Aloha! My name is Madeline I work for a roofing company. We filed a lien back in July of 2019. We still have not received payment. How do I go forward with this? Do I wait or should I try and contact the company and ask for payment
1 reply
May 7, 2020
Negotiating, threatening to file a lien enforcement suit (like with a Notice of Intent to Foreclose), or preparing to file suit are all steps that can force an owner to make payment. Levelset discusses that here: The 4 Steps to Take After Filing a Mechanics Lien.
Nobody wants to deal with a lawsuit, so most customers should be willing to talk deal once a lien has been filed on the project. Obviously, some customers will be tougher than others - so it may become necessary to threaten a lien enforcement action to show them the threat is real and can't be ignored.
If the nonpayment continues, then consulting a North Carolina construction attorney may become necessary. You'd need their help to file a lien enforcement suit anyway, but they'll also be useful for things like sending payment demand letters or devising new approaches to payment recovery. Alternatively, sending the debt to collections could force payment.
As a final note - keep in mind that mechanics liens don't last forever. North Carolina mechanics liens will expire 180 days after the last date when labor or materials were furnished to the project. And, if a lien expires, other recovery options might have to be used.