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Is my lien valid?

I am a Lighting fixture supplier located in Texas. The commercial property is located in Oklahoma, their general contractor is located in Arkansas, and sub-contractor(my customer) in Oklahoma again. They failed to pay us almost $13K for the job as our customer claims that owner is not paying and they are in litigation. I went ahead and filed the lien but it was later than 90-days from last shipping, and as far as I read I had only 90 days period to file a lien. In this case, is my lien still valid or no? I will appreciate a quick a answer, thanks.

1 reply

Mar 17, 2020

The state where the project property lies is the state whose lien laws will apply. So, if the project is located in Oklahoma, Oklahoma's lien laws apply. And, the deadline for subs and suppliers to file a mechanics lien on an Oklahoma project will be 90 days after the last date when labor or materials were furnished to the project. Notably, this is not the ship date. Rather, the 90 days is based on when the material is furnished to the project. So, for material suppliers, this will generally refer to when the material is actually delivered to the project site. But, if a mechanics lien was filed after its deadline, that lien claim generally won't be able to be enforced. Further, if it's challenged and subject to the scrutiny of the court, it would likely be successfully challenged as having been filed late. At the same time, it's possible that a questionable claim might still lead to payment - and most mechanics lien claims don't make it all the way to the courtroom. Though, if the claim is disputed as being late, then a claimant may want to begin looking at other recovery options.

Additional resources

For more information on Oklahoma's mechanics lien laws, as well as information on other recovery options outside of the mechanics lien process, the following resources should be valuable. - Oklahoma Mechanics Lien Guide and FAQs - Can’t File a Lien? Here Are Some Other Options For Recovery - Don’t Want to File a Mechanics Lien? Here Are 5 Other Options

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