I was working with a company recently trying to sell our preliminary notice services to them. They had complained that sending notices takes too long, and that they frequently have to do a lot of research to get down to the bottom of confusing projects (who is the owner?!?). Ultimately, they decided to continue sending [...]
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5 Things People Have Wrong About Mechanics Liens
Little in the law is as misunderstood as the mechanics lien instrument. We’ve dedicated some entire sections of this blog to trying to lift this fog, such sections being devoted to analyzing Common Mistakes and Lien Errors. While each state has its own mechanics lien rules and, therefore, it’s own unique common mistakes, there are [...]
What Is A Mechanics Lien? Mechanics Lien 101
Mechanics Liens are a staple in the construction industry, and while everyone in the industry knows liens exist, its sometimes surprising how little folks know about these instruments. Unfortunately, that’s probably because there is just so much to know about liens. Hell, I’ve dedicated an entire blog to the issue. But in this short post [...]
3 Mistakes Mechanics Lien Claimants Make When Identifying Themselves
We posted an article yesterday about a California case published last month where a mechanics lien’s validity was in dispute because of the way the lien claimant identified itself on the lien. That case - Montgomery Sansome LP v. Rezai - was very similar to a California case we wrote about a few months ago – Ball [...]
Washington’s 3 Most Common Mechanics Lien Mistakes
If you’re unpaid on a construction project in Washington state, there is no better solution for you other than the mechanics lien instrument. Filing a mechanics lien is hands-down the most effective way to get your debt paid, but actually filing the lien claim can be very complex and detailed. In fact, it’s quite easy [...]
Five Reasons To File Your Mechanics Lien As Early As Possible
Making the decision to file a mechanic’s lien isn’t an easy decision to make. Usually, your company has a relationship with others on the project, and there may very well be some good faith reasons why payment is getting held up on the job. The implication of this difficulty is that many wait until the [...]
FAQ: How Do I Send Preliminary Notice to the Owner If I Don’t Know Who The Owner Is?
If you’re the prime contractor and you contracted directly with the property owner, you’ll have a pretty good understand of who owns the property where work was performed. Prime contractors, however, very rarely have preliminary notice requirements. Instead, its the subcontractors, the sub-subcontractors and material suppliers who usually have preliminary notice requirements to meet, and [...]
Should Material Suppliers Wait Until An Account Is Overdue Before Sending Preliminary Notice?
This is a question frequently asked by those in the material supply business. In fact, it’s a common practice by suppliers to worry about preliminary notices only when an account goes unpaid. This makes mechanic lien compliance remarkably easier, because the company need not worry about sending notices to owner correctly every time or being [...]
3 Things That Go Wrong When You Try to File A Mechanics Lien At The Last Minute
If you’re furnishing labor or materials to a construction project someplace in the United States, you will likely have the right to file a mechanics lien if you’re unpaid. And regardless of where you are in the country, your right to lien will expire at some specific time. In some states, like California, the lien deadline [...]
What If Company Name On Lien Is Different Than Name On Construction Contract?
A situation recently arose in Alberta, Canada requiring the Canadian courts to analyze a basic and usually non-controversial component of every mechanics lien: the name of the claimant. Since the claimant is filing the lien, the identification of the claimant should really be a no-brainier. For this reason, there’s very little jurisprudence in the United [...]
Filing Mistake Invalidates $12.4 Million Mechanics Lien
Mechanic lien laws are highly technical, and they frequently change in unpredictable ways (see recent controversial example from Washington). We’ve expressed the sentiment a hundred times on this mechanics lien blog – it’s very easy to make a common lien mistake. Unfortunately for JE Dunn Construction Co., it seems someone may have really dropped the [...]
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Scott Wolfe Jr., JD
CEO of Zlien, and a licensed attorney in six states, he's experienced in construction & corporate credit management laws....Read More
Nate Budde, JD
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Jason Bull
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