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Contractor did not pay concrete company in full, so the concrete co said they can put lien on our property

My husband and I hired a local company to pour our driveway. We'll call him "Mr. Fix-it". Mr. Fix-it poured our driveway as we agreed, did a good job and we paid Mr. Fix-it the full amount per our agreement. Today we received a letter from the concrete company stating Mr. Fix-it has not paid the balance of what he owed them. They advised that they will put a lien on our house if the balance isn't paid. The letter said Mr. Fix-it is not returning their calls. They asked in the letter to contact Mr. Fix-it to get him to pay. I called and advised that they cannot file a lien against our home because the agreement was between Mr. Fix-it and the concrete company. Their agreement has nothing to do with us. Am I right?

1 reply

May 7, 2020

Generally, when a North Carolina property owner has fully paid their contractor, subs and suppliers hired by that contractor won't be able to file mechanics liens against the owner's property. This isn't because the sub or supplier doesn't have a contract with the owner, per se. Rather, it's because North Carolina is considered an "unpaid balance" state - meaning, the legislature has curbed the rights of some lien claimants to ensure that owners don't have to pay for work twice. With that being said, mechanics lien claimants can still get their lien filed against the property even if the lien is flawed or totally invalid. While there are protections against this for owners, the owner still may have to deal with the headache of fighting the lien claim and forcing its removal. So, if possible, it's usually a good idea to avoid the issue altogether. For most owners, that means it's typically a good idea to try and push the contractor to resolve the debt rather than ignoring the dispute entirely.

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