We're a custom metal panel fabricator (materials only, no inventory/standard products, no installation provided, no employees go to jobsites). Our office (our only facility) is located in Washington State, but our product is shipped all over the country, as well as to Canada and Mexico. (Our employees work only in our Washington office.) Because all of our products are custom-made, there are multiple steps to the process performed sequentially with times that vary between each step. Therefore, it's not easy to determine what date to use as the job "start date." Would that date be different/specific for each state where a job is located, or could it consistently be defined? Which of these progress benchmark(s) would be used? 1. when design/CAD work for the project begins 2. when customer approves unique design/specifications for their project 3. when fabrication of the designed and customer-approved products begins 4. when finished product is shipped to customer, always via third party carrier 5. when finished product is delivered to customer by third party carrier Assistance with clarification on this subject would be greatly appreciated!
This is not a sensitive legal issue, and there is no specific job or legal situation in question. The Levelset form requires me to enter a start date for jobs, and as I described in my question, I do not know how to calculate this.
You are asking in the legal forum, what the legal defininiton of a "start date" is as it pertains to mechanics liens being filed by a supplier. That is a specific legal question, the answer to which can be dependent on many situational factors. That is the type of question that only a lawyer can answer in confidence. Your question is further complicated by the fact that you have expressed in your original post that you supply to foreign projects in Canada and Mexico, not just US construction projects. If you want that question answered quickly, you need to call an attorney directly at their office. You can find an attorney to call in the directory linked in my previous comment. I hope that clarifies things for you.