I am a material supplier. We have a customer who is providing repairs to a storage facility that has ordered materials and has failed to pick up or pay for the materials. He has put off picking up these goods several times and now has stopped returning our calls. He has provided us with an address and business name for the facility he is working on. Do we have lien rights. We have yet to send out a NOF. Please let me know. Thank you
You pose an interesting question: Whether a material supplier has lien rights where the materials are never delivered to the job site? I think the answer is No.
When I have researched this question before for clients in your situation, even companies that sell custom equipment, I've concluded that the supplier did NOT have lien rights because there is no improvement to the real property. Failing to deliver the materials to the job site, or in your case the customer has failed to pick up the materials, means there is no improvement to the real property. The materials are not incorporated into the improvement. The lien statute in Michigan is designed to protect persons who make improvements to real property.
You still retain contract rights against the customer, but you may be better off giving the customer one last notice to pick up the materials before you return to the your inventory and/or assess the customer a restocking charge.