Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>If I file a mechanic's lien with in 90 days of the end of the month of last product provided, can I recover the entire balance owed?

If I file a mechanic's lien with in 90 days of the end of the month of last product provided, can I recover the entire balance owed?

Anonymous Contractor

We are an appliance wholesaler, we generally sell to GCs building large complexes. We are located in VA and the company we are selling to is in TN. I got conflicting messages on the 90 day time frame vs a year? I know in some states you can only go after the most recent 120 days, not the entire balance owed? this project has been going for more than a year, so I want to make sure we can recover the full balance.

1 reply

Matt Viator

Construction Lawyer

Levelset Admin at Levelset

| 1,000 reviews

Jun 25, 2018

Operating in multiple states can certainly cause some confusion. First it's worth noting that the lien laws of the state where the improvement is located will apply. In Tennessee, parties who do not have a direct contract with the property owner must file a lien 90 days from the completion or abandonment of the project. Granted, if a Notice of Completion has been filed and served, this tame frame may be shortened. Further, the deadline for those subs and suppliers to enforce a filed lien is 90 days from the lien's filing. Deadlines can get confusing in Tennessee, though. When a party filing their lien does have a direct contract with the property owner, the lien filing becomes unnecessary - instead, that prime contractor must file suit to enforce their lien within 1 year from the last date of furnishing labor and/or materials to the project. Finally, pursuant to § 66-11-115 of the Tennessee mechanics lien statute, remote contractors (those without a direct contract with the owner) shall have a lien "for work or labor performed or materials, services, equipment, or machinery furnished by the remote contractor in furtherance of the improvement..."

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