Instead, its the subcontractors, the sub-subcontractors and material suppliers who usually have preliminary notice requirements to meet, and the exact identity of the property owner is less certain to those parties. This post explains why it’s important to know who the owner is, and how you can figure it out.

You Can’t Notify The Owner If You Don’t Know Who It Is

This post needs to begin with the obvious: knowing a property owner’s identity is important because most states require potential lien claimants to send notices to the property owner to preserve its lien rights. In fact, while this requirement is mostly referred to as a “preliminary notice” requirement, in many states they are simply referred to as “notices to owner” or “NTOs.”

We’ve written ad nauseam in the past about why it’s critical to send preliminary notices. By extension, therefore, it’s critical to know who the property owner is.

Sending notice (or filing a mechanics lien without properly identifying the true owner) can be fatal to your notice or lien claim. While there are limited exceptions, most states are not very forgiving when a notice or lien mistakenly misidentifies the property owner. The entire point of preliminary notice requirements and the filing requirement of a mechanics lien is essentially to put the property owner on notice about your claim, and its impossible to provide this notice without knowing the actual property owner.

State legislatures understand that you may not know who the property owner actually is…but, for this point, they don’t really care.  They had to draw a line, and so they placed the burden on potential lien claimants to figure out who owns the property.

You Must Know The Actual and Exact Owner

Mistaken identity of a property owner is a common mistake, and it’s a critical mistake because preliminary notice and notice to owner requirements mandate that notice be sent to the actual property owner.

There are four common errors companies make regarding property owners, and I’ll discuss each.

1)  Mistaken the tenant for the owner

Everyone theoretically understands the landlord / tenant relationship.  Sometimes, the party occupying a property may not actually be the owner of the property. You can’t forget this in the preliminary notice and mechanics lien context, which essentially means this:  Don’t assume that the property occupant is the property owner.

2) Attributing ownership to a person, when property is actually owned by a company (or vice versa)

Frequently, parties on a construction project are encountering the property owner – and that means they are encountering and working with a real live person.  They come to know this person, and when asked who owns the property, they point to this person. This is a mistake made even by those who contract directly with the property owner on a construction project.

You shouldn’t forget, however, that it is very common for individual property owners to create a limited liability company, corporation or other type of business entity to own the property.  So, while you may think John Doe owns the property, the property may actually be owned by John Doe, LLC.  While you may think this is an unimportant detail, it is not. This mistake could ruin your lien claim.

3) Not knowing about a special property holding company used by the owner

This mistake is similar to the 2nd mistake, but addresses the situation when its known that a property is owned by a corporation or LLC.  I came across this issue the other day.  A client was filing a lien on a large company’s property (we’ll call it ABC Company).  The client knew that the property was owned by ABC Company, but assumed it was that easy. However, it’s very common for companies to create property holding companies to hold its property separate from the rest of its assets.

So, in other words, while ABC Company occupied the property and owned it (in a sense), the actual property owner was “ABC Company Holdings, LLC.”  Not knowing about this tiny differences can create a large lien or notice mistake.

4) Not understanding husband and wife relationship to property, and other co-tenants

The final common mistake relates to the relationships between co-owners of properties.  Properties are not always owned by a single individual or company.  In fact, they are very commonly owned by at least two people or companies, and when working on a residential construction project, the most common co-ownership is husband and wife.

When preparing notices and liens, claimants must be careful to contemplate that role of all owners. While the requirements vary from state to state, it’s frequently required (and a good practice) to list and notify all property owners on preliminary notices and mechanic liens.  This means actually listing and notifying both the husband and the wife.

How To Research And Find The Identity Of A Property Owner

You now understand why it’s important to know the property owner’s identity, and you understand some of the mistakes people make when identifying the property owner on a mechanics lien or preliminary notice…but, you may be justifiably wondering, how do you know who owns a property?

This is the bad news.

Most states do not require that the prime contractor disclose the property owner’s identity, nor is there any requirement that the property owner disclose his identity to potential lien claimants in any way. This means that if you don’t have personal knowledge about the property owner (and confident in it!), you need to do some research.  Unfortunately, this research can be hard or expensive.

To determine who owns a property, you can go to the mortgage or recording office where the property is located and research their records for the current owner. Some of these recording offices have an online presence with access to their records, but really, these are still in the minority.  Another online source for finding property owners is accessor websites, which have online access a bit more frequently than the court and recorder offices.  Try searching for these offices in the applicable county and examine their online offerings. You can even call these offices and ask the employees there whether off-site research of any sort is possible

There are also some online property record services that will allow you to research property records nationwide.  Examples of these services are DocEdge and PropertyShark.

Another thing to consider is using a preliminary notice and mechanics lien service like Zlien. When your company orders a notice to owner from Zlien or files a mechanics lien with Zlien, researching the property owner and legal property description is included in the price.  It’s another reason why it’s Smart to Outsource Your Preliminary Notice (and Lien) Work.

Get a free summary of a state’s laws at MechanicLien.com.

If you’re looking for a basic overview of which states require preliminary notice and which don’t, this post gives you a simple breakdown.

States That Require Notice

Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Florida
Kentucky
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Montana
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Mexico
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Washington
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Non-Notice States

Alabama
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Georgia (unless owner files Notice of Commencement)
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois (Except on Owner Occupied Residential Construction)
Indiana (Except on Owner Occupied Residential Construction)
Iowa (Except on Owner Occupied Residential Construction)
Kansas
Louisiana (except for equipment lessors)
Maine
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina (unless Notice of Contract filed by prime contractor)
North Dakota
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia (Except on residential construction when Mechanic Lien Agent identified)
West Virginia
Washington DC

Explaining This Post

This post reviews those circumstances when a preliminary notice is required from a subcontractor or supplier.   Typically, these notices must be sent to the property owner or prime contractor within a certain number of days (from 8 to 120) from when materials and/or labor are first furnished to the project.

This post does not address circumstances when a prime contractor may have notice requirements, or when a “Notice of Intent to Lien” must be sent before filing a lien.

It will be to any contractors’ benefit to review this article online, access which habits apply to you, and make an effort to avoid the costly mistakes.  Any progress will help increase your bottom line.

The seven habits highlighted are:

1)    The “Gentlemen’s Agreement” – A Handshake and Your Word.   Bottom line:  Get it in writing.
2)    Using Contracts that Fall Short of the Legal Requirements.
3)    Not Getting Every Change Order in Writing.
4)    Failing to invoice immediately.
5)    Failing to serve a preliminary 20-day notice (pre-lien construction notices)
6)    Don’t Worry – They Will “Take Care of You” on the Next Job
7)    It isn’t good “customer service” to record a Mechanic’s Lien

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.

Zlien 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

Unfortunately, the notice requirements are oftentimes confusing and technical. It is important, however, that your organization understand these requirements. If you lien a project without following these notice procedures, you will have filed an improper lien, and this could subject you to owing the property owner damages, penalties and/or attorneys fees.

The notice requirements in Washington are actually quite clear – the general rule is simply that everyone is required to provide notice to the owner (and/or contractor) except for those who are specifically excluded.

This post breaks the notice requirements into two categories. Category one is the catch-all, and regards all types of projects that do not fall into category two. Category two regards construction projects for the improvement of an existing owner-occupied residential property.

Category One – The “Catch All”
Category one projects are all of those projects that do not fit within category two. This, therefore, includes every commercial project, and virtually every new residential project.

Washington statutes provide that written notice of a right to claim a lien must be given to the owner or reputed owner in every circumstances except:

1) Persons or companies who contract directly with the owner or owner’s agent;

2) Laborers for any claim that is based solely on labor; and

3) Subcontractors who have contracted with the prime contractor

To properly deliver notice, the notice must be in writing and must be given to the owner either through certified or registered mail and/or personally delivered.

For the sake of clean record-keeping, it’s a good practice to send the notice via certified mail with return receipt requested, and to keep record of the certified mail number. If you send the notice via hand delivery, you will want to get signed acknowledgment of receipt to later prove that the notice was sent.

Category two projects are very limited in scope. They include only improvements to existing owner-occupied single family residences.

The following are examples of Category Two projects:

• Improvement of kitchen to existing structure on a single family residence that is owned by the person occupying the home;
• Adding a new room or new addition to existing structure on a single family residence that is owned by the person occupying the home.

The following are examples of projects that are not Category two projects:

• Improvement of kitchen to an existing structure on a single family residence that is occupied by a tenant, and not the owner of the property;
• New construction of owner-occupied residence.

When a project can be classified as a “Category Two” project, notice is required from the following parties:

1) Persons who do not contract directly with the owner-occupier, or their agent.

Therefore, if you are a handyman and you contracted directly with the owner, you would have the right to file a lien without providing the owner with a notice of lien rights. However, if you are a subcontractor hired by a handyman to do electrical work in a category two project, you would be required to provide notice of lien rights.

Summary
The goal of the Washington statute’s notice requirements is to protect the owner from being liened by a contractor who is not authorized to perform work on the property and/or by a contractor with no direct link to the owner.

When a contractor is hired by the owner directly, there is no need for that contractor to notify them that work is being performed at their property; the owner should know this as a result of the contract.

When not hired directly by the owner, however, to satisfy the purposes of the statute the contractor is usually required to provide notice to the owner that work is being performed. There are a few exceptions, as above-noted.

What is Notice?

In Louisiana, the lien statutes are drafted with a certain balance. On the one hand, the statutes were created to grant those involved with the construction of a project a privilege on the properties they build or improve. On the other hand, however, the statutes have mechanisms within to protect the property owners from being liened improperly, or otherwise without notice.

Unfortunately, the notice requirements are oftentimes confusing and technical. It is important, however, that your organization understand the notice requirements of the Private Works Act.

Contracting with the Owner / Resident

The type of notice required is called the “Notice of Lien Rights.”

This notice, again, is required when the following elements are present:

1) Work is being done on a residence;
2) You contracted directly with the owner of the residence. In other words, you are not subcontractor on the project;
3) The owner lives in the residence.

The Notice of Lien Rights to be sent to owners in residential projects is very important, because the law requires that it be provided before work begins, and not as a condition to your construction contract.

Lessor of Equipment or Other Movables

For example, if you lease equipment to a subcontractor, you are not required to deliver an additional copy of the lease to the subcontractor within 10 days of delivery because they will – presumably – already have a copy of the lease. However, you would be required to send a copy of the lease to the general contractor and the owner.

This puts those other parties on notice that you have leased equipment/movables to someone for the work at the jobsite, and if such notice is sent, you will have preserved your right to file a lien in the case of non-payment.

Seller of Movables / Materials / Equipment / Etc.

If the materials sold are incorporated into a commercial project, there are no notice requirements.

If the materials sold are incorporated into a residential project, and you would be liening a residence, LA RS 9:4802(G)(2)-(3) requires that you deliver a notice of nonpayment to the owner of the property at least ten (10) days before filing the lien. The notice must: