Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>I am in the process of having a lien filed (order 1212361) and we think the land might be leased from the land owner. How do we find out if the land owner filed a Notice of Non-responsibility? Where would it be filed?

I am in the process of having a lien filed (order 1212361) and we think the land might be leased from the land owner. How do we find out if the land owner filed a Notice of Non-responsibility? Where would it be filed?

OklahomaMechanics Lien

We provided the electrical and mechanical installation in a operations building at Red Dirt Wind Farm in Oklahoma. We were contracted with what we thought was the prime contractor: Clear Creek Construction. Clear Creek told us that the owner was Enel Green Power. But Sean at zlien sent us a letter that his research turned up that Enel leased the property. So we are just trying to figure out who the property owner is and if they have any responsibility if the lien is filed. We have heard that property owners can file a non-responsibility notice.

1 reply

Apr 13, 2018

That's a tough one, and the ability to lien can certainly be put in jeopardy when work is authorized by a lessee instead of an owner. Granted, in Oklahoma, "If the title to the land is not in the person with whom such contract was made, the lien shall be allowed on the buildings and improvements on such land separately from the real estate." So, where an owner might not be responsible for their lessee's improvement, it sounds like the improvement itself (rather than the improvement and underlying real estate) is lienable in Oklahoma when authorized by a lessee. Further, it's also possible that through an agreement between an owner and a lessee, an owner might even authorize the work of an improvement - but that would be hard to determine without analyzing the contract between an owner and lessee. While I'm not entirely familiar with an Oklahoma Notice of Non-Responsibility, such a document would likely be filed with the county clerk of the county where the property is located. Searching the property records via the County Assessor site may be fruitful.

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