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How many days do I have to file a pre lean

I am doing a commercial job. Almost 4 months into the job now.I have gotten played for 3 draws but on April seven he said he could only pay $35,000 of a 79,716.35 invoice of work already done. He said that thats all he had in his bank account. He told me he would get the loan for the balance in one week. It's been over two weeks and now he says next week.

1 reply

Mar 28, 2020

In many states, you only get one chance at the start of a job to send a preliminary notice and protect lien rights. The rules in Arizona are just a little bit more relaxed, and may help you in this situation. It will depend on the dates of your work. Normally, you should send notice in Arizona right when you begin work. The general rule is that you must send the notice within 20 days from when you start the job. So, in this project's case, 4 months ago! By the way --> this is a good moment to reflect on your notice policies. It is so, so hard to predict which jobs will run into this type of payment problem. You don't want to be caught flat-footed when you run into an issue. And in today's environment, with the effect of COVID-19 on construction projects in Arizona and across the country, and the looming recession...it's suddenly more difficult to make this prediction. You will see in the advice from attorneys throughout the expert center, and the attorney advice we've collated here at this blog post, the advice is repeated over and over and over again: Now is the time to deeply protect your lien rights. It will be crucial to your company to survive in this environment. Now, back to this project and your question... Do you still have time? This will depend on exactly when you did the work that is unpaid. It sounds like your next payment draw is due on April 7th. I presume this means the work as done in March... Arizona is one of the few states that allows you to send your preliminary notice late. BUT, your preliminary notice will only be effective to protect your rights for the work & materials you provided within 20 days of sending the notice. So, for example... Today (when I am answering this question) is Saturday, March 28th. If you send your notice right away -- today -- it will be effective immediately for all work that you did within the past 20 days (and all work that you do in the future). That means, all work and materials you provided on or after March 8th would be protected. All materials and work provided before March 8th, would not be protected. So. Send your notice now! You can send a preliminary notice right now through Levelset for free. Even the postage is free to you! It takes just a few minutes. And since you're in a hurry, make sure you press to "rush" your order at the end when processing. Click here to answer a few questions and get that notice SENT! And remember to send your notices on all jobs in the future, too! Good luck.

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