Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>We preformed warranty repair work on a chiller at Chevron Plant in Richmond, CA. Repair cost exceed 6,000.00. The company we were doing the work,(the manufacture) was located in the UK. The credit card the Mfg. gave us was declined. Could we have filed a lien against Chevron in this case?
We preformed warranty repair work on a chiller at Chevron Plant in Richmond, CA. Repair cost exceed 6,000.00. The company we were doing the work,(the manufacture) was located in the UK. The credit card the Mfg. gave us was declined. Could we have filed a lien against Chevron in this case?
Under § 8400 of the California Civil Code, a person who's provided authorized work for an improvement but has gone unpaid for that work will generally be entitled to make a lien claim. Under § 8404 of the California Civil Code, work is considered authorized when it is either provided at the request of or agreed to by the owner, or when it has been authorized by someone else who themselves is authorized to have the property improved (like a contractor, sub, architect, project manager, etc.).
Certainly, a claimant potentially filing a lien claim for work done at the request of someone other than the owner pursuant to a warranty agreement might be a little irregular. However, if work was done to improve property, if that work was properly authorized by an owner or someone else entitled to do so, and if payment was expected to be made for the work performed, then a lien claim could presumably be made.
The fact that payment wasn't expected to come from the property owner in the situation above appears to complicate things, but it's not all that different from a prime contractor or an insurance company hiring another party to perform work on the job. In either case, a party who went unpaid for their work would likely be entitled to lien. Of course, it's important to note that when hired by someone other than the property owner, preliminary notice will generally be required in California. And, where notice is required but not sent, a California mechanics lien might not be an option.