Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>question re. filing liens in NY- The balance owed on a project is $311,792.80 however there is an amount of 112,827.10 of products that havven't been delivered yet and that's bc they haven't been paying... not sure if we could include that in the mechanic lien amount or not
question re. filing liens in NY- The balance owed on a project is $311,792.80 however there is an amount of 112,827.10 of products that havven't been delivered yet and that's bc they haven't been paying... not sure if we could include that in the mechanic lien amount or not
supplied windows and doors to GC. unpaid blanace of over 300k
1 reply
Jan 10, 2019
That's a good question. While I'm not able to tell you what specific amount should be listed on your lien claim, I can provide some information that should be helpful in making that determination yourself. As a general matter, mechanics lien rights will exist for labor or materials that are furnished but unpaid for. But, where materials have not yet been furnished (and only agreed to be furnished), typically, the price of those materials should not be included in a mechanics lien claim. It makes sense - lien rights exist to protect contractors, subs, and suppliers who have provided work that improved property. If materials haven't been furnished, those unfurnished materials remain in the possession of the supplier and can instead be used or sold for a different job. So, where materials can be easily resold or reused for a different job, typically, amounts representing materials that have not been furnished should not be included in a mechanics lien claim. Now, where materials have been specially fabricated for the use on a particular project, the rules change a bit. Because these materials can't easily be used on another project and cannot be easily sold (since they were created for a specific project), many states allow for specialty material fabricators to file a mechanics lien, regardless of whether those materials are actually delivered or incorporated. New York looks to be one of those states - under § 3 of the New York mechanics lien statute, "materials actually manufactured for but not delivered to the real property, shall also be deemed to be materials furnished." Thus, those materials could serve as the basis for a lien claim, and including those amounts would seem to be acceptable.