thedonz is correct it will not go away and you will not get longterm financing without it being cleared up. Good luck guys like that give us all a bad name.

I have a good friend that had the exact same thing happen to him 2 years ago in North Louisiana.
The concrete company put a lien on his house over the drive way, the A/C guy did the same.

In the end, he had to sell his 300k house to settle the debts--he never even moved in. The builder's "company" filed bankruptcy, never paid a dime, and is still "building" custom homes under another business name.

Go figure.

Get an attorney--NOW!!

any chance the cement company is cemex? they are very lien happy,go see a lawyer,go see a lawyer,etc. good luck

You really need to know when the cement was poured.
If 90 days has passsed they CAN'T file a lien.

In Florida, you have a certain time limit to file "Notice to Owner", you can file it the first day on a job. If I have any doubt at all, I file it. It has come in handy at times. I think it's six weeks from the start to file the notice, then I believe you have 90 days after finishing to file a lien. I use a service to file notice to owners. They research and find out anyone who has a vested interest in either the building, land, or business, and notice them all. It's money well spent. It runs between $50 and $75 to use the service, depending on how much research they have to do. I rarely file notice on my jobs, because they are normally restaurant chains, and usually have no problem getting paid. I'm about to drop the hammer on one restaurant I'm done with. They are playing "paper chase" with me. As soon as I get the balance of my main invoice (they are still going to hold 10%), I'm going to invoice them for all the other work I had to do for them, due to them breaking tiles while trying to install toilet partitions, and putting their core drills in the wrong places. Just because I can't lien a property, if on the off chance I didn't notice them, doesn't preclude me from taking the company to court, but a lien gives you much more leverage.

If you got a construction loan from a bank it is their responsibility to get the waivers, the title company collects then and gives an endorsement to the bank, the bank then doles out the money. The title co guarantees the closing and that all liens are paid, that's their job. Someone made a mistake here and it starts at the title co, if they have a lien waiver for the concrete it was forged and will take the heat off you. I have been doing const loans for 21 years, we now have to have the sworn statement notarized or no draw leaves the bank. Builders do cry about this and do jump banks to avoid it but they are just fools and have no protection for themselves when needed. This and change orders in writing and signed bay all parties..more builders do these for free because it was verbal and the owner balked when the price doubled. I had one eat $65,000 for just this, the courts said sorry, you just did this for free. It is not enough to be able to swing a hammer anymore, you have to know the finance side too. The first step is to make the borrower get a const loan, don't fund it yourself with a credit line. PM me if you want more info or some advice.

Well, I'm no expert, but... I am a lawyer in Louisiana. :cool-smiley-011:

That being said, they CAN put a materialmen's lien on the house. (All you guys giving out legal advice without a license go wash your mouths out with soap now.) The practical side is if you aren't planning on flipping the house soon, buy the boat before the lien is placed. Then sue the contractor to get the lien off. My bet is the concrete company doesn't want your money, but they will take it if they have to. They want the contractor's money. They just want your help to get it. My $.02.

If you need help finding a lawyer, PM me -- I'll put you in touch with someone in your area.

Mitch, excellent point! However, I believe that is a recent MICHIGAN law. It might be different there. The reason I say this is up until two years ago one of my construction companies only required lien waivers from the contractor with no sworn statements at all.

A few months ago I got an email from my title company stating there were a lot of changes for construction loans, one of them being notarized sworn statements showing all subcontractors and in turn, lien waivers for all subs.

Four years ago when I built my house the title company manager(and friend) told me to get unconditional lien waivers from ALL my subs.

JLAY, first thing I would do is check with the title company and see if there is a lien waiver for the concrete.

In Wisconsin, you need to give written notice (certified mail) to the owner PRIOR to doing any work or supplying goods notifying them of THEIR lien rights. That is step ONE. Step TWO is written notice of INTENT to file lien and step THREE is the actual lien filing.

Again in Wis, most people forget about STEP ONE and by doing so, cannot file a lien.

welcome to the northshore... it's common practice with alot of these contractors .subs , etc since the storm..

hell, i had to sue my contractor when i bought 4 years ago in mandeville, he refused to take care of a minor punch list..

i sued , took almost 2 years , cost him almost 18% of the sales price after i dragged him through the system..


try to find a "established local lawyer" over there asap, like today!..and 1 thing i will say , the courts over here are NOT operated like the south shore..


also , who signed for the certified letter???

they just don't leave them in the mail box .