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Do subcontractors to subcontractors or suppliers to subcontractors have mechanics' liens rights?

ArizonaLien Priority

I am a subcontractor/supplier. Most often, I am hired directly by a prime contractor, but occasionally I am hired by another subcontractor or even sub-subcontractor. Do I still have lien rights in those cases where I am four or five people down the line from the property owner? We have found ourselves in this situation before and when it came time to file a lien, we were informed that we had no lien rights because we were so far removed from the property owner.

1 reply

Sep 14, 2020

It depends on the specifics, but judging from your description it may not because it does not look like you are working on the actual project in some instances and instead are supplying a supplier. Every person who furnishes labor, materials, machinery, fixtures or tools in the construction, alteration or repair of any structure or improvement has the right to lien the structure and improvement and the real property upon which it sits when the work was done at the insistence of the owner or its agents. The agents of the owner include every contractor, subcontractor or other person having charge or control of the construction. A material supplier to a material supplier may, therefore, not have a right to lien. A material supplier is not an agent of the owner because it does not have charge or control of any part of the construction. You say your are a subcontractor/supplier. If you are a subcontractor working on the property, being four or five people down the line may very well not matter. If you are a supplier, it probably will.

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