Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>What exactly does this mean in terms of filing a lien in Illinois, being a general contractor? - "Within 2 years after completion of work to prevail over original owner."

What exactly does this mean in terms of filing a lien in Illinois, being a general contractor? - "Within 2 years after completion of work to prevail over original owner."

Homeowner hired us as general contractor to restore their property to pre-loss condition by replacing roof, gutters and siding per insurance estimate. The job has been completed on November 9, 2017, funds were released by insurance company with HO and their lender as payees on the check. HO sent the check to their lender for endorsement. Bank needed to completed their inspection before releasing the funds. It has been completed, but according to the HO still not in the bank's system. Customer will not sign third party authorization to allow us to communicate with their mortgage company to get the funds released ASAP and will not pay us until the funds are released by their lender. Are we still able to file a lien on their property?

1 reply

Mar 22, 2018

Illinois provides a bifurcated deadline to file a lien. If the lien is filed by the first deadline, the valid lien is effective against all parties, including subsequent purchasers. This deadline is within 4 months of the completion of the overall project. However, if that deadline is missed, an effective lien may still be filed, but it is limited to be effective against the original owner only, not third parties (or subsequent purchasers, if the property sold). This "extended" deadline is within 2 years of the completion of the last lienable work on the project.

Accordingly, if the property remains in the hands of the owner that contracted for the work, the lien deadline for a GC, for all intents and purposes, is 2 years from the last work.

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