Free Forms and Resources on California Liens and 20-Day Notices from Sacramento Public Library

The Sacramento County Public Library has recently published a page with a good overview of the California lien laws, as well as links to forms, websites and other resources that can help contractors and suppliers understand and utilize liens.

The page leads off with this pithy summary of lien laws in California:

A Mechanics’ Lien is an effective remedy for contractors, subcontractors, and others involved in the construction or improvement of real estate to resolve payment problems. If a service or materials provider records a Mechanics’ Lien against the real estate being improved, the owner can not easily sell or refinance the property without first paying off the debt secured by the lien. A Mechanics’ Lien motivates the owner to make sure the contractors get paid, and is a prerequisite to filing a foreclosure action on the property.

And provides these resources, useful for anyone wanting to know more about California liens and preliminary notices:

- Nolo Article on California Lien Structure

- Free forms available through Sacramento County Public Library

- Information on how to record documents in California (great basic information about how and where documents like liens get recorded).

Free Lien Resources at ExpressLien.com

Did you know that Express Lien provides comprehensive lien resources on its website for free?  No strings attached, and no signing up required.

The best place to start is on our Lien Law Punchlists and Forms page, within the Support section of the Express Lien website.   Here, you can download free forms (for liens, notices and more), as well as a brief one-page summary of each state’s lien laws.   Currently, our most popular states are represented, but we’re adding more resources everyday.

Coming soon?   Useful links, videos, and more.

It’s our goal to be the single most comprehensive resource to contractors for construction liens and bond claims.   How are we doing?

New York Requires Service of Liens – Do You Have The Required Proof?

In New York, both public and private liens require just a little more than its mere filing.   According to New York Lien Statutes, they must also be served upon a number of parties, served in a particular and specific fashion, and proof of the service must be filed along with the lien itself (or within 30 days of filing).

You can learn about the mechanics of filing a mechanics lien from this great Avvo.com article:  Filing a Mechanics Lien in New York.

So, maybe you’ve purchased a lien form online or at your local Office Depot, or even downloaded the form on our website for free (its right here).   Filling it out and filing at the county recorder’s office is quite simple, and may not be too much trouble.   But, are you then prepared to properly deliver it to all the required parties?  And to execute an affidavit of delivery?  And to go back to the recorder and timely file your proof of delivery?

The time and detail required for these tasks can be overbearing.

And sometimes, as was indicated in the post about South Carolina’s service procedures, the process can be complicated.

At Express Lien, we file liens across the country day-in and day-out.  In New York, the cost of your lien filing includes delivery to all the required parties, maintaining proof of the delivery, and filing the proof of delivery with the recorder’s office.

You give us the key information, and we do the rest.

Plus, our industry-leading lien management and compliance system provides your company with the following at no charge:

• Manage project data and project contacts in web-based Lien Pilot
• Calculate lien deadlines
• Read the notice and lien requirements for your specific project
• Get lien law alerts when laws change in the states where you work
• Your lien documents and proof of service are stored online in your free account.

Avvo Legal Guides on Oregon and Louisiana Liens Published

Want a step-by-step guide on how to file construction or mechanic liens in Louisiana or Oregon?   Your call has been answered this weekend with the publication of Avvo Legal Guides on both these subjects, which you can view here:

How to File a Construction Lien in Oregon

How to File a Construction Lien in Louisiana

These two legal guides offer plain english explanations on how to prepare and file a construction lien in either of these states.    After reading the guide, you can visit Express Lien’s free Lien Punchlist & Forms center, where you can download more information about on the subject, and even download free PDF-fillable lien forms.

Want to dot your i’s and cross your t’s, and rest easy knowing your document will get filed?   Consider using the Express Lien service to prepare your lien, file and serve it, and then store it online for your records.

The two above-listed legal guides were written and published by Scott Wolfe Jr., who is the founder of Express Lien and the company’s President.   Separate from Express Lien, Scott is a practicing construction attorney in Washington, Oregon and Louisiana, with his construction practice the Wolfe Law Group.

He previously published a similar legal article on Avvo.com about filing construction liens in Washington, which you can read here.

How to Challenge an Improperly Filed Construction Lien

At Express Lien, we’re usually helping companies get construction liens on the books.   However, sometimes, your company may actually require the opposite:  getting an improperly filed construction lien off the books.

Co-founder of Express Lien, Inc., Scott Wolfe, is a construction attorney in Seattle, WA and New Orleans, LA, and he recently published two legal guides on the attorney rating website, Avvo.com.   The two articles discuss how to dispute a construction lien in Louisiana and Washington state.

Here are links to the articles:

• How To Dispute A Construction Lien in Louisiana
• How To Dispute a Construction Lien in Washington State

The article even points readers to a free template letter demanding the cancellation of an improperly filed lien.

What makes a lien invalid?  Read about common filing mistakes right here on the construction lien blog.

And avoid making common filing errors by having Express Lien prepare and file your document.

Lien Smarter…Get Paid.

Important California Lien Forms – FREE

Unlike any other legal document preparation service in California, Express Lien Inc. works exclusively for the construction industry, preparing, filing & securing construction lien documents for contractors, architects, and material suppliers.

Our service can help your company by:

• Preparing and serving preliminary notices for your construction projects;
• Maintaining copies of served notices and liens on our secure servers, accessible to your company through a secure login;
• Preparing and filing construction liens, and serving copies of the lien upon the property owner and other interested parties;
• Guiding your company from Lien Notices to Lien Cancellations, to help your protect your rights and get paid.

• Ensuring that your documents are prepared professionally and correctly, and filed with the proper authority.
  

We’re different from the competition because we do more than prepare forms – we do all of the filing and delivering work for you, and we keep everything available to your company so you never have to worry about proving that anything was filed or sent.

Express Lien is so confident in our service that we provide California contractors with California lien forms completely free of charge. Click below to download any of the following forms in PDF format.

1. California Claim of Lien Form (mechanics lien form)
2. California Preliminary Notice Form