Menu
Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>CA Contractor with a Contract to Build for Owner and am also the Lienholder of the construction Loan. The home was complete 3 weeks ago with the Notice of Completion filed and recorded and have not been paid in full with no date for payment to be received. Do I need to file a mechanics lien within 60 days of completion and then start foreclosure within 90 days of completion?

CA Contractor with a Contract to Build for Owner and am also the Lienholder of the construction Loan. The home was complete 3 weeks ago with the Notice of Completion filed and recorded and have not been paid in full with no date for payment to be received. Do I need to file a mechanics lien within 60 days of completion and then start foreclosure within 90 days of completion?

CaliforniaLien Deadlines
Anonymous Contractor

CA Contractor with a Contract to Build for Owner and am also the Lienholder of the construction Loan. The home was complete 3 weeks ago with the Notice of Completion filed and recorded and have not been paid in full with no date for payment to be received. Do I need to file a mechanics lien within 60 days of completion and then start foreclosure within 90 days of completion? Contract says no move-in date until payment in full, which has not been received.

1 reply

Levelset Admin at Levelset
| 999 reviews
Sep 6, 2018
That's a great question. As you'd mentioned above - a direct contractor's lien filing deadline will be 60 days after a Notice of Completion has been filed. However, the deadline to enforce that lien is based on when the lien was filed - not based on last work or a Notice of Completion. Once a California mechanics lien has been filed, the lien claimant will have 90 days from the date of filing the lien to file a foreclosure suit. Note also that it's possible to extend this tame frame through a document called a Notice of Credit. Of course, in order to extend a lien via Notice of Credit, the owner must agree to extend the timeframe. You can learn more about that document (and why a property owner would agree to such an extension) here: Understanding Notice of Credit and Lien Extensions in California.
The information presented here is not legal advice and should not be construed as such. Rather, this content is provided for informational purposes. Do not
act on this information as if it is advice. Further, this post does not create any attorney-client relationship. If you do need legal advice, seek the helSee More...
See More...
0 people found this helpful
Helpful