Hello, I am a property owner in South Dakota. It has been 9 months since I paid a 50 % down payment to the general contractor to get a bedroom/ bathroom remodel done. The first crew of subcontractors walked off the job in October 2021 after multiple delays, disputes and stoppages. The GC hired a second subcontractor crew to complete the job. I paid an additional 25% to GC at that time. Today, March 2022 there is still final finish work, some electrical and light installations and all of the plumbing fixtures to be installed. Today the replacement subcontractor informs me he has not been paid for several weeks of work by the GC and is filing a lien against my property. What are your recommended next steps? Thank you....Read More
We have our house up for sale and a previous buyer who held our home under contract for 4 months and then backed out. During the process of getting their loan approved, their home inspector claimed that we needed some work done on our foundation to get the approval. The work was supposed to be done at the expense of the buyer and paid at closing. He performed the work, approximately $2500, but we never consented to the work in writing and no paperwork or contracts were involved with us. After the deal fell through, and now that we have a new buyer interested in the house, he is planning to file a mechanic's lien even though the arrangement was between him and the last buyer. If the lien gets filed before we close with the new buyer it could stop the closing. How do we fight this?...Read More
I put money along with another person into a property in SD and now the other person wants to change things and I want out. Can I file a lien to make sure I get my funds if or when the property were to sell?...Read More
I purchased a property on August 9th. The owner had work done to the property that they thought was covered by insurance. The insurance company didnt cover the work. The contractor filed a lien against the property after I purchased it and I was unaware at the time of purchase that there was anything unpaid. What is the recourse for something like this....Read More
I lived in a home owned by my mother, a verbal agreement that the house is mine and I would buy it from her. We decided to sell but only after I completed a ton of work and landscaping and driveway work to improve the value. I found the buyer and we accepted thee offer. Now mom won’t agree to share proceeds and I’m out with nothing. I filed a mechanical lien due for all I put into the house. She continues too harass me about getting out before it closes. She told me today that -the lien isn’t my (her) concern. I’m just asking for what I put into the house and the labor average for this work totaled $14g. Did I do the wrong thing and what are the chances I will get paid back? ...Read More
I’m a home owner some guy that did work on my house filled a lien on me he never finished his job I hired someone else he came back 4 6 weeks later and he was all pissed I hired someone else and demanded money we agreed on a price I paid him some of that money after when 30 days hit he filled a lien on me! Should I take. Him to court...Read More
I had an insurance claim at my house for hail damage resulting in window replacement. The Contractor I was working with had measured and provided a bid for labor. I signed the estimate and submitted to insurance for reimbursement. After payment, the contractor changed prices and wanted me to use different windows. He told me one price verbally and then sent an estimate at a substantially higher price. I felt as if his actions were unethical and I fired him. He is now threatening to put a mechanics lien on my house.
He has not performed any work, hasn't supplied materials nor has he ordered materials. The signed estimate does not have legal language and does not agree to any type of contractual obligation (no language at all). On top of that, he never countersigned the estimate and sent back to me. Trying to understand if he can file a mechanics lien? ...Read More
Contractor that I worked for was hired to "build" me a house. Since I worked for him, he said he was not going to many make any money on me, he was just trying to help a young family out. We agreed on a set price and began the project in April. Only work that was done by the actual contractors two employees was help me with framing the house which ended up 16k over his estimate and 8k over a bid I got from someone else. Framing was done at the beginning of June. From then on, he and his employees never stepped foot onto the property to do any work. Sub contractors were hired to do HVAC, electrical, drywall and insulation. I did everything else by myself with some help from my family. Halfway thru the project, he told me that we were 30k over budget. He printed off some paper work with all the numbers and sure enough we were over budget but he couldn't explain why. Come to find out when I was looking at the numbers yesterday, he added in random things like siding, soffit etc into the budget which was already paid for when we purchased the lumber/house package. Taking those things he added in out, we are back to the original price we agreed on. We closed on the house almost a year after we started it and he hit me with a lien a couple months after we closed. He wrote up some invoices for things that have already been paid for and filed a lien. Can he file a lien even though he has not done any work on the house since June (2 months after the project started)? All he did was pay the sub contractors that were hired with the loan I got for the house. Thanks!...Read More
A contractor filed a lien in SD on my commercial property which is also my home. He filled a lien on my property having the notary show a date as of Oct 29, 2020 and I received the reg. mail Nov. 7, 2020. The contractor never finished the work and I have hired a home inspector who has documented in writing endless things not finished, incorrect done with questionable workmanship. He has also received excess of 50K in payments and I have not heard from him for months. I keep thinking he was coming back because 6 or 8 months ago he left some of his equipment at my residence. The only thing that he has done recently was sent you young fellows to paint the concreate base that took 21/2 hours and charged me more then $750. dollars and billed me which was dated more then 120 days. ...Read More
My husband did a full roof 12×12 pitch 24 square tear off and reshingle. He got a check and when he went to cash it they put a stop payment on the check. We paid for labor and now our account is in the negative. What can we do...Read More
Contractor's attorney disputes validity of our Lien stating "it has lapsed due to your failure to enforce it. Under SDCL §5-22-8, a lien may be discharged for 'lapse of the time within which an action to enforce the same may be commenced without such action having been commenced.' SDCL 5-22-7 provides that:
All claims to liens under this chapter relating to public improvement contracts shall cease to have any validity or to be binding upon the public body or the contractor under the provisions of this chapter unless an action to enforce the same as hereinbefore provided shall be commenced within thirty days from the acceptance of the work for which the same shall be claimed.
...As of today’s date, A Thru Z has not taken further action to enforce its lien...because A Thru Z has not taken any action to enforce its Public Claim of Lien within thirty (30) days of acceptance of A Thru Z’s work, its Public Claim of Lien has ceased to have any validity under SDCL 5-22-7 and 5-22-8."
1. Is this correct?
2. If so, we were not aware of this requirement to maintain/effectuate the Lien. I would expect that zLien should have advised us accordingly at the time we issued it. Did they and we missed it??...Read More
Project is located in Sioux Falls, SD. Was delayed for 1 year+ at no fault of our own (subcontractor), and is now finally substantially complete (as of 4/13/18). Contract is paid to date with exception of balance pay app for $25K, plus $12K retention. We have submitted a claim for delay damages that total $11K which GC refuses. Our question is: are we able to enforce any lien rights for our claim or are the lien rights reserved for the contract price ONLY?...Read More