Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>Can a contractor place a lein for exadurated amount of work

Can a contractor place a lein for exadurated amount of work

I had a contract with a plumber for the amount not to exceed $13000 on Sep 17th (completed on Sep 22nd). In addition, I gave him permission to send the details of work to the insurance company directly and get paid from them directly. Later, on Oct 4th he emailed me an statement for the amount of $10, 000 for the total work. On Oct 13th he sent an itemized details about his work to the insurance company. He put lots of exaggerated amount of the work in his itemized and insurance paid me 14,000. After the insurance payment, he sent me another statement (on Oct 21st) with the amount of $18000. I disagreed to pay more than his first statement (10,000), and he sent me an email on Oct 27th. He accused me of cheating and told me that he would place a lien on my property if I don't pay him before Nov 2nd. At the same time, I contacted the insurance company to report them about the false data and request to send back their money until the case become clear, but they refused to take the money back. Could you please let me know if he has a right to place a lien? Is he required to send me an official notice before placing a lien? What are my options at this time?

2 replies

Nov 2, 2021

1) assuming that you have a fixed priced contract without any change orders (modifications to the original contract), then it would not make sense for contractor to give you different versions of the invoice. 2) if contractor is giving you one invoice price and another completely different invoice price to the insurance carrier, then you may be looking at over-inflated insurance billing by the contractor. Perhaps you should copy your insurance adjuster with the different invoices so that you are not held responsible for the contractor's increased billings. 3) the threat of the filing of a mechanics lien does not necessarily mean that you are obligated to pay that amount. The recording of the mechanics lien is but one of the first step to actually litigating the lien claim. A conference with a qualified mechanics lien attorney should give you good guidance.

0 people found this helpful

Helpful

Nov 2, 2021

Thank you so much for your explanation. The contractor sent me an email and gave me 5 days to pay the new invoice before placing the lien. Is he require to send me a mailed Preliminary Notice before placing a lien on my property, or the email that they send is sufficient. I read somewhere that a contractor can place a lien without a preliminary notice, if he directly worked with the property owner. Is that correct ?

Report Spam