A few weeks ago someone posted an article on the National Association of Credit Management website suggesting that credit professionals should “always check for, eliminate ‘pay if paid’ provisions.” The article got within striking distance of a good point, but since it treated “pay when paid” and “pay if paid” provisions the same, completely demonized them and [...]
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Can Pay When Paid Clauses Destroy Your Mechanics Lien or Bond Claim Rights?
If you’re unpaid on a construction project, you usually have mechanics lien rights and/or the right to recover under a payment bond. The magic of mechanics lien or bond claim rights is that it empowers subcontractors and suppliers to get paid regardless of what happened with finances “upstream,” such that if a general contractor doesn’t get paid, [...]
How Do You Remove A Frivolous Mechanics Lien?
This blog traditionally focuses on how to file mechanics lien claims, largely analyzing the mechanics lien process from the lien claimant’s perspective. However, we’re going to take a brief break to turn the tables and look at the opposite perspective. Mostly because two great resources has been published in the past few weeks which guide [...]
A Guide To California Payment Bond Claims and Stop Notices
The Construction Lien Blog welcomes Seth Smiley, who contributes this guest post about payment bond claims in Louisiana. Seth is a partner at Wolfe Law Group, and a contributor to that firm’s Construction Law Monitor blog. He frequently writes and litigates about construction law issues ranging from payment bond claims, workmanship disputes, construction delay matters [...]
A Guide To Louisiana Payment Bond Claims
The Construction Lien Blog welcomes Seth Smiley, who contributes this guest post about payment bond claims in Louisiana. Seth is a partner at Wolfe Law Group, and a contributor to that firm’s Construction Law Monitor blog. He frequently writes and litigates about construction law issues ranging from payment bond claims, workmanship disputes, construction delay matters [...]
How To Prevent A Deadbeat Customer From Taking Advantage Of You
I found a pithy and pointed article on Inc.’s website providing businesses with 5 Tips to Ensure Customers Pay You On Time. The article references a RocketLawyer.com survey revealing that 25% of companies have trouble collecting payments, and of those 60% had to write off the bad debt. The Inc. writer then rattles off 5 [...]
FAQ: If I’m Unlicensed, Can I File A Mechanic’s Lien?
Short Answer: It depends. In some states, unlicensed contractors are forbidden from filing a lien. In other states, it is allowed. You must consult your state’s particular lien laws. Long Answer: The first thing to say about this subject is that if you’re doing work that requires a license without having that license, you’re treading [...]
Construction Lien Blog An Expert on Mike Rowe Works’ Trades Hub
Mike Rowe, the host of the Emmy-nominated Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs, today launched Trades Hub, publishing resources and content from writers and bloggers in the construction industry for folks from all types of trades. The Construction Lien Blog (and our sister Construction Law Monitor blog) has been chosen to take part in the Trades [...]
Deliver the Model Disclosure Statement in Washington…Or Else
The Model Disclosure What? That’s what a lot of Washington contractors say when they give my law office a call and ask whether they have lien rights. Sadly, most contractors (especially the smaller outfits) have no idea that they’re required to provide this on each and every project before work begins. What happens if it’s [...]
A Catch-22: Pay When Paid Clauses Do Not Extend the Lien Period
If you search “Pay When Paid Clauses” in Google, you’re going to get a lot of results that say a lot different things. This contractual provision – used in almost every general / sub construction contract – is perhaps one of the most confusing or misunderstood provisions out there. Wolfe Law Group’s Construction Law [...]
Liens Make Your Payment Problem the Entire Project’s Biggest Problem
When you don’t get paid on a construction project, that is a big problem for you and your company. But, is it a big problem for the entire construction project? Not likely. So, how do you make your problem an important problem to the other players working on a construction job? With a mechanic’s [...]
Columnists
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
Zlien's Chief Legal Mind and licensed attorney. Nate is a Stanford & Tulane Grad, a Jeopardy! alumni and more....Read More
Seth Smiley, JD
Construction attorney in California & Louisiana, Seth is an experienced construction litigator and Zlien's COO....Read More
Funding Gates
The world's first CRM for receivables management.Read More
Gretchen Lynn
Operations Genius at Zlien - She writes all the fun stuff here.Read More
Jason Bull
Zlien's Research Giant - He shares tips and info on how to confirm project, surety or construction party data.Read More
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