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Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>Please advise me on filing a Constitutional Lein in the State of Texas based on the below listed information.

Please advise me on filing a Constitutional Lein in the State of Texas based on the below listed information.

TexasMechanics Lien

I spent 14 months between October, 2018 and November, 2019 acting as a General Contractor for someone building two shops on his property. In November, 2019 as the job was completed he brought someone else in and terminated my employment without paying me for my work. He drew up a promissory not to promise to pay me $50,000.00 at $5,000.00 per month starting in November of 2019 and each and every month following until the balance was paid in full. He made 3 payments and stopped paying me in January of 2020. I have sent several letters and emails to him with no results. His excuse for not paying me is that "His wife passed away from Covid 19 in 2020 and he doesn't think he owes me or the world anything and does not care what anyone thinks. He still owes me $35,000.00 along with $9,876.00 worth of tools and equipment I was not allowed to take with me when I left. I was told that I was entitled to file a "Constitutional Lein" in the State of Texas for up to 4 years against this property. That is what I would now like to do. Please advise

1 reply

Oct 20, 2021
Two parts to our question.
1st: As a general (or what is now often referred to as an original contractor) you have a self actuating line per the Texas Constitution, Article 16 Section 37. By "self actuating" is meant it is automatic for any contractor with a direct relationship with the owner. It is not available to subcontractors.So you don't need to file anything to have it. However, if someone buy the property without knowing about your lien, the lien disappears. What you need to do is file a notice of the constitutional lien in the County where the property is located. This informs any potential buyer that the lien exists and if the land is purchased the lien continues to exist. Note Texas law specifies the language that should be used in the notice.
2nd: The statute of limitations for a Texas Constitutional lien is four years. So if you seek to foreclose on the lien you have four years. If your work was done based on a contract, you also have four years to sue for violation of the contract. Even if you did not have a contract, you can sue based on sworn account and again the statute of limitations is four years.
 
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