Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>Did GC work in MN realized i didnt send a Prelim or a contract- just sent an invoice within 4 days with the following at the bottom: Terms & Conditions:Invoices are due upon receipt. Notices to collect will go out. If non-payment, you will be turned over to collections and/or an attorney with a lien placed on your property. Will that be enough for me to have lien rights?

Did GC work in MN realized i didnt send a Prelim or a contract- just sent an invoice within 4 days with the following at the bottom: Terms & Conditions:Invoices are due upon receipt. Notices to collect will go out. If non-payment, you will be turned over to collections and/or an attorney with a lien placed on your property. Will that be enough for me to have lien rights?

1 reply

Sep 14, 2018

Minnesota generally requires a direct contractor to provide a specific notice to the owner, either
1. within the written contract itself, or,
2. if no written contract is entered into, delivered personally or by certified mail to the owner or the owner’s authorized agent within ten days after the work of improvement is agreed upon.

The wording and form of the notice is particular, and set out by statute. The font must be at least 10-point bold (or capital letters if typewritten), and must state as follows:

"(a) Any person or company supplying labor or materials for this improvement to your property may file a lien against your property if that person or company is not paid for the contributions.

(b) Under Minnesota law, you have the right to pay persons who supplied labor or materials for this improvement directly and deduct this amount from our contract price, or withhold the amounts due them from us until 120 days after completion of the improvement unless we give you a lien waiver signed by persons who supplied any labor or material for the improvement and who gave you timely notice.”

Minnesota is clear in that "A person who fails to provide the notice shall not have the lien and remedy provided by this chapter."

However, there are certain exceptions to the general requirement in some situations (mostly related to when there is some shared interest in the property between the contractor and the property owner.

"The notice required by this subdivision is not required of any person who is an owner of the improved real estate, to any corporate contractor of which the owner of the improved real estate is an officer or controlling shareholder, to any contractor who is an officer or controlling shareholder of a corporation which is the owner of the improved real estate, or to any corporate contractor managed or controlled by substantially the same persons who manage or control a corporation which is the owner of the improved real estate."

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