I am a subcontractor that completed a project and sent a final retention invoice on 03/19/2021. The contractor kept making us promises to pay the retention and never did. We filed a mechanics lien on 04/22/2022 and got a call from an attorney stating that we filed an illegal mechanics Lien. I explained that a notice of completion was never issued and they told us they got a certificate of occupancy and that was the completion of the project. My question is in the state of California is a certificate of occupancy a valid Notice of completion? We never received the notice of completion or the Certificate of occupancy
A certificate of occupancy is evidence of actual completion. But it does not constitute a notice of completion. A notice of completion would shorten your deadline to record a lien to 30 days from actual completion for subcontractors. Absent a notice of completion, the deadline is 90 days from actual completion. So, your lien appears to be timely based on the above description. Remember that you have 90 days from recording the lien to file a lawsuit to foreclose the lien. Otherwise, the lien will expire.