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Is this a valid Prelim if we sent certified mailing to the Job site which the county lists the corp owns the property?

CaliforniaPreliminary Notice

The statute that governs where the 20 day preliminary notice is to be served. Civil Code section 8108 states that a notice shall be given at the person’s residence, the person’s place of business, or, in the case of an owner (who is not a public entity) at the owner’s address shown on the direct contract, the building permit, or a construction deed of trust. The notice that was served on was mailed to the project address. When we served the Mechanic’s Lien we obtained the business address from the Secretary of State website. My interpretation is that the Notice was sent to construction site/ business address. The Developer provided an unconditional waiver & release of final payment with the owner listed as a corporation and the site address which was the same where we delivered our materials. The Sales Invoice indicates the same address we sent the materials to the project address and on the building permit, and the construction deed of trust which we obtained the property detail report . We verified with the title company and it is the same corporation owner. Is this a valid filing if we delivered the materials on 8/13 and sent the certified mailing for the Prelim on 8/21?

1 reply

Sep 27, 2019
A California preliminary notice that abides by all of the relevant requirements will be valid. As you mentioned, § 8108 of the California Civil Code controls many of the state's preliminary notice requirements, and when a preliminary notice is sent to the person's place of business, that will be sufficient for the mailing address. Further, the Secretary of State's website is one of the best tools available for collecting current business information  - so, that would seemingly be a great tool to use. Honestly, it's hard to find a source of business information that's more verifiable than the Secretary of State. Plus, it's a business' duty to keep the records maintained and updated. So, if a notice-sender relied on that publicly-available information, that would likely be a sufficient location to send notice to. Not to mention, if all other available information points to that same address, this would seemingly be confirmed. Regarding the time for sending notice - CA preliminary notice is required to be sent within 20 days of first furnishing labor or materials to the project. So, as long as notice is sent within that initial 20 days, it would be sufficient to preserve all of a claimant's lien rights on the project. Since 8/21 is fewer than 20 days after 8/13, if 8/13 was the first furnishing date, notice sent by 8/21 would be timely. For more on California preliminary notices: The Ultimate Guide to California’s 20-Day Preliminary Notice
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