Construction Lien Law
It's Good to Read up on Lien Law
Melanie Payne
February 15, 2013
If you are going to ever have remodeling or construction work done on your home and you don’t want to pay for it twice, you need to keep reading.
Audrey Child-Tomie hired a contractor for a remodeling job at her home in Cape Coral. After the work was completed she made the final payment on the $13,500 contract. Then she received a notice a lien had been placed on her property by the electrical contractor her general contractor had hired.
Child-Tomie said this wasn’t the first time she had hired someone to do remodeling work. One job was more than $100,000 she said. “And we didn’t have five minutes of trouble.” But that was when she lived in New Jersey.
It’s different in Florida.
Florida’s construction lien law states that if anyone does work on your property or provides material to the job and is not paid, he or she has the right to make a claim against your property.
Even if you have paid the contractor you hired, his subs, suppliers and laborers can place a lien on your property. As the Department of Business and Professional Regulation explains on its website, “This means that if a lien is filed against your property, your property could be sold against your will to pay for labor, materials, or other services which your contractor may have failed to pay.”
When Child-Tomie told me about her situation I thought she might want to contest the lien because she didn’t recall receiving a “Notice to Owner” from the electrical contractor.
The Notice to Owner is sent by the subcontractor or supplier saying what materials were supplied or what work was done. It has to arrive before the owner’s final payment is made and within 45 days of the time the contractor did the work or supplied the materials. A lien filed by a subcontractor or supplier can’t be enforced if the property owner wasn’t served a timely Notice to Owner. So it’s important not to ignore these notices and to record the date you receive them.
Fortunately, when Child-Tomie went to the clerk of court to contest the lien, she learned that it had been satisfied that morning. The contractor had paid the electrician.
Child-Tomie called to tell me her good news but said she still thought I should write about her close call. “We didn’t know about the lien law,” she said. “If we had it would have saved us a lot of headache.” She was sure others could benefit by knowing about it, and I think she’s right.
So here’s the advice Child-Tomie should have had.
Read up on the Florida Construction Lien Law. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation has a good summary of the law. Go to myfloridalicense.com and put “construction lien law” in the search box at the top right hand side of the page.
Before making any payments have the contractor sign a waiver and release of lien. If you have received a Notice to Owner, make sure you have a release of lien from that supplier, contractor or professional before making a payment to your general contractor.
When making a final payment require the contractor to sign a release of lien and a final payment affidavit.
I’ve written about this type of thing before and each time I do, Gary Taibbi writes to tell me I should provide a link for readers to get free “Release of Lien” forms. This time, I’m glad to oblige, courtesy of Clearwater Attorney Lee L. Haas. Haas’ blog at floridaconstructionlienlaw.wordpress.com links to all the forms you will need including a “Contest of Lien.” But if you follow through and get your releases and stick to your guns about not paying until you have the releases, that’s one form you aren’t likely to need.
The content of this article is intended to provide general information and as a guide to the subject matter only. Please contact an Advise & Consult, Inc. expert for advice on your specific circumstances.
SOURCE: www.news-press.com