The general contractor was fired from the job in progress. The homeowner is stating that the GC was paid for the work we provided however, we have not received any payment. Since the GC is no longer working for the homeowner should we or could we change the bill to or responsible information to the homeowner and file a lien? The homeowner would like us to finish the project with our company just not the GC.
Your description reflects this is a residential project. Did your company comply with the notice provisions in 770 ILCS 60/5(b)(ii) or 770 ILCS 60/21 which requires that you provide notice to the homeowner of the involvement of your company within 60 days from when you first worked at the property. That is required to fully protect your lien interest. If the notice was not originally provided and provided after 60 days it protects a lien interest to the extent that the owner has not beenprejudiced by any payments made before receiving notice. The General Contractor also has a similar requirement, 770 ILCS 60/5(b)(i), so if that notice was provided the homeowner was on notice of the identity of your company. With all that having been said, if hte homeowner wants you to continue the project, then I would recommend you have a meeting to discuss the balance of the work, as well as the payment issue you describe and hopefully you can come to an agreement. If an agreement is reached make certain you have an attorney draft the appropriate contract.
Hello,
No we did not send out any notices. We were working with the GC who has now been fired and we just were put in touch with the homeowner. Since the job was never completed as we were not paid or called back out, we are wondering how to proceed with the homeowner. They said they paid the GC for our work however we were not paid by the GC. Since the job is still open, do we still have rights to go against the GC or should we start a new contract for the remaining work with the homeowner? How can we get paid for the work already completed?