Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>In CA, do we as the General want to advise Owner to file notice of completion when are are still owed change orders, but want to lock in a date for subs to have a shorter lien window?

In CA, do we as the General want to advise Owner to file notice of completion when are are still owed change orders, but want to lock in a date for subs to have a shorter lien window?

We have a nonperforming sub, whose contract was supplemented by another. They provided a preliminary notice, but have no right to their full contract due to change orders written for supplementing their work. We as the General are due change orders and retention on the contract with owner yet, so are questioning if we should be asking the owner to file the notice of completion on the job yet or not. This would shorten the lien window that the sub would have, but could possibly hurt us, as we have open items with the owner yet. What is advisable?

1 reply

Oct 17, 2017

This will come down to a business judgment decision - how confident do you feel that you will be paid in 60 days from the filing of the notice of completion? If you feel that payment to you wouldn't be made until sometime between the 60th or 90th day from the actual completion of the project, it is likely best to not have a notice of completion filed to shorten the lien period. If you think you will likely be paid before the 60th day your lien rights will likely not matter - so it may be better to shorten the claim period for the subs. Or, alternatively, if you're not confident regarding getting paid the last amounts at all - shortening the lien period may also not matter because you could just immediately file a lien to protect yourself.

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