Construction lien from bad contractor
Six months ago I started dealling with with a marble instalation contractor on a bathroom reno that is part of our larger house reno in CG. The whole experience has turned into a nightmare. – No shows. Shoddy workmanship. Lackluster attempts to and patchwork solutions and a lot of lost time and money later, I…
Six months ago I started dealling with with a marble instalation contractor on a bathroom reno that is part of our larger house reno in CG. The whole experience has turned into a nightmare. – No shows. Shoddy workmanship. Lackluster attempts to and patchwork solutions and a lot of lost time and money later, I am at my wits end. Today he final installed the baseboard and the work is so shoddy that I cant accept it. Our budget is tight and I cant in good consience pay for the work that I will have to have someone else redo. Therein lies the rub…He is threatening a lien, if I don’t pay the last payment!! What recourse do I have? Is this a big deal? What are my rights?
Has anyone out there been though this? I could really use the advice.
Check with consumer affairs to see if this guy is licensed. Under rule 3015 of the NYS CPLR the contractor needs to be licensed in the trade in which he is working in in order to bring any action against you. This will not prevent him from filing the lien, but he wil not be able to foreclose on it. Most residential liens are never foreclosed because of the expense in doing so. The lien does not have to be justfied at the time of filing, however it needs to be filed within 4 months of the last time the contractor was on the property.
Please tell us what company or the name of this person so no one else uses him.
OP again. I’m with you Jake. I wont pay a guy who didnt do his job and a lawyer might be a necessity. Still I am always surprised by the crap that people will try to pull and even more surprised by what flys in the construction industry and more surprised still at the lack of protection for the consumer in the arena. Thanks to all for the feedback.
There’s not a lot you can do to prevent the contractor from placing the lien if he gets a judge to agree to it.
Once a lien is placed on your property it creates an encumberance on your title. Selling, refinancing, and the like become problematic.
If your contract is clear and the contractor didn’t follow his half of the bargain, why would you pay him despite his threat of liens?
Get a local Brooklyn lawyer (much cheaper than ripoff Manhattan expensive suit lawyers) who knows some real estate law to write the contractor a letter explaining clearly what will happen if the work is not repaired properly. Either your jerk contractor will turn chicken and you’ll never hear from him again, or he’ll comeback and do the job right.
these liens also have to be renewed on a regular basis, I think every year. So if you don’t plan on selling anytime soon it may not be an issue if he places a lien. Chances are it won’t be renewed.
Take the aggressive stance and let him know that if he doesn’t fix the work to your satisfaction you will take him to court. Then you can settle on just parting ways without paying anything more. Put together a little settlement agreement so that if he tries to claim you owe him money you can show that all obligations by both parties have been satisfied.
OP here. We have documented everything… pictures of bungled baseboard… emails documenting crooked slab. What concerns me is the NY Constrution Lien Law, that seems to allow contractors to place a lien with no court approval first.
How can I prevent that?
Also, check to see if he is licensed. An unlicensed contractor can’t get a lien (or at least, they can’t enforce it).
Sue him. Just estimate what the damage is that he caused and sue him for what you want from what you have already paid. Take pictures, document and then go down to small claims court and file a claim. You can do it up to 5,000 dollars for each litigation and you don’t need a lawyer. This contractor is talking very big, and he is threatening you. Don’t be afraid. We have laws to prevent being victimized. Good luck.