We are a contractor in Pennsylvania. We have a signed contract for custom replacement windows with a homeowner. The custom windows are made and ready to be installed. The homeowner is now no longer responding to us. Can we file a lien?
If you have a direct signed contract with the property owner(s), and you are within the appropriate deadlines to file a mechanic's lien and already filed (or still have time to file) the required preliminary Notice of Intent to Lien, you should be eligible to lien the property. You should review this Levelset overview first:
https://www.levelset.com/mechanics-lien/pennsylvania-lien-law-faqs/#:~:text=On%20all%20projects%2C%20a%20Notice,days%20before%20filing%20a%20lien.&text=6%20months-,Lien%20must%20be%20filed%20w%2Fin%206%20months,last%20labor%20or%20materials%20furnished.&text=2%20years-,In%20Pennsylvania%2C%20an%20action%20to%20enforce%20a%20mechanics%20lien%20must,of%20filing%20the%20lien%20claim.
If the signed agreement does not allow you to issue the next invoice until the custom windows are installed, I would consider the best way to record that the liened property has been actually been improved and warrants the application of the lien law. Even if you cannot contractually issue an invoice to the client, you have already incurred the cost to commission the custom windows prior to installing them. You may want to deliver the windows and file the lien for the value of the custom windows LESS your cost to install. That amount would be factually supported by the facts that you provided and the property owner could not argue that your lien claim is overstated.
Good luck,
Colin Schmitt
The contract was signed with the homeowner on 10/12/2021. Our last certified letter to the homeowner was signed for on 5/10/2022. Would this timeframe qualify?
The deadline to file a lien claim (or the notice of intent to file the lien) turns on the last date that you performed contract work on the physical property that you want to lien. If you have not been there in more than five months, I would recommend that you deliver at least one window to the property per the signed contract. If possible, I would also provide an invoice for the amount of money which you are seeking. I would then be prepared to issue the Notice of Intent to Lien the property shortly thereafter so the property owner cannot say that you did anything improper or without notice.