Hello, I'm a subcontractor doing underground optic fiber. My company finished a work in Medina, Ohio, in November 2022. We were subcontracted by another subcontractor (not prime contactor) that was hired by Medina Fiber and that owes us around $15k . The contract is most likely from the city of Medina since this is work done in the streets, not a private residency. My question is, in this case, can we put a lien on the fiber? How do we go about this? What documents or information is needed? Thank you
I believe this would fall into the broad category of a typical mechanic's lien that must be recorded within 75 days of the last date of work. Depending on when you performed the work or supplied the materials, you may be past this deadline. If you are not, you should get the lien prepared and filed as soon as possible.
The mechanic's lien law has other lien provisions for liens on rights of way (but since Medina Fiber appears to be an LLC, not a public entity, this doesn't seem to apply) or other types of projects, but it doesn't look like any of those fit. When nothing else fits, the standard timeframe to file a lien in Ohio is 75 days from the last date of work.
As for the lien itself, you generally need to know the amount owed, first and last date of work, and location of the project (in order to pull the property description). In a project like this, a notice of commencement may have been filed. If it was, then your company needed to serve the owner of the project (probably Medina Fiber) with a notice of furnishing. If you did not do this, and if they filed a notice of commencement, then you would not have any lien rights.
Then once the lien is prepared it is as simple as taking it to the recorder, paying the fee, and filing it.
Thank you for your prompt answer, I believe a notice of commencement was not filed, does that mean I can go ahead and file a Lien? We are still under the right timeframe. How would I go about that? Thanks
You can find guides on how to file a lien all over the internet. If you wanted to hire an attorney to handle that, you could go that route as well.