A construction job was closed on November 2 2019 and signed off by the Owner and Contractor Rep. A couple of months later, it was discovered that a slow leak under the house caused the new kitchen flooring (installed by contractor) to buckle, needing repair. The contractor agreed to being liable for the plumbing and made the repairs that March/April, 2020. The contractor then placed a lien on the property in April of 2020. Under CA code the contractor has 90 days to place a lien. Question is, does the return to do additional repair restart the clock? Or did the 90 day clock start at the signed off close of the job in November?
Based on the facts above, you have a pretty good argument that the project was complete back in November. In the future, I would recomend filing a notice of completion to shorten lien deadlines and ensure that there can be no ambiguity.
But if the contractor is going to argue that the job was not actually complete in light of the issues reparied later, you are still likely okay. A project is considered complete, even if ongoing, if there is a total cessation of labor for 60 days. So even if the contractor argues that the project was not actually complete back in November, the work would be considered complete 60 days after that (January 1, 2020), provided that no further work was done during that period. So the latest the contractor would have been able to record a lien for the ealier work would have been March 31, 2020. If the lien was recorded in April, that should be to late.
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