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Can I do this?

I am a subcontractor for a tree company in Massachusetts. The tree company owes me a significant amount of money. They have a piece of equipment parked on property rented by me. Can I file some type of lien against that piece of equipment and prevent them from taking the equipment off the property until the owed funds are paid. The tree company does not have any other assets or property to file against.

1 reply

Nov 2, 2019

This is a pretty interesting situation. You may have some creative remedies available to you that let you somehow get an attachment on the equipment, but nothing jumps off the page as obviously available. First, I wonder whether you may be entitled to a standard mechanic's lien to recover the money that is due to you. But there is not enough information in your question. You cannot file a "mechanic's lien" against the equipment parked on your property. But, if you are a subcontractor for a tree company, and the tree company owes you money for work you've done at different construction jobs (i.e. or jobs where you did improvements to property), you may be able to file a mechanics lien against the projects you worked -- that is, against the property where the tree work was performed. If the debt is for work on multiple properties, you'd need to file a lien against all the properties. Second, regarding the equipment, there are a few things going on. You are not entitled to file a mechanic's lien against the equipment. If you did work on the equipment, it's possible that you may qualify for some type of vehicle lien. Otherwise, you probably don't have any straight-forward lien rights on the equipment. There are some legal techniques that may apply here, such as one where you can file with a court to get an "attachment" against the equipment. But, I'm not familiar with Massachusetts law enough to know whether this exists, or how it works. And this is why you are likely well served to consult with an attorney more specifically about your situation and to possibly get help in somehow, someway, quickly getting the equipment tied up as security for your debt (or otherwise getting some way to collect here). You can find some Massachusetts construction attorneys here, and I'd specifically recommend Andrea Goldman, or Sally Sauer, both of whom have great experience in construction matters/payment disputes like these.

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