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Right to Lien Questions
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Right to Lien
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A few years ago I hired a property manager, who was a friend of my son. Fast forward to last August and the long time tenants moved out. I tell the property manager I'm interested in repainting the house and some general upkeep to get the property ready for market. Time goes by and he doesn't deliver, so I press him on it. He finally provides a quote from a contractor he knows. I don't approve of the quote and negotiate the price - seeing that it's drastically over other quotes I received. I follow up
with my property manager to see the status of the negotiation and he replies, the work will be completed soon. Things don't add up, so I go to the property and see that they've started the job and already painted the interior and exterior of the house along with other things I never approved. The property manager and "contractor" is there and I explain to them that I never agreed to start the job, but since it has already started and the job is done so poorly to have the contractor fix issues that I've pointed out. Might I add, I was never asked what color paint I'd prefer, because I never approved of the job. When I get there, the interior and exterior is white... They tell me not to worry and it will be fixed since it's still being worked on. They tell me, the job will be done in the next 1.5 weeks. It doesn't feel right, so my son and I check on the house as much as we can during that 1.5 week time frame and tell the laborer and contractor to fix the issues.
They don't finish in 1.5 weeks, instead they finish in 2 weeks. We gave them more time because they said the issues would be fixed and they needed extra days to fix the issues. During the 2 week time, the property manager then confronts my son and tells him that his duties as a property manager are only valid when the property is occupied by a tenant, so he is not responsible for anything. My son then finds out there were more issues with the work done than we had initially inspected. The contractor gives us the invoice and my son finds out :
A. the contractor is unlicensed and
B. the property manager acting as an independent property manager and never documented his broker on the agreement.
My son confronts the unlicensed contractor multiple times and asks who told him to start, the unlicensed contractor said it was the property manager. We decide not to pay because he the workmanship was horrible and he was unlicensed (cost was in excess of $500). The property manager denies his involvement and tells my son I was the one who hired the contractor. This never happened - the property manager has always told me not to worry and it would all be taken care of.
Now comes the fun part - we receive a mechanics lien in the mail from someone we have never met claiming to be a laborer furnished by the unlicensed contractor to recover labor and material costs. We talked to the laborer who worked on the property and the unlicensed contractor even said he only has one person working on the job. The person who filed the lien is not the same laborer we met. The mechanics lien was filed 90 days after the job was deemed completed by the contractor and the laborer who filed never acted on the lien within the 90 days after filing. I send this unknown laborer a letter certified mail to explain the situation and he should remove the lien. No response.
I have now received a summons to show up to small claims court by this unknown laborer in the amount filed on the lien to recover his labor charges ($4000). Am I responsible for this? I don't feel that I should have to pay for something that was not done right from the beginning and held accountable. I also feel that the laborer should be suing the unlicensed contractor. I have never met this laborer and do not have an agreement or contract with him. He was "furnished at the request of the [name of unlicensed contractor]" - this was the exact sentence he wrote on the lien document.
CaliforniaWith all the rain here in the midwest. We have worked non stop the past 3 months. Many times we have a verbal consent to do wall patch & or drain tile work in basements. The amounts range from $200 to $1000 depending on the work needed. When a customer complains he or she still has wall leakage from the area where patching work was completed by us costing ($380.00) , after we recommended they do drain tile as well. Can they deny payment? They are getting water seepage in same area? After all we only did what the customer wanted (Patch the wall) to save him or her money. Can the customer file a preliminary objection to us filing a lien on the home based on this scenario? We have no written consents or contract signed by the owner.
IllinoisWe hired a painter to paint several areas of our property (a 20x20 shop, the kitchen ceiling, all internal and external doors, an entire bedroom, and touch-ups throughout). The started but did not finish the shop and kitchen ceiling before disappearing for several days with no contact about when they would return. When they did contact us, we informed them that the job would be finished by another painter. He became angry and said that he would sue us and place a lien on the house for the unpaid balance even though the rest of the work was never completed.
Alabamabasement leakage in wall was patched, however wall at base still leaks. Now contractor says the foundation also needed drain tile, as indicated on estimating sheet. Only wall patch work was done, and leaks continue. Home owner tells contractor that nothing has changed and water continues to enter at exact same location where wall patch was made along bottom of wall directly under crack wall patch work.
IllinoisI'm getting ready to begin shipping brick to the largest project I've sold to and concerned the subcontractor mason who I'll be selling these to is going to be a problem for a myriad of reasons. It was suggested to me I file to owner in advance to protect myself if the mason doesn't pay in terms or holds back payment. If this protects me, please advise how and what steps I should take to file. We're a few weeks from shipping first load and I want to protect myself as much as possible.
North CarolinaAs my question states I am a superintendent for a general contractor. I was offered a position with another company at a higher pay rate, I took the job and my employer will not pay me my final paycheck can I lien the property that I last built for my boss
Florida04/17/2017 - Remodel pool remodel work began - totallying $15,725
4/20/2017 - Payment received 1/2 of balance - $7862.50
5/22/2017 - Payment received $3931 via check
5/2017 - Check payment cancelled
Client not satisfied with work.
invoices sent, no resolution, no additional payments made.
6/2019, client filed complaint with az ROC, two small items (less than one day of work), were noted to be completed, 6/2019. Work completed per ROC request and complaint closed (job complete).
No additional payments made to date (current balance owed $7889.50), sent statements, and invoices.
6/17/2019, sent "notice of intent to lien"
Any additional guidance is appreciated.
Thank you
ArizonaI have a contract with a pay when paid clause in the USVI, but do not want to miss my claim deadline. Would the pay when paid clause invalidate a bond/lien claim? Do I have to wait for my customer to get paid before I can get paid?
AlabamaI receive several California Conditional Waiver and Release on Progress Payment forms and they all seem to be filled out differently. For example, we are currently receiving waivers for May progress payments. The waiver lists the "Through Date" as May 31, 2019. The sub-contractor's invoices for May 2019 total $20,000. There are also previous invoices that have not been paid that total $10,000. Should the "Amount of Check" be $20,000 (for May only) or $30,000 (to include all outstanding invoices) even if the previous unpaid invoices are listed under EXCEPTIONS?
CaliforniaCompleted plumbing project in 6 houses that plumber had quit on and have not been paid on ant of them.
South CarolinaWe were on a hurricane relief project in the US Virgin Islands.
FEMA - Funded the project
FEMA reimburses VIHFA (Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority) after
VIHFA pays contractor
VIHFA pays AECOM (large engineering firm)
AECOM pays their subcontractor
That subcontractor pays our employer
Our employer pays us
The work we did was on hurricane damaged houses owned by individuals. The
property we worked on was NOT owned by the government.
AECOM's subcontractor is required to have a payment bond.
Questions:
1. Is AECOM's subcontractor's payment bond governed by the Miller Act?
AlabamaAre you able to place a lien on a property for stored contents from the said property in the state of Colorado?
ColoradoI am trying to complete my first prelien for a reroof of a 4 plex that is on the property of a larger apartment complex (2oo+ units). The Property owner on Title is "Conference Claim End Board CA Ann Conf Meth".
There are many managers that are in contact with me. I believe they work for "The Endowment Board" . . . This is who my previous checks are written from. They are located at 1341 W. Robinhood Drive, Suite A Stockton, California. The Prelien questionnaire on your site asks- "What is my role?" I selected General Contractor, but one of the Levelset Help agents had me second guessing if I was right or not. Also "Select hiring role?" I listed "other" for this category. I do not know if there is a lender. . . I don't think so. My questions are. . . What do a Label as my role and what do I select under hiring role? Any help would be much appreciated. They took 4 months to pay a larger sum last time and it was pretty financial painful. Trying to protect myself. Thanks, Dan
CaliforniaWe are a painting contractor in California. We have been working on a project directly with a homeowner. We have a signed contract, and a Preliminary Notice.
Our client's last progress payment check bounced. We found out that she has a history of issues with contractors, so we were dreading this. Her deposit and previous 2 payments went through, so we were hopeful.
We stopped work 50 days ago, awaiting payment. However, we have 45 hours that we have not invoiced her for when we were initially continuing with the work. To clarify, for example, we invoiced her for $10,000 on 4/13. We continued to work through 4/24, and then stopped working until we received payment. She paid 6/6, but the check bounced.
Am I understanding correctly that we need to wait for 60 days cessation in order to consider that the Date of Completion, before we can file a Mechanic's Lien? Can we include the 45 hours that weren't in the invoice? Should we invoice her for those now? Should we consider the date of cessation as the last actual day we worked there (4/24), or the last day that we invoiced her for (4/13)?
If we still need to wait for another 10 days until 60 days have passed since we ceased work, I plan to send her a Notice of Intent to see if that might get her to correct the issue.
Also, she is not yet occupying the house.
Thank you in advance for your help!
CaliforniaThe prelim was sent out, but the mailing was returned for both the owner and general contractor due to insufficient addresses.
California