Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>I sent a 15 day notice of intent of a lien, and received a letter from a local attorney, saying that I need to be a licensed contractor to do this.
I sent a 15 day notice of intent of a lien, and received a letter from a local attorney, saying that I need to be a licensed contractor to do this.
Assist the absentee owner with the remodeling of newly purchased investment single-family residence, Payed up front all workers for jobs, and haven't been reimbursed
1 reply
Apr 16, 2019
The attorney is 100% incorrect about your ability to send a notice of intent to lien. Regardless of whether or not a party ultimately has a mechanics lien right, this doesn't prohibit sending a "Notice of Intent to File A Lien" document.
However, the question of whether you can move forward to file the mechanics lien itself is a more complicated matter.
States differ on whether a contractors license is required to file a lien. You can learn more about the different ways this could go in this article we wrote a while back on the subject: Can Unlicensed Contractors File A Mechanics Lien?
The state of Nevada is one of the states that does require a contractors license to file a mechanics lien....IF a license was required to do the work. So, if the work required a license, and you did not have a license, any lien claim filed would be invalid. If you filed the lien anyway it would get recorded, but the owner could file a legal action to have the lien removed. Depending on the work performed, there may be arguments and subtleties about whether the work did or did not require a license. All of these little questions can be litigated after a lien is filed. Depending on the extent of the dispute, these types of arguments can become quite expensive and risky (i.e. if any party has legal recourses to get their attorney fees paid).