I’m general contractor that invested my time and money after the original investors ran out of money and the agreement was that I would get my money back when the home sales. I filed a lien to protect my interest but they changed name on title but that did not show up until after I filed the lien. The house is still for sale but under the investors name and not the original owner.
First, I would never advise a GC to "front" time and materials in the hopes of being paid from the sale without a written contract to that effect. However, since it is done, you have a constitutional lien since you have a direct agreement/contract with the Owner. This type of lien is in many ways superior to a typical Chapter 53 M&M lien. A constitutional lien is self-executing - which means you do not have to send notices out prior to the lien being perfected. Rather, you can file a Notice of Claim of Lien with the County Clerk to place everyone on notice of your claim. It sounds like you did that. Also, since this appears to be an investment property or spec home, it is not subject to the protections given to homes that are homesteads, which is good. As long as you filed the lien and properly identified the owner that you believed in good faith to be the owner at the time, you should be fine. If the record title owner changed after that, I would file an amended lien that (1) claims both the Chapter 53 lien and the Constitutional Lien, and references BOTH purported owners - do not take off the first one, just add the new one. I would get that on file ASAP so that it is recorded when the title company does the title search. It will come up as a claim on the title, which will have to be cleared to close. Once that is done, send a demand letter and give them a deadline to pay. If they do not, then file suit to foreclose or wait for the house to go under contract. But, there are time limits to file suit to foreclose liens so you should consult an attorney promptly.
Good luck.
Joel Pace