Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>In Wisconsin and we are providing labor to a subcontractor for a piece of property, are we disallowed to file a lien? I'm not sure if we are working on a residential or commercial job yet but in general are we prohibited or not because of the concrete work?Thank you.Tim Griffin

In Wisconsin and we are providing labor to a subcontractor for a piece of property, are we disallowed to file a lien? I'm not sure if we are working on a residential or commercial job yet but in general are we prohibited or not because of the concrete work?Thank you.Tim Griffin

1 reply

Jul 3, 2019

Hey Tom! Good question. Let's take a look at Wisconsin's rules on who's entitled to file a mechanics lien.

Wisconsin is actually pretty generous with who's entitled to mechanics lien rights. It appears that any person who provides labor or materials for the project is entitled to mechanics lien rights, regardless of how far down the contracting chain that party may be. So, laborers who solely provide manual labor to a concrete supplier would very likely fall into the camp of those who are entitled to lien rights if they're performing their work at the project property.

Of course, note that preliminary notice may be required in order to preserve the right to later file a lien, if necessary. You can learn more aboute Wisconsin's preliminary notice requirements here: (1) About Wisconsin Preliminary Notice; and (2) Wisconsin Preliminary Notice: The Why, Who, What, When, and How.

For a deeper dive on Wisconsin's mechanics lien rules, this is a great resource: Wisconsin Mechanics Lien Overview.

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