Law Brief: Lien Times: Securing Mechanics Liens for Preconstruction Services
Benefits of a Stop Notice for Construction Contractors
Hot to Get Paid: Tips and Tricks for Construction Companies in DC, MD, and VA
Whether you’re a homeowner, contractor, or subcontractor working on a construction project in Massachusetts, it’s important to understand how mechanic’s liens work. This legal tool plays a key role in ensuring that those who...more
During any construction project, unanticipated impacts and revisions to project scope, schedule and cost are almost inevitable. For example, access delays and disruptions arise, unusually severe weather conditions are...more
Contractors, subcontractors, laborers, and material suppliers who perform work or labor upon or furnish materials in furtherance of any improvement undertaken by virtue of a contract with an owner, part owner, or lessee have...more
Idaho’s Mechanic and Materialmen’s lien statute can be found at Title 45, Chapter 5 of Idaho Code. If a contractor, materialman or covered professional timely files a compliant lien against real property for unpaid labor or...more
A lien, sometimes referred to as a security interest, is an interest in real or personal property that secures the payment of a debt or the performance of an obligation. The most common examples of liens are mortgages (deeds...more
Pay-if-paid clauses are conditional payment provisions regularly included in construction subcontracts. The intent of these clauses is to shift the risk of loss from a prime contractor to its subcontractors by making a...more
A mechanics’ lien is a powerful remedy that provides a contractor with a priority lien on a property and a fast means of being made whole if payment is not rendered at the completion of a job. In order to successfully obtain...more
General Contractors may seek to condition payments to Subcontractors by using “pay-if-paid” or “pay-when-paid” clauses in their contracts. Typically, as the name suggests, pay-when-paid provisions concern the timing of...more
Recently, the Oregon Court of Appeals reinstated a contractor’s mechanics lien claim notwithstanding the owner’s offer of payment because the offer was conditioned on the contractor signing a broad lien waiver that would have...more
The Company, Inc. v. Capstone Constr. Co., 2023-Ohio-3882 (8th Dist.) -Non-payment: the dreaded issue all subcontractors face. Tools, such as payment bond, prompt pay and mechanic’s lien rights and claims, can help secure...more
Mechanic’s liens have long been a valuable tool for mechanics and materialmen in the Commonwealth to secure their rights to payment. Yet, despite mechanic’s liens having been in existence for well over a century, properly...more
Lenders on commercial real estate projects typically require that the general contractor subordinate its mechanics’ lien rights to the lender’s deed of trust and other financing documents in order to assure the lender that...more
Lien claims can pose serious challenges—and immense frustration—for any owner or developer of a private construction project, particularly for those wishing to refinance or sell the property. An owner with a finance...more
Contractors or subcontractors who perform offsite work can face unique challenges when an owner decides to suspend or end a project. Luckily, states including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have legislation that offers remedies...more
You control two entities with substantially similar names that are general partners. You accidentally name the wrong entity in a construction contract. What could the fallout be from such a minor mistake? As a recent...more
On January 26, 2022, Governor Roy Cooper signed Session Law 2022-1 amending and revising various portions of the North Carolina General Statutes applicable to construction projects in the state. The relevant sections of this...more
Welcome back to our DMV Construction Law Series, where we examine a different set of legal issues important to contractors each month. For our second installment, we briefly examine certain key parts of Washington, DC’s...more
New York lawmakers are close to passing a law that creates automatic liability for general contractors when their subcontractors fail to properly pay their employees. Existing New York law provides at least a modicum of...more
Construction Counsel Sean Scuderi joins Rich Schoenstein to explore “Lien Times: Securing Mechanics Liens for Preconstruction Services” on the latest episode of Law Brief. Sean and Rich break down recent developments...more
What recourse does an owner (or other aggrieved party, such as a general contractor who is contractually obligated to remove sub-contractors’ mechanic’s liens) have for removing a mechanic’s lien from the property on which it...more
Disputes over payment are common in construction law. A Stop Notice is a powerful tool to compel even the most stubborn of delinquent accounts to pay. ...more
Within Virginia’s mechanic’s lien article is a little known, and little used, mechanism providing for personal liability of higher tiers separate from that article’s mechanic’s lien rights. The title is “How owner or general...more
For contractors and subcontractors, late payments can be an all-too-familiar part of the construction industry. Many assume the best of intentions—maybe the check is still in the mail? Maybe there was an emergency...more
A mechanic’s lien right is a powerful remedy to secure a contractor’s right to payment. Each jurisdiction’s mechanic’s lien statute is unique and most states strictly interpret/enforce the statutes. For multi-jurisdictional...more
Changes to Remedies in Lien Enforcement Actions - New legislation in Tennessee has limited the recovery of attorney’s fees, expenses, and actual and liquidated damages in instances where a real property owner seeks to...more