I hired someone to weather seal my deck. The project turned out horrible. The person I hired had help. I have recorded conversations of one of them admitting it looked bad. I also have a recorded and written agreement signed by the person that I paid her 3000.00 and would pay the balance at completion of the redoing of the deck. I have a recording of her agreeing it needed to be sanded and redone. This is all besides her taking it upon herself to change the brand and color of deck stain. She plans to file a lien. Can I file it to be fraudulent Leon claim?
Hello,
This one is sticky. She is only legally allowed to file a lien for the balance of unpaid work on a project. It sounds to me like she has not completed all of the required work. With that being said, however, the clerk doing the recording is not going to check the property and does not care about the agreement between you both. They are only checking for a good affidavit.
If she files the lien, you may negotiate with her on it, pay it, or sue her to have the lien declared fraudulent or invalid. You may also want to consider breach of contract because it sounds like she did not do what she was supposed to do. Keep in mind that filing suit to have something declared a fraudulent or invalid lien is a full lawsuit in District Court.
E. Aaron Cartwright III
214.789.1354
Aaron@EACLawyer.com
Hello.
Oral agreements are enforceable in Texas and you let them on the property to do work. That's contract enough under Texas law.
If your property is homestead, that just means they cannot foreclose on it. It does not prevent them from creating an expensive headache.
-Aaron