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Can I complete a mechanic's lien for the price a customer should pay rather than the discounted price we offered?

MississippiMechanics Lien

The customer told us that she had investors in her real estate agency that would be buying floors from us. We informed her that we could give her the discounted price on her personal property because of that and we waived the shipping charge. Since the client is refusing to pay and she told me she would not be sending us any business through her company we will be charging her the regular amount of 2.15 a sq ft rather than 1.80 a sq ft for flooring. We also want to charge her for shipping and we need to add taxes since she has stated she will not be paying through her business. Is that ok to charge her what she should be paying rather than the discount price? She says she is not paying because her husband installed the floors and they are popping loose. He didn't install them correctly and uniclick floors in a plywood floor trailor are causing the flooring to detach when the plywood caves. We did not install so we are not responsible for the problems she is having with installation. We offered to come look at it and help her husband fix the problem but she would have to pay us for installation help.

1 reply

Jul 24, 2018
That's a tough situation. Unfortunately, Mississippi is very explicit with what amounts may be included in a lien claim. Under § 85-7-403(3) of Mississippi's lien statute, a lien claim "shall be limited to the amount due and owing the lien claimant under the terms of its express or oral contract, subcontract or purchase order..." Further, under § 85-7-405(4), "In no event shall the aggregate amount of liens created by Section 85-7-403 exceed the contract price as determined by the terms of the contract or other agreement between the owner and contractor for the improvements made or services performed." Thus, if an agreement to provide materials was reached, those materials were provided, then payment wasn't made - the only amount susceptible to lien would be the amount of the contract or oral agreement for the work.
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