to deliver a preliminary notice within 20 days of first furnishing work. Additionally, that preliminary notice must be delivered to the property owner, the “director contractor” and the lender, if any. There has always been a dilemma with this [...]
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