I am helping a neighbor who has become the target of an elder abuse scam by an unscrupulous windows company in CA. This shady company took a nearly $40,000 deposit for "special order" windows over 6 months ago -- even though I believe such a large deposit is illegal in California, even on custom-built materials. The windows were just installed this month, and many are different than the ones ordered in both size and style. My neighbor is therefore withholding the rest of his payments, and the contractor & his family members have started bullying him on the phone daily. They also said that they mailed a preliminary notice this week. My question is, given that the window scammers emailed him in December to say the windows had arrived at their facility, and he'd paid for most of them already with the ~$40,000 deposit, did the company already miss their window to file a prelim notice? It seems that the the windows were technically furnished in December. For what it's worth, there is also not a complete contract as far as compliance with BPC subsection 7159. There was never any paperwork with a payment schedule or approx start & end dates given.
A contractor is only requried to provide preliminary notice if he or she does not have a direct contract with the owner. Here, it seems as if your neighbor contracted directly with the window company, so they can record a lien without first providing notice. However, given what you have described, your neighbor should contact the California Contractors State License Board and file a complaint (https://www2.cslb.ca.gov/Consumers/Filing_A_Complaint) If the company follows through and records a lien, then your neighbor should contact an attorney.
The contractor has to serve the lien on your neighbor by certified mail and, more importantly, he has to file suit to foreclose on the lien within 90 days of recording; he will have to personally serve the lawsuit on your neighbor as well, so he will know if this goes forward. If the contractor does not file suit in time, the lien will expire and be unenforceable;
In my experience, the CSLB will investigate the complaint, but it may take time becuase they are very understaffed.