Running the Business · Part 3

Mechanics liens II: recording deadlines, the 90-day foreclosure clock, the four statutory release forms, stop payment notices, and payment bonds on public work

The preliminary notice keeps the lien right alive. This lesson is the right itself: the window in which a lien must be recorded after the job ends, which is shorter than most contractors think and shorter still if the owner records a notice of completion; the claim of lien's required contents and the Notice of Mechanics Lien that must be served on the owner or the lien is void; the 90-day deadline to file the foreclosure suit; and the four statutory waiver and release forms that are the only lawful way to give up lien rights, with the difference between conditional and unconditional that has cost contractors whole invoices. It closes with the two tools that replace the lien where the lien cannot reach: the stop payment notice on private jobs with a lender, and the payment bond on public work.