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Subcontractor has filed lien against my property

I hired a general contractor to do some work at a contracted price of approximately 18k. All funds have been paid to the GC. I now have a subcontractor(an electrician) file a lien against my property out of the blue for $450.00, which includes several months of late fees. I personally have received no bill/notice prior to the filing. After speaking with the subcontractors office manager all bills were sent to the General Contractor, and they indicated they had no way of contacting us. A sad conundrum since the work was done on my house and the subcontractor called my personal cell about his tools left on site and they had the address to our property not only to do the work but also file the lien. The office manager apologized for filing the lien without contacting us first. Is this still a valid lien? Are we responsible for the late fees? What other recourse do we have against the General contractor.

1 reply

Feb 13, 2020

North Carolina is generally considered an "unpaid balance" state. Meaning, a subcontractor's claim will typically be limited to the amount that the owner's GC went unpaid for their work. If a GC is paid in full, then presumably, their sub won't be entitled to a North Carolina lien. Regarding interest penalties or late fees - North Carolina mechanics liens generally cannot include amounts that don't relate to the work that was performed. And, putting late fees on a lien claim could certainly result in an overstated lien. As for prior notice - North Carolina won't always require preliminary notice on smaller projects. And, while it's good form to send a Notice of Intent to Lien before pursuing a mechanics lien, North Carolina doesn't require that such a notice be sent. And, as you mentioned above - it's usually a good idea to at least try and talk through the payment issue before diving straight into a mechanics lien filing. As for a GC's liability - an owner will certainly have claims available against their GC for failure to pay their subs if the owner is damaged by that failure. So, an owner who incurs legal fees or court costs should typically be able to recover against their contractor since the contractor was paid in accordance with their contract. And, it's common for an owner to pressure their GC into resolving the lien issue on the owner's behalf in a situation like that. Though, unlike a state like Texas or California, I'm not aware of a GC having a statutory duty to defend their owner. Finally, this resource might be valuable here: A Mechanics Lien Was Filed on My Property – What Do I Do Now?

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