ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Do We Need a Lawyer?

This is in response to Straightedge's question about Mechanic's liens- In NY anyone doing work or supplying material to a residential homeowner, with his/her conscent, has the right to file a lien against the property. That goes to contractor, sub-contractor or lumber yard. The law was designed to protect material-men from being cheated and the homeowner from being unjustly enriched, following that line of reasoning it is easy to see why the sub can file the lien, even without having the privity of contract with the homeowner.

Robert;
perhaps you could touch on the more repetitive mistakes that we as contractors make, maybe those that would merely require us to learn proper preventive techniques?

Sparky,

You would probably do better putting your question over at Robs' thread that he started ( here ) so that it would send him an email. I am not sure how often he checks in on things around here.

Bill

The biggest mistake in NY is the Statute of limitations on filing We have 4 months (on a residential property) to file the lien with the county. Usually this time period is eaten up by half hearted collection attempts. As far as all other procedural things they are straight forward. The only other quasi speed bump, that a suprising number of contractors get caught on is Conscent. You must have permission of the property owner, not a tenant or family member, to do the work in order to be entitled to file in Lien. In the event of a landlord/tenant siuation (mostly commercial settings i.e. store fronts), a short authorization to do improvements form signed by the Landlord is good practice before begining. With regards to family members, Some states (NY being one of them) have construed certain family members to be agents of the property owner, therefore allowing a lien to be placed. For a bit more info on Mechanic liens see the same title forum listed in the General discussion area.