I am the landscape architect for a new single family home being designed in Hayward, CA. I signed an agreement with the project owner in December 2017 and began my design. When he signed the agreement, he agreed to the following payment schedule: 1. Deposit of $750 due upon entering the agreement, 2. Progress payment due upon city submittal, 3. Final payment upon city approval. The client paid the deposit when he signed the agreement. I began work and completed the design for city submittal by February. Upon sending him the plans for city submittal, I also sent him a payment request for the second payment. He submitted the plans to the city and they were rejected. Supposedly the city told him he cannot build a house on this particular parcel and he is supposedly fighting this through legal channels. I have no idea regarding the details in this matter. He has continuously argued with me over the past six months that the second payment is not due because the city rejected the plans. I have repeatedly explained to him that the second payment has nothing to do with the city accepting the plans and that the simple act of submitting the plans to the city makes that second payment due. He is still refusing to pay me. According to Alex with your company, here in CA, there needs to be a certain document sent to the owner upon starting the project in order to be able to place a mechanic's lien on the property at a later date. Alex has further told me that this document can be filed late, but that would only allow me to place a lien for the work done in the past 20 days. This does not make sense to me for the following reasons: 1. According to this information, every project in CA that is built or designed each year (millions of them) need to have a preliminary notice filed upon starting the project. I very seriously doubt that even 1% of projects have this document filed initially. 2. I've been trying to get paid for over six months now. I've done no work on this project in the last 20 days. If the late filing only allows you to lien for work done in the last 20 days, again, very few projects would fall into this category since most design and construction professionals invoice for work at net 30 days. So, by only being able to lien the last 20 days of work, you're talking about a very small amount that would be liened. It seems to me after attempting to collect the payment due without success and basically being told it won't be paid, that I now should be able to lien the property in violation of the project agreement. Please advise on how to move forward with this issue. Thank you