If you aren’t paid for furnishing labor or materials to a Pennsylvania construction project you may have the right to file a mechanics lien claim to secure that account. Mechanics liens are very important to any construction or supply company because it helps you avoid bad debt.
You can’t just file a mechanics lien in Pennsylvania at anytime. You must follow strict time tables and meet strict deadlines. The primary deadline being that all mechanics lien claims must be filed within 6 months from the last furnishing of labor or material to the construction project.
What does Pennsylvania consider “last furnishing?”
Here we will focus on the Pennsylvania rule, specifically as it was recently explained by a Superior Court in Neelu Enterprises, Inc. dba KB Builders v. Agarwal.
In the Agarwal case the court was confronted with a very common question related to when the clock on the mechanics lien deadline starts to count. Specifically, the court was called upon to decide whether remedial work should be included to calculate the lien filing due date.
The court’s decision was pretty run-of-the-mill and expected, but it’s great to get these details spelled out by a state court.
Jose Aquino of DuaneMorris summarized the decision nicely:
“The Court distinguished between a contractor’s work that is meant to correct defective performance and work that is additional to the contract. The Court found that work done to correct the defective performance of a contract does not preserve the lien because the contract is unchanged, but that work additional to that required by the contract will extend the time to file a lien because such work is done pursuant to a modified agreement between the parties.”