my company is the owner of construction projects in arizona. how do we find out who all have filed prelim notices for any particular project?
1 reply
May 6, 2019
That's a good question. First and foremost - any potential lien claimant will need to send a preliminary notice in order to preserve their right to late file a mechanics lien. So, most construction businesses will opt to send that 20-Day preliminary notice. They must send this notice to the property owner, among other potential recipients. So, because the owner must generally be a recipient of the notice sent, that means it should be relatively easy to track who all has sent a preliminary notice. Many owners will keep either physical files of the notices they've received, or they will scan them upon receipt and electronically store the records. Further, if an owner doesn't feel confident they're sure of who all sent notice, that owner can also cross-reference their list of notice-senders with their GC since notice must also be sent to the GC. Of course, where a property has multiple owners, where the ownership information is unclear, or where there might be multiple addresses where the property owner receives their mail - it might be beneficial for a property owner to disseminate their contact information for the purposes of project participants sending a preliminary notice. For one, doing this at the start of the job opens lines of communication, sets a collaborative tone for the project, and works to build trust among project participants. Further, by providing that information and requesting that prelims be sent, an owner can get a good idea of who all is working on their job from day 1. When it's impossible to know who all is working on the job, a fear of the unknown begins to build up and it's naturally a little scary to release payment down the chain. Plus, if the owner requests that prelims be sent and sent to a specific location, owners won't have to worry about notices being sent to different owners and/or locations - they'll all be sent to one location. For more information about embracing preliminary notices, this resource should be valuable: The Top 5 Reasons You Should Love to Receive Preliminary Notices. For more on Arizona's preliminary notice rules, this resource should help: Arizona Lien & Notice Overview.