I hired a contractor and he did a bad job in my house and caused damages of about 10k. Now he is asking me to pay him for what he did. He went to the court to put a lien on my house. What should I do now?
1 reply
Dec 5, 2019
When unpaid for their work, North Carolina contractors are generally entitled to file a mechanics lien in order to secure payment. This is true even if their workmanship is in dispute, and it's true even if there's a dispute as to what's owed.
But, that doesn't necessarily mean the lien will be valid and enforceable - and it doesn't mean that a contractor will necessarily be entitled to full payment. Rather, if the parties can't come to some agreement as to what will be paid, a formal legal dispute may be necessary to determine what's owed and what amounts can be withheld due to damage caused.
Before diving into potential responses to a lien claim, this resource should be valuable here: A Mechanics Lien Was Filed on My Property – What Do I Do Now?
How to respond to a North Carolina mechanics lien claim
An owner's natural response to a lien claim is typically to challenge that claim in one manner or another. Often, a good start is to identify flaws in the contractors claim - like failures to abide by the necessary requirements, arguing the claim is overstated, or claiming there's some other deficiency in the claim. By threatening to take legal action to have the lien removed and to recover damages from the claimant, an owner may be able to convince a claimant to release their lien themselves. This is especially true when done via attorney.
Further, another option may be to bond off the filed lien claim. Bonding off a lien won't make it disappear, but it can at least discharge the lien from the property title. Instead of recovering payment via the lien claim, a claimant would have to proceed with a lawsuit against the bond that's been filed with the county.
Finally, filing legal action in order to challenge the lien claim could be effective. It's usually a good idea to try and resolve disputes without jumping straight into a lawsuit, but sometimes it will be unavoidable. So, consulting with a local attorney and coming up with a plan to legally challenge a filed lien to get it removed is a sound step, when necessary.