No, a subcontractor of any tier cannot do a lien. It is limited to sub-subcontractors, or if they’re not a sub-subcontractor, then you’d have to see if they would fall under the category of a lien. There’s case law out there that talks about the fact that the language used is intended to be limiting. And so if you have a subcontractor who hires a company and that’s a sub-subcontractor, and then that sub-subcontractor hires another contractor, that would be a sub-sub-sub-sub-contractor. Anyway, that person does not have a lien right on the property.
One way to protect against that, if you’re that far down the chain, is to try to, you know, either through contractual provisions or other contract documents to bump yourself up the chain or put yourself in a better position for payment, knowing that you may not have a construction lien available.
A construction lien is not the only right to payment that a contractor or a subcontractor has. It is a very important and powerful tool for being paid as a construction professional. But if you don’t have a lien right, for whatever reason, whether because you’ve blown a deadline or because the statute doesn’t apply to you, you still have all the other rights that you would normally have as a person trying to get paid.