I made a partial shipment (1/8 of the job) but did not file my prelien w/in 20 days of delivery. Is the entire job at risk because of this?
All is not lost! You can still serve a preliminary notice which will capture the value of all materials furnished in the future, as well as capturing the value of materials furnished inthe 20 day period prior to the date of service of the preliminary notice.
HI:
I assume this is in California, and in Ca, you can send a 20 day afterwards and it will cover deliveries from the day you send to 20 days prior. Anything before that, you can’t lien for if you were not paid.
You can still sue the person/entity you were in direct contract with tho, as that is a contract, not a lien claim.
In general: you can’t make a claim for work furnished more than 20 days before serving a preliminary notice.
So, for example, if you first began to furnish work January 1st and served your preliminary notice on January 20th, because a preliminary notice covers work furnished 20 days before, you would be able to make a claim for all work you furnished.
If, however, you first began to furnish work on January 1st but did not serve your preliminary notice until January 31st, because a preliminary notice only covers work furnished 20 days before, you would only be able to make a claim for work you furnished since January 11th.
In the future, try to serve your preliminary notice as soon as possible after first furnishing work.