When filing a mechanics lien (and in some states, preliminary notices), the legal description of the property is generally required to be on that document. The legal property description is essentially the description that the county labels the property as. It  is “a written statement recognized by law as to the definite location of a track of land by reference to a survey, recorded map or adjoining property.” The legal property description can include the lot and block, township-section-range, and/or the parcel number.

While listing the municipal address of the property that you are placing the lien on is also required, it is not enough to describe the property. However, having the municipal address most certainly helps in obtaining the legal property description.

Finding the Legal Property Description

Since the legal property description is required to be included on a mechanics lien, most counties make the it available on their assessor’s website. Most assessors’ sites, like the Orleans Parish Assessor, have a “property search” function through which you can enter the municipal address, parcel number, or owner name to find the legal description. While most counties’ online resources are adequate in providing this information, there are some that are difficult to navigate, or that do not provide the necessary information.

The easiest way to find the “property research” is to go to the county assessor’s page and look for something along the lines of  ”parcel information” or “property research,” or simply Google search for the county name and assessor property search.

Once you have found the property research feature, simply select the criteria (owner, address, parcel number) you would like to search by. Generally, the most accurate results are obtained by searching by the parcel number (if you have it), because hte county also uses this number to describe the property.

What If Nothing Comes Up?

Search by Owner

If you search by owner and nothing comes up, this could mean that the person you believe to be the owner is in fact not the owner. This is common in commercial developments, as you may think the person that commissioned the work is the property owner, when they may in fact be a tenant or management company. The same can happen on residential projects, as the lienor may list one person as the owner, but it is actually a married couple who owns the property. If nothing comes up when searching by the owner, try searching with the municipal address or the parcel number.

Search by Municipal Address

Image from Los Angeles County Assessor website

Not finding a property description from a municipal address is more common than you may think. The addresses that buildings or houses are commonly known as may be recorded as something different with the county. This is common for businesses, as they may want an address that is easier to remember, or the business is part of a larger parcel and a different address is used to encompass multiple addresses.

This problem can also occur for residential projects. For instance, there is a home that goes by 11757 Moorpark Ave in Los Angeles County. However, while searching for this address, nothing was coming up. I was able to find out that the project is recorded under the municipal address of 11755 Moorpark Ave (see image). So while it may be commonly known as one address, the county has it recorded slightly different.

Best Practices

Identifying the legal property description is necessary to include on the mechanics lien. If you are finding the property description through the assessor’s website, it is good practice to ensure that you have the property owner of record listed on the document as well. The owner information is available on most county sites along with the property information. California, however, does not provide this information online, but many counties provide it via email or over the phone.

Written by Jason Bull See original article at Research: Legal Property Description Originally posted on the LIEN

When you order a mechanic’s lien or bond claim from Zlien, all of your work is done for you- our system prepares the form, we sign it as your agent, and we coordinate with the county to have the document filed and served. It is our pleasure to make the tedious and expensive task easy, and we even take care of your filing fees and all correspondence with the occasionally unpredictable recorders’ offices.

Although Zlien’s documents are compliant with every state’s lien requirements and our operations team researches* every town/ parish/ county clerk’s filing procedures prior to sending all documents for recording, we cannot always predict when a county will accept or reject documents. Sometimes, clerks record anything that comes before them, and other times, they will reject documents for one or more of the following reasons:

• Margins
• Fees
• Font
• Payment type (business checks, attorney checks, money orders)
• Insufficient legal description
• Special requirements for the first page of the document
• For cancellations, improper reference to the recorded lien

Here are some of my favorite rejections that I’ve come across at Zlien:

• This morning, a rejected lien was returned to us due to the ‘condition’ of the document, which clearly had liquid spilled on it after it had been opened by the recorder.
• When electronically filing, a lien was rejected because the notary stamp was ‘not dark enough.’ I then resubmit the lien without making any adjustments to the darkness of the already dark stamp, and the lien was recorded in minutes (take that!).
• In Florida, the filing fees are fairly standard across the state, but I still called the county to confirm the usual $10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page fees. I even confirmed the amount on their ‘high tech’ Fee Calculator while I was waiting for a clerk to answer my call. Once the document was received, it was rejected for insufficient fees because they require a $0.60 abstracter fee that is not referenced online or relayed to callers.
• When electronically recording in Illinois, a lien was rejected because there was ‘no legal description.’ The lien had a paragraphed labeled “Legally Described As” with a full legal description listed. To correct this matter, I set the already-present legal description to a bold font, and it was recorded minutes later.

The list is endless, and do not put it past clerks to reject a document more than once or for reasons that are beyond their judgement, as described in this post: Is This Capricious Action By St Tammany Clerk of Court?

Zlien is an authorized e-recorder in more than 800 counties across the country, and if the clerk’s office does not support electronic filing, documents are sent via FedEx either directly to the recorder or to a local courier. We track the progress of our documents sent for recording by contacting the clerks and/ or searching their databases online.

With just the basic information about your construction project, the Zlien Team will take care of your order from start to finish, and you can forget about everything else!

* Always get a second opinion when it comes to filing procedures. The information you find online regarding fees, estimated recording time, mailing addresses, etc. can be different than the information provided over the phone

Written by Gretchen Lynn See original article at Feeling Rejected? Originally posted on the LIEN

No one goes to medical school to learn how to file a mechanic’s lien.  It isn’t brain surgery. Claimants must be careful, however, because mechanic lien laws are hyper-technical and there are many traps for the inexperienced and the do-it-yourselfers.

In fact, as an example of one of these traps, we previously wrote a post warning people about do-it-yourself mechanics lien forms: Why You Shouldn’t Use Do-It-Yourself Mechanic Lien and Notice Forms.

Here are three ways you can get burned if you try to file your own mechanics lien.

Your Lien May Get Invalided Because Of The Property Description

The property description?  Isn’t the municipal address enough?

In some states you can just write down the municipal address and be on your way. This, however, is the exception to the rule.  A vast majority of states require you describe the property being liened with the legal property description.

You can find the legal property description by visiting the property records office in the county where the project is located, and looking up the property’s most recent deed.  Or, you can pay an abstracter to do this, or pay for the legal description through some online service that researches this stuff.

When you file your mechanics lien through Zlien, researching the legal property description is included in our fee.

You’ll Lose Your Right If You Don’t Serve The Lien, And Keep Proof Of Service

Each state has different rules about how and when the mechanics lien must be served, and then, who it must be served upon. Fail to follow these particular steps, and your mechanics lien claim will be invalidated.

In addition to knowing the details about serving your mechanics lien, you must be very careful when serving the document to ensure both that service is successful and you can prove it. Half the battle in getting this service requirement satisfied is proving the document was served properly.

Prepare affidavits of service, know the requirement backwards and forward, and track the service record until you can confirm delivery.

You Have The Wrong Mechanics Lien Form

There are so many mechanics lien forms out there it will make your head spin, and the last thing you want when picking a mechanics lien form is your head spinning.  It’s sad to say, but many of the websites that offer free or paid forms are just taking the same lien form for one state and circumstances and duplicating it over and over again with different state references. Even RocketLawyer does this (and they have millions of dollars to work with!)

You have to be very careful with mechanics lien forms because they not only change state-to-state, but they change situation-to-situation. Most form factories offer the same lien form over and over again, without any concern for your situation.

You don’t want your lien claim to be invalided because it is missing a single piece of information or a single sentence!  But, there are lots of bad forms out there, and this is another way you can and will get burned if you try to file your own mechanics lien.

Written by Scott Wolfe Jr See original article at 3 Ways To Get Burned Filing Your Own Mechanics Lien Originally posted on the LIEN

Filing a mechanics lien means you’re placing an encumbrance against a specific piece of property. That encumbrance is recorded in a county’s property records, and so it is fundamental that the document presenting that encumbrance specifically and completely identify the property at issue. How is that done?

Every state has different rules on what does and does not constitute a sufficient description of a property within a mechanics lien filing. As far as state rules are concerned, Colorado has always been one of the most liberal jurisdications, requiring simply that a mechanics lien describe a piece a property in a way that distinguishes it from other property.

Practically speaking, while most states require full legal descriptions, in Colorado a simple municipal address has been sufficient.

ENR Mountain States published an article on its website titled “Know The Details of Mechanics Lien Descriptions,” wherein the author talks about the impact of a June 2012 Colorado Supreme Court decision about the quality of a property description within a deed of trust (mortgage).

While the case does specifically exclude relevance to mechanics lien jurisprudence, and Colorado cases do exist that allow mechanic liens with municipal addresses to stand, the Supreme Court decision represents a shift in perspective in Colorado about property descriptions. The ENR author believes that this could flood over into the mechanics lien jurisprudence and require Colorado mechanics lien claims to contain more robust property descriptions.

[pullquote style="right" quote="dark"]Getting it right—and complete—will save time, effort and possible risk. – Albert Wolf[/pullquote] What’s the best practice?

Of course, the best practice is to include a full legal description of the property within the mechanics lien. As stated in the ENR article, “Getting it right—and complete—will save time, effort and possible risk.”

Where do you get a legal property description?  For those who file a mechanics lien with Zlien, it’s easy – it’s included as part of our fee. Every time we file a mechanics lien for a client, we research the property and get the legal property description, title and ownership records.

Written by Scott Wolfe Jr See original article at Describing Property In A Colorado Mechanics Lien More Complicated After Recent Supreme Court Case Originally posted on the LIEN

Whenever filing a mechanics lien, it’s critical to properly identify the property being encumbered. It is this description, after all, that controls which property is being listed with the lien.

More importantly perhaps, each state’s mechanics lien laws have strict requirements as to what does and does not constitute proper identification of land.  If you don’t describe the property sufficiently, you’re lien is toast.

In Alaska, a formal legal property description must be included in the mechanics lien claim…usually.

The actual statute requires “a legal description sufficient for identification” in order for the lien to be valid.

However, courts have very occasionally taken into account circumstances and the place where the lien is recorded to allow less-than formal legal descriptions within mechanics lien claims. These allowances, while perhaps a worthy last ditch effort to save an otherwise invalid lien, are the exceptions to the rule.  It should not be relied upon, and you should go to great effort to get the legal property description within your mechanics lien claim.

When you file an Alaska mechanics lien with Zlien, Zlien actually researches the property for you, finding the legal description and including it in your mechanics lien claim.

Written by Scott Wolfe Jr See original article at Alaska Mechanics Lien Must Include Legal Property Description – Usually Originally posted on the LIEN

It’s interesting that in the mechanics lien world, one of the most popular searches is simply “How to file a lien?” Folks out there aren’t necessarily confused about what the mechanics lien instrument is or how it can be useful to a construction company or material supply company…they simply don’t know how to file it. Practically speaking, how do you file a lien?

I thought it would be a good idea to give you a plain English guide on how to file a lien. So, I will keep the steps pithy and pointed. Here goes:

I. How To File A Lien Step One: Get The Form

Let me tell you something: Forms are overrated. You don’t actually need a specific form to file a mechanics lien…you really just need all the information required by the statute. But, to keep things simple, find yourself a good reputable place that has lien forms.

You want to find a website or vendor with different forms for each state. You cannot use a single lien form for every state and every situation. I’d also advise against paying for lien forms.  We live in the free economy and there’s plenty of websites offering quality lien forms for free.  A great place for free lien forms is the Zlien website, which has a 50-state Mechanics lien forms database.

II. Know The Property Information

You can’t file a mechanics lien against a piece of property if you don’t know who owns it or the legal property description. There are very few exceptions to this statement. Therefore, when filling out your form, know that you need to find these two pieces of information (and you need to be confident in your research).

You can find a property’s legal property description and current owner by going to the mortgage records office in the county where the property is situated. There are also a few online services that will do research for you, but for a fee of usually between $30-75.

III. File The Mechanics Lien With The County Recorder

Every county in every state has an office who is responsible for property records. You’ll need to file your mechanics lien in the county property records for the county where the project’s property is located. Look up the county recorder’s office online and give them a call.  You need to ask a few key questions:

1. What is the filing fee (send the exact fee)?
2. Are there any paper margin requirements (file them)?
3. Where to send the lien for filing (be careful about mailing to busy counties)?
4. How many copies do you need to send?

IV. Serve The Mechanics Lien

The last step in filing a mechanics lien is to serve the lien on the property owner. Most states require you send the lien out for service within just 3-7 days of the filing, and so it’s important to act fast. Service in some states (like Pennsylvania) must be performed by a county sheriff. However, most states allow mechanics liens to be served by certified mail, with return receipt requested.

Make sure you know how your state requires service, and get it done fast.

V.  Or….Use A Mechanics Lien Filing Service

How to file a lien?  This is a really difficult question to answer in a single post…or, as I’ve demonstrated over the past five years, in a single blog. There are a lot of nuances in preparing and filing a mechanics lien, and a lot of steps. Not only do you have the opportunity to make a lot of mistakes when you prepare and file your mechanics lien claim yourself, but you also have the opportunity to spend a lot of unnecessary time on the task. Searching for an answer to the “how to file a lien” question is a true undertaking.

If you’re reading this article because you wonder how to file a lien, you might want to consider the easiest way to file a mechanics lien: outsource it. Filing a mechanics lien with Zlien (a mechanics lien filing service) can be arranged in just a few minutes, by filing out the mechanics lien order form on their website. They take care of all the research, filing and service work for you, all for a low flat fee.

Written by Scott Wolfe Jr See original article at How To File A Lien In Plain English Originally posted on the LIEN

Written by Scott Wolfe Jr See original article at Identifying Property In A Mechanics Lien Originally posted on the LIEN

You’re unpaid and ready to file your mechanics lien or bond claim.  But, do you have the necessary information?

Depending on where you perform work and the type of construction project, you’ll likely need to know specific information to properly file your mechanics lien or bond claim.

Most states, for example, require you to identify the project jobsite with a legal property description, rather than a simple municipal address.  Some other information you may be required to know includes:  (i) the name and address of the property owner; (ii) the identity of the bonding company who issued a bond for the project; (iii) the county where you performed work; and (iv) whether the project has a notice of commencement or notice of completion recorded.

While all of this information is in the “public record,” the trick is knowing where to look or who to ask. Once you know where to look or who to ask, getting the information is quite simple.  We wrote about finding a construction bond, for example, in the post:  Don’t Know Who Bonded A State or Federal Project?  Just Ask.

But you’re not in the information gathering business. Doing the research on how to obtain a bond or a legal property description, and then actually going out and getting it done, is time consuming and not a productive use of your time.

You can outsource all of that work to Zlien.  And here’s the best news: whenever you order anything from us, the price includes getting all of this public information.  Our mission is to help you Lien Smarter, which means you leave the hard work to us and focus on what makes you money.

Written by Scott Wolfe Jr See original article at Let Us Research The Legal Property Description, Bond, Owner, County and More Originally posted on the LIEN

If you Google “mechanic lien forms,” you’ll be swamped with companies selling do-it-yourself mechanic lien and notice forms for prices as low as $10 or $15. After purchasing the form once, you can use it as many times as your company needs. When comparing this nominal fee with the cost of paying a service like Zlien (or a construction attorney) to prepare the document, it may be quite tempting.

Proper preparation of the mechanic lien or preliminary notice form, however, is not as easy as it sounds. This isn’t because it takes a brilliant legal mind (or any legal mind) to understand how to fill in the blanks – that it certainly doesn’t – but because preparing these documents is time-consuming and requires strict adherence to certain procedures.

Let me offer you a few examples:

Legal Property Description Research

It’s nearly uniformly required across the country that mechanic liens identify the property being liened with a legal property description. The street address, in other words, is not enough. What is a legal property description?   We wrote an entire blog post on this subject, and you can read it here:  Identifying Property in a Mechanic’s Lien.

The definition of a legal property description is:

A legal description (also referred to as land description, property description, or land boundary description) is “a written statement recognized by law as to the definite location of a tract of land by reference to a survey, recorded map or adjoining property.” (from: Glossaries of BLM Surveying And Mapping Terms, Second Edition, 1980.)

To properly prepare that mechanic lien form (and even some preliminary notice forms), you need to research and find the legal property description. Hiring someone experienced in researching legal property locations is critical to properly identifying the property in your lien.

Getting The Form To The Right Places

Assuming you have properly filled out the form, the next step is getting the form filed and / or delivered to the right places, in the statutorily required way.  Here are some questions you will confront:

Does this document need to be filed?  If so, in which county office is it filed?
Most liens require filing, and most notices do not. However, there are exceptions to both. Where you file depends on the state’s requirements, with filings usually going to the county’s mortgage, auditor or recording offices.

Service Required After Filing The Lien?
Once the lien is filed, your task is not over. Most states require that the filed and stamped lien be served upon certain interested parties, including the property owner, the lender, the prime contractor, and/or those other parties up your contracting chain. Service can sometimes be through the mail, but other times require delivery by a courier or sheriff. Knowing what service is required and how it must be done is critical to correctly filing the lien.

How to send the preliminary notice?
Most states require that preliminary notices be sent in a certain way.  Most of the time, the notices are to be sent certified mail or certified mail with return receipt requested. But, there are always exceptions. Sometimes, the notice must be sent restricted delivery, sometimes registered mail, or sometimes by common courier (like FedEx) or hand-courier.

Do I Need to Keep Proof of Delivery?
Yes, and the type of proof varies.  The return receipt green card may be enough, but you may also need an affidavit of delivery. Check out this blog post on the topic: Strict Proof of Delivery May Be Required For Your Construction Notice.

Little Mistakes May Invalidate Your Lien

Unfortunately, since lien laws are very strictly construed, many states will consider a mechanic’s lien or preliminary notice invalid if there is some defect in how it is filled out (i.e. no legal property description) and how it is handled (i.e. filed in the wrong place, or delivered / served incorrectly).

The cost of these mistakes can be significant, and since there are so many moving parts in the filing or delivery of these lien and notice products, it’s a mistake to buy a simple do-it-yourself form and try to maneuver through these mazes of requirements.

Hiring a company like like Zlien (or a construction attorney), who is experienced and familiar with each state’s specific requirements, will reduce the likelihood of error for your company, and make sure your lien and notice rights are protected.

For more posts about this subject, take a look at the Tag “Why Us.”

Written by Scott Wolfe Jr See original article at Why You Shouldn’t Use Do-It-Yourself Mechanic Lien and Notice Forms Originally posted on the LIEN

Since 2005, Utah has maintained a standardized, state-wide system for filing preliminary notices, notices of commencement and notices of completion – the State Construction Registry, or SCR.  The result?  Any supplier, contractor or other interested party can log into the system, search for a project, and know exactly when it started and begun, and who is working on it.

This is a huge time-saver for folks working on construction projects in Utah.   We know the frustration contractors and suppliers have in other states, because we experience them ourselves at Zlien.

The property records offices in counties across the country can be an absolute mess.   Sometimes, its next to impossible for a subcontractor or supplier to locate the legal proeprty description for a parcel of land, the name of the property owner, and whether anything has been filed on the project.  Even though its incredibly hard to find this information, the contractor or supplier may still be responsible to know it.

Imagine if across the country this information was inputted into standardized online registry of construction projects?   That’s how things work in Utah.

In and out of Utah, one of the most compelling selling features of the Zlien service is that we make things simple for you.  After all, running your construction or supply business is difficult enough that you shouldn’t have to be research experts, or monitor lien and notice requirements across the 50 states.  How is this for simple:  You give us the project details, and our staff researches the property owner and the legal property description for you.

This can save your company hours, and since we’re more experienced at searching for this data, our search results are reliable.

Even thought the information is more accessible in Utah, that doesn’t nullify our utility.  You give us the project information, and we do the leg work.   Forget about spending an hour or two figuring out the SCR system, or having to followup with the city, or having to verify information by doing research online.

Zlien is the smarter way to lien, and we guarantee it.

Written by Scott Wolfe Jr See original article at Is Utah’s SCR (State Construction Registry) A Model For Rest of States? Originally posted on the LIEN