Release Of Mechanic'S Lien. Release Of Mechanic'S Lien: Fill & Download for Free

I was right in the middle of a huge 3D rendering job when a former co-worker contacted me about doing a job for UMass Boston. It had to be done right away, so I said no.Two months later he contacted me again with the same job that had to be done right away and this time I said yes. He sent me the second worst set of CAD files I had ever worked from but I got the whole thing modeled in the course of a week and then requested information on colors and materials.And waited.And waited.For six weeks I waited, and finally got some poorly photographed images of the materials boards. I quickly incorporated the information and submitted a billing at 90% completion.Meanwhile, construction was underway. The facility would be done in a month or two and the renderings they were going to use for marketing could be simply replaced with photos of the finished construction. I received an email directing me to stop all work. I replied, sure, but I still expect to get paid for the work I'd completed.Three months went by. I would submit an invoice with a stern warning and be told, “When we get paid, you get paid.” Finally I was discussing the problem with an architect friend. He said, “Threaten them with a mechanic's lien. Schools hate mechanic's liens.”So the next invoice was accompanied by a message like, “I don't quite know what to do. Should I take you to small claims court? Take out a mechanic's lien?”The very next day I got an email from the architect: “Good news everyone! The client has released the funds and your check is on the way!” For the next two weeks I walked around saying in a Pee Wee Herman voice, “Today's secret word is mechanic's lien! Say the secret word and get paid real fast!”

I’ve actually done this, it is completely dependent on your local laws. I am in Los Angeles. My wife and I had a property that was a gift from her uncle. We put the property up for sale, and a scam artist who tried to steal the property from her uncle years ago placed a Mechanics lien on the property for her “Fees.” It was just over $750. Totally bogus, but still, we couldn’t sell until the lien was satisfied. We refused to pay her, so we filed a bond over the lien. We put up the $750+ as a bond, then she would have to foreclose upon the lien to get her money, but in the mean time, we could sell the house. Well, things sat like that for almost 2 years until I decided I wanted our $750+ back, so I started talking to lawyers, and no one could tell me what to do. It was a small enough amount that it wasn’t worth hiring a lawyer, but big enough that I wasn’t going to walk away. I started reading the Los Angeles laws on Mechanic’s liens and found a line that said, “The Creditor has 90 days from the filing of the lien to foreclose upon that lien otherwise the lien was forfeit (or something like that).” In other words, they only had 90 days to file a collection motion to the Origin trial (which there was none, because it was a Naked Lien… An illegal lien filed without a judgement). So, I filed a motion with the Superior Court (which cost me $450), asking that the lien be removed. We were granted a court date, and I showed up with my wife and her uncle. The judge asked me on what basis we wanted the lien removed. I said, “The law says that they have 90 days to foreclose upon the lien. It has been 17 months and they’ve taken no action. I would like the lien to be released so that we can reclaim our bond.”The judge asked her lawyer why they hadn’t foreclosed upon that lien. He asked for a second, and they started talking, after about 2 minutes, he said, “They were responsible for the debt of the former owner.”I said, “the bill they are trying to collect is an attempt at fraud, and besides, they are saying they did service for Mr. Uncle. Neither of us are Mr. Uncle, so the debt is not with us. “He said, “The work was done on the property, and Mr. Uncle is not available.”I said, “That is Mr. Uncle right there. Mr. Uncle, did you contract them to do any work for you or at your house?”Uncle said, “No.”The judge asked if they had a signed work order or contract, They said they didn’t.Judge said, “Well, I don’t see how you can collect from these people using a mechanics lien. If you want to sue them, sue them. I’m releasing the lien.”You need to find out what the local limits are to a Mechanics lien. They are not intended as a permanent restriction on a property, but rather a way to temporarily stop the property from being sold out from under the debt. There SHOULD be a local limit that they must foreclose the lien. 90 days, 180 days, something. Once you have waited that amount of time, you send them a 30 day notice that they need to release the lien, then file a motion with the court. Be sure to include the Filing fees and any lawyer fees in the request for damages.Make sure you pay for the Sheriffs to serve him. When they can’t, find out what you have to do to serve in absentia. You may need to place an ad in the local paper to serve notice. When the court date comes, he will not show (since he is out of the Country), and you can show the judge the Email saying he is out of the country, the letter from the Sheriffs that they could not serve him, the receipt for the advertisement in the paper or evidence that you followed the process to serve in Absentia, and ask for a summary Judgement to release the lien based on Non-foreclosure within a reasonable time.If the judge agrees to your call for damages, go to a collection agency and turn the debt over to them (they will take a percentage), and they will eventually file with the Credit agencies about the judgement and the money they owe you. Odds are you won’t get anything, but if they are in a country where credit ratings mean something, this will stick up their gum for 7 years.

My ex-wife took in her uncle so we could take care of him. He was sick, and his house had no heat. It was the middle of winter. Finally, she asked him to sign over his house to her. We got him to a doctor and found him a place to live where they would provide three meals a day (he had not had three meals a day since his parents died in 1984 - this was 2002). We put the house up for sale so we could invest the money to help support him.The day we accepted the offer, we received a bill from someone who had tried to steal his house from him about 10 years earlier. This woman scam artist had put a mechanic's lien against the house for $750, which we bonded around to allow the house to sell. We requested her to release the lien several times, but she refused. We would not negotiate with her because we did not want to give her any money for her expenses in trying to steal his house. Lawyers wanted too much to take the case, so I started to search the law. I found what I wanted and filed suit in Superior Court. She showed up with her lawyer. The judge looked at me and asked if I were an attorney, I said, “No, your honor. I am her husband.” He smiled. Her lawyer smiled. He asked me why I wanted the lien released. I told him that, according to the law, she had 60 days to foreclose the lien by either filing suit or taking some action. It was now 17 months since she had filed the lien that we bonded around, and she had not taken any action. I would like the lien released so we can get our bond. I would like for her to pay for our filing fees and $300 to consult with my brother, who is a lawyer.The judge lost his smile and turned to her lawyer, “Do you have anything to say.”The lawyer turned to her and whispered with her for a few seconds. He turned to the judge and said, “Well, they owe her for the work she did.”The judge turned to me and I said, “This is not the proper venue for that discussion. If she would like to argue that, she needs to file her own case. Given the amount, it would be in small claims court. As for this, to release the lien, we had to file in Superior Court. Court fees were $265.”The judge turned to the lawyer and said, “He’s right. Do you have anything else to say?”Her lawyer whispered to her and said, “No, your honor.”“OK, Rule for plaintiff. Plaintiff needs to write up the order and present it to me in the next three days.”Well, I won. Now I had to write up an order… Fortunately, I went to the city law library and stumbled upon a lawyer’s assistant. She had a similar case, so she handed me a copy of her order and circled places where I needed to change information. The judge signed the order. She mailed us a check for $265, and we got our $750 back from the bond place. She sued us in small claims court. I offered as defense that she did not collect within the statute of limitations (7 years), and we didn’t own the house at the time when the work was done anyhow. We counter sued for $5000… Because. We lost that, she lost hers, and she disappeared into the slime pool from which she emerged.