After over a month of not returning my calls or responding to the continuous sending late invoices the general contractor that owes me $1100 finally text me after receiving the intent to lien. With this being my first time dealing with this I unfortunately didn’t make the 20 day deadline and sent the preliminary at 21 days. He’s messaging me telling me if I don’t remove the intent to lien by today his lawyer is going to sue me for $5000 including attorney fees. He knows I didn’t meet the deadline so I don’t know why he’s keeping my money owed and threatening to sue
The intent to lien is just served to the proper parties. It is not filed. Did you file the notice of intent to lien?
If this was not filed, there is nothing to remove. If you filed this, that was done incorrectly and then that should be removed as that is not meant to file at all.
As to getting payment, remember that a lien (assuming you did everything properly) does not automatically mean you will get paid. You would have to foreclose on that lien to get paid if the contractor refuses to pay.
The best step is to hire an attorney to review what was done and to respond to this contractor's threats. That would also be good as you need an attorney to make sure you don't make mistakes next time.
Finally, if the contractor refuses to pay, you are free to sue in small claims to try to get a judgment and to collect on that judgment. That is your right even if you fail to follow lien procedures properly.
Thank you for your reply. No nothing has officially been filed. Just preliminary notice and intent to lien notices sent. He told me that has pissed off a lot of people and I need to make it a priority to somehow remove or take them back. In his words filing those against a company is "a loaded gun". According to him and his lawyer that is enough to file a wrongful lien suit against me in the amount of $5000 plus attorney fees. He's sending me links to his attorney telling me to call him and he'll tell me.
This GC is either has no clue about the law is a bully or both. If his attorney actually told him sending a notice of intent to lien is a basis for a wrongful lien claim, that attorney also has no idea of the law. I suspect that this is nothing but idiotic bluster by this GC. Of course, there is no guarantee. A baseless suit is still a suit and it takes time and an attorney to help with that.
If you don't want to hire an attorney to try to get some sense in him, that is your job. Of course, as a general rule, be as civil as possible. No need to burn bridges over this amount of money.
Everything can be resolved through a lawyer. But the amount I want to get when hiring a lawyer costs many times to sue, I don't know if there is a loss =) lolbeans