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Can he place a lien?

Contractor did work on my house. Added a landing to my deck. No additional cost was discussed. After work finished he charged me $850 for the landing and $600 for removal of trash. I paid everything quoted as the “estimate” but he still wants $958. I used the $500 deductible to pay the removal of trash. No he is threatening a lien.

1 reply

Aug 5, 2020

If you requested additional work or otherwise altered the contractor's scope of work, it makes sense that they'd charge you for that. And, as long as you approved the work, it's possible that a contractor could include change orders in their lien claim. But, if you didn't authorize the work, the contractor generally can't just decide to add more work then charge more based on the additional work. In any event - a contractor can generally file a lien claim even when the amount they're owed is in dispute (though, an owner might successfully challenge the claim). With that being said, if the dispute is only a few hundred dollars, it might not be very economical to pursue a lien claim - particularly if the claimant will be hiring a service or an attorney to assist with their lien claim. Granted, if they do opt to file a lien, disputing that claim would likely cost much more than a few hundred dollars, too. When facing a potential lien claim, these articles should be useful: (1) I Just Received a Notice of Intent to Lien – What Should I Do Now?; and (2) A Mechanics Lien Was Filed on My Property – What Do I Do Now?

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