10K in outstanding invoices in Texas . The oldest goes back to FEB 2018
1 reply
Sep 17, 2018
I'm sorry to hear you've gone unpaid. First, constitutional liens are available in Texas only to those parties who directly contract with a property owner. So if a claimant has contracted with someone other than the property owner, a constitutional lien won't be an available option. If a party is under direct contract with the property owner, filing a constitutional lien can be a good way to compel payment while also avoiding the strict notice and deadline requirements of statutory liens in Texas.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of a constitutional lien is that no filing is technically required. The lien arises by virtue of the work performed with no subsequent action required by the lien claimant. As a practical matter, though, filing a constitutional lien in the same manner as a statutory lien is generally a good idea - unless the lien claim is filed, forcing payment via the lien would be tough. Plus, if the property is sold or mortgaged and a constitutional lien has not actually been filed, the claimant's rights will suffer.
As for actually filing the constitutional lien, it's pretty simple. A claimant can do so by filing a document identified as a constitutional lien in much the same way that a statutory lien is filed. For more info on how statutory liens are filed, this article should help: How To File Your Texas Mechanics Lien and Get Paid.
But again - recall that there's no deadline for a constitutional lien, but also that a constitutional lien should be filed prior to the sale or further leveraging of the property for best results.