I am a material supplier and do not understand the 150 day rule. Can you explain to me what this is and what I need to do to comply. Thank you
Under Virginia Mechanic's Lien law, your Memorandum of lien cannot include work that is more than 150 days old, except for retainage. This gets confusing because you also cannot lien the project more than either (a) 90 days from the last day on which you supplied materials or (b) the 90th day of the last day of the month in which work was last performed on the project if the work proceeded after you stopped work.
In the case of a material supplier, the 150 day rule usually comes up in the context of a "continuing contract," where all purchases are covered by a blanket purchase agreement. Under such an agreement, the 90 day time period is triggered by the last material delivery. In that case, you may not include in your lien any materials supplied more 150 days before you filed the lien memorandum. The safest way to deal with this issue is to lien the project within 90 days of each upaid delivery.
Because liens are tricky, you should be contacting you lawyer about the lien well before the 90-day period. I usually recommend that start that process at day 60.
William,
Thank you for your reply. One more thing regarding my job, it is a HUD project. Will that effect my ability to file a lien?