Anyone can send a preliminary notice on their own. Keep in mind, however, that in some states the law is very specific about how a notice must be sent. The important thing to remember...

Each state sets its own deadline, and some are stricter about it than others. In California and Arizona, for example, you must send preliminary notice within 20 days of first...

Most states (35 and counting) have a law requiring at least some parties on a construction project to send a preliminary notice in order to preserve their lien rights. These...

A preliminary notice is a document sent by a contractor or supplier at the beginning of a construction job. This notice informs the GC and property owner of their work...

Spend any time around a construction project, and there’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to hear the word “notice” mentioned a time or two — and perhaps for...

Before we talk about notices, we need to cover the basics of mechanics liens. After all, these notices wouldn’t exist without mechanics liens! A mechanics lien is a construction business’s...

In concept, lien waivers are pretty straightforward. A subcontractor waives x amount of mechanics lien rights, for x amount of dollars that the labor or materials provided were worth. However, there is a relatively...

Most of the time, a lien waiver is a document that you only see cross your desk when it’s time to get paid. But sometimes, your hiring party or a...

Lien waivers are some of the most common payment documents used in the construction industry, exchanged thousands of times each day. Unfortunately, the routine nature of these documents make them...

Requesting, tracking, collecting, and chasing lien waivers is a pain in the neck, and it’s a pain for everyone in the construction payment chain. Construction lenders, property developers, general contractors,...

Everyone in the construction industry knows what a lien waiver is, and these documents are signed thousands of times every day. In fact, that’s likely the industry’s biggest problem. Lien...

Here is an easy checklist that you should go through when examining a waiver and deciding whether to sign — or not sign. 1.  Have you already received payment? If...

Now that you know some lien waiver background information, it’s time to turn to the form itself. This is where navigating lien waivers can get really confusing. A dozen states...

In the construction industry, there’s a huge incentive to not only stay on top of standard credit and collection procedures, but to incorporate procedures to ensure your lien rights are...

Unfortunately, sometimes filing a lien is not enough, and there are several reasons why that could be the case. The property owner might be completely upside down financially, and they...

Once your lien is recorded, and you’ve notified the parties at the top of the payment chain, your job isn’t over. Payment isn’t automatic — you will likely still need...

If you’ve followed all of the steps in the process to protect your right to file a lien, and you still haven’t been paid, it’s time to file the lien....

At this point in the course, you should already be quite familiar with some of the factors that can affect your right to file a mechanics lien claim. But the...

Since mechanics liens are involuntary (meaning that the property owner doesn’t have to agree to them) and can arise with little to no knowledge of the owner whose property is...

When determining the amount you can claim in a lien seems like a pretty straightforward task, but there are a few things to consider. It’s important to understand that filing...