Posts Tagged ‘Express Lien’

Great Avvo Legal Guide Available With Information on Florida Lien Laws

On April 23, 2010 Author By Scott Wolfe Jr        

Florida attorney Neal Ian Sklar just this week published a really informative Legal Guide about Florida Construction Liens over at the lawyer rating website, Avvo.com.

The guide starts out by identifying the “dual purpose” of Florida’s construction lien statutes. While the author is speaking about Florida law only, the “dual purpose” breakdown is really applicable across the country.

What is this dual purpose?

Well, on the one hand, lien statutes are crafted to protect contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and design professional’s right to get paid for work put into a project. The law, in other words, doesn’t want a property owner to benefit from the improvements to property without paying the folks who put the time and materials therein.

You may be thinking “of course.”

The other purpose is a bit more hidden in the statutes. That purpose is to protect property owners from having their property improperly or unreasonably encumbered.

To balance these two purposes, lien laws across the country can sometimes feel schizophrenic.

Neal’s legal guide over on Avvo discusses the Florida lien laws in this context, and he does a good job of explaining how the two purposes are served by the Florida statutes.

While lien laws vary from state-to-state, understanding the “dual purposes” of these statutes provides contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and others a big picture understanding of how these statutes work…which, although each state’s laws are different, gives them a good grasp on the general rules they’ll need to follow to successfully use the laws.

And when a state’s specific requirements are needed…consult a great legal guide like Neal’s.

This article was originally posted on Express Lien’s topic-specific Construction Lien Blog.

Posted in:     Around The Web, Filing Requirements, From The Experts  /  Tags: , , , , ,   /   Leave a comment

Give Notice That You’re Working!

On April 13, 2010 Author By Scott Wolfe Jr        

In many states, if the property owner doesn’t know your company is working on a project, you may not have the right to lien. And since it’s impossible for the law to know when a property owner does or does know a fact, laws around the country require contractors of various tiers to “notify” the property owner in writing that they have begun work.

This is called a preliminary notice or notice to owner (NTO). Simply put, it is a written document usually sent certified mail return receipt requested that formally notifies the proeprty owner and any higher tiered contractors that your company is on the project and that you expect to get paid.

In the event you’re unpaid, and you gave the required notice, the property owner and/or upper tiered contractors may be liable to pay you directly (after you file a lien).

If you don’t deliver the required notice, you’re largely out of luck, and you can only pursue payment from the person you directly contracted with.

That’s a very, very general overview of how preliminary notices work across the country. It gets sticky when you look into the details of each state, however, as every state has different notice requirements and deadlines.

Express Lien has great free resources for contractors, subcontractors, equipment lessors and suppliers looking for some clarity on whether notices are required and when they must be delivered. Check out their free “Lien Law Punchlists,” organized by states. They also have a “National State-By-State Lien Law and Deadline” publication.

This article was originally posted on Express Lien’s topic-specific Construction Lien Blog.

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Organization: A Secret To Managing Legal Messes…Start 2010 on the Right Foot

On December 28, 2009 Author By Scott Wolfe Jr        

Happy New Year.

Did you make it through 2009 alive?  It certainly was a tough year.  Perhaps your legal bills were more than ever before, or maybe you got by without spending much or anything at all on counsel.   In either case, let’s make a resolution to avoid expensive legal bills in 2010.

How do you do it?

Ask an attorney how to avoid legal messes and expensive litigation, and they’ll likely start discussing legal precedent, contractual provisions and other technicalities.   Sure, all of that stuff is important when you’re knee deep in litigation.  By that point, however, you’ll already have an attorney to handle those issues.

What about before you’re knee deep in litigation; how do you avoid legal messes?

The most valuable piece of advice I give clients who ask me how to avoid legal fights and messes is to be organized.

Organization is your best friend when entering a litigation scenario.   It proves your case when you’re right, and it paints a clear picture of your risk and exposure when your wrong or possibly wrong.   And insofar as your contractual and legal duties are concerned, if you’re organized and know what they are, you’ll have a much better chance of fulfilling them.

Now, you’re quite lucky that it’s now 2010.   That’s because the World Wide Web has been improving for over 20 years now, and it’s got a million ways to help you organize your construction business (large or small) in the new year.

Here are a few of our favorite web applications out there that can help you stay organized, and avoid legal bills and messes.

Keep Your Files Organized

Construction projects can have tons of paper exchanged.   Contract documents, job specs, change orders, correspondence…the list can go on.   And, to top it off, all these documents are being exchanged between you and your employees, and your subcontractors, suppliers, their subs and suppliers, the property owner…the list can go on.

How do you manage all that collaboration, and all that paper?

SugarSync:  This works with PCs, Macs, on iPhones and Blackberrys, on just about anything else…and it’s easy as pie.   Add a file to a folder on your computer, and it instantly gets added to that folder on everyone else’s computers.  You can share files or folders with other companies, allowing them to just see the docs or edit / trash it.

The possibilities are endless, and the cost is low.  This program can single-handely change the way you exchange documents on your construction project.

Box.Net:  Like Sugar Sync, this is another document management system to help you organize documents to a construction project and collaborate with others on the documents.  Insofar as features and collaboration are concerned, Box.net gets the edge.  You can sign documents electronically, send documents via fax, edit docs, send docs via postal mail, and more…all within the box.net interface.   Box.net is entirely web-based, however, meaning you can’t just drag and drop a file into a folder on your PC and let it do its magic.  On the ease of use, SugarSync gets the edge.

Notice and Lien Deadline Management

It doesn’t matter if you just work in one state, or if you work in every state.  Notice and lien requirements are confusing, and the effort required to comply with these requirements can feel constant.   How do you keep up?

ExpressLien:  Enter Express Lien.   This company provides two different sets of services.

First, it helps you manage your lien and notice requirements and deadlines.   You put in your project data, and it calculates your requirements and deadlines and displays it to you all on an easy to read online interface.    How much?  It’s free.

Second, if you want, you can order your notice and lien documents directly through Express Lien.   They will take your project data, create the documents, file/send them, and keep track of all the delivery and filing data in your online profile.   Document filing is done for a low flat fee.

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Lien on Property or Lien on Funds? It's Two Different Collection Tools

On June 12, 2009 Author By Wolfe Guest        

Liens are one of the most powerful collection tools available to workers in the construction industry. Mechanics Liens are inexpensive and hard-hitting, and perhaps one of the most effective ways to collect on non-paying projects.

A properly filed construction lien can affect a property’s title, entangles multiple parties to your dispute, and helps get you paid.  Suppliers, prime/sub/sub-sub contractors and laborers all have the rights to lien a property they performed work on.

Bradley Coxe  Hodges & Coxe, PC law firm wrote some basic information within JD Supra explaining the two broad types of a mechanics’ lien-  the property or funds lien.

Property liens are the most popular and widely used in each state.  The homeowner is responsible for getting the worker paid for his completed job.  This, when filed and recorded correctly within the respective county or parish places a hold on the owner’s land preventing them from selling or turning over until the matter is determined by the courts.

The second type of lien is the lien on funds; which is when the payor, not the owner, is responsible to pay for the work.  Whomever performed work on the property that was not contracted directly with the owner can send a notice to the owner letting them know 1- they have not been paid  and 2- they should not pay whomever is in charge of getting the money (in most cases, this is the prime or general contractor)  The funds that are owed to the general or prime contractor is what has been liened.  If the general contractor has been paid after a notice was supplied to the owner, a sub-contractor can then lien the property.

This post originally appeared on the Construction Lien Blog.

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How To Cancel a Washington Lien

On July 28, 2008 Author By Scott Wolfe Jr        

Every state has strict regulations about how a construction lien may be filed. Oftentimes, however, the cancellation of a construction lien may be more difficult than its filing.

In most states, a “lien release” or “certificate of cancellation” must be filed with the recorder where the lien was filed, and these releases are typically required to identify the property, identify the recording information on the lien (i.e. book #, page #, etc.), and be notarized.

This requirement to provide the recording information and book number highlights the importance of retaining a copy of the original lien document. Furthermore, in some states, the actual original lien document is required to cancel the inscription (In Georgia, the county recorder requires an original copy of the filed lien to grant a cancellation).

The process in Washington state is rather simple. The “lien release” direction is provided by state, in R.C.W. § 60.04.071:

Upon payment and acceptance of the amount due to the lien claimant and upon demand of the owner or the person making payment, the lien claimant shall immediately prepare and execute a release of all lien rights for which payment has been made, and deliver the release to the person making payment. In any suit to compel deliverance of the release thereafter in which the court determines the delay was unjustified, the court shall, in addition to ordering the deliverance of the release, award the costs of the action including reasonable attorneys’ fees and any damages.

The “lien release” document is a simple form that essentially provides three pieces of information:

  • The recorded lien’s identifying information;
  • A statement that the lien is requested to be released; and
  • The statement must be notarized.

This article was originally posted on Express Lien’s topic-specific Construction Lien Blog.

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