My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: TX
I purchase a home in 2008 and immediately had a pool built. I financed the pool as part of the original mortgage. Towards the end of construction I made a change order to have the pool coating changed. The prime contractor took a check for the whole amount of the change, claiming the subcontractor would not do the work without payment in full. The subcontractor did show up and do the work as expected. Immediately thereafter the prime contractor went out of business.
I will admit to being a little naive at the time - I did not know about the TX requirements on withholding 10% of the payments and I should have been more suspicious of the contractor's motives requiring payment in full but that is water under the bridge now. I was relatively lucky as I only had to finish off the landscaping and other small stuff despite the builder going out of business!
Anyway, the work performed by the subcontractor was completed in early November 2008. A few days later (November 15, 2008) I received a letter from the subcontractor by certified mail demanding payment pursuant to 53.083 of the Texas Property Code. We continued to pursue the prime contractor to pay the sub but were unsuccessful. On March 19, 2009 we received a letter from an attorney demanding payment in full and also stating that unless we disputed this they would assume the debt was valid. We responded in writing that we did not think the debt was invalid.
We never received any more paperwork of any form from any of the parties (prime contractor, subcontractor or their legal firm).
Now when I search the county property records I see that there is a "Homestead Affidavit Claiming a Lien" on my property. The line below that title states "Affidavit Claiming Mechanics' and Materialmen's Lien". This was filed in December 2008.
What are my options at this point - I would like to sell the property this year and this is obviously a problem. I thought I'd seen somewhere that a mechanic's lien expires after 2 years and a constitutional lien expires after 4 years. Is there a process to remove them?
Many thanks for anyone's patience in getting to this point and for any help you can offer!
UKMatt
I purchase a home in 2008 and immediately had a pool built. I financed the pool as part of the original mortgage. Towards the end of construction I made a change order to have the pool coating changed. The prime contractor took a check for the whole amount of the change, claiming the subcontractor would not do the work without payment in full. The subcontractor did show up and do the work as expected. Immediately thereafter the prime contractor went out of business.
I will admit to being a little naive at the time - I did not know about the TX requirements on withholding 10% of the payments and I should have been more suspicious of the contractor's motives requiring payment in full but that is water under the bridge now. I was relatively lucky as I only had to finish off the landscaping and other small stuff despite the builder going out of business!
Anyway, the work performed by the subcontractor was completed in early November 2008. A few days later (November 15, 2008) I received a letter from the subcontractor by certified mail demanding payment pursuant to 53.083 of the Texas Property Code. We continued to pursue the prime contractor to pay the sub but were unsuccessful. On March 19, 2009 we received a letter from an attorney demanding payment in full and also stating that unless we disputed this they would assume the debt was valid. We responded in writing that we did not think the debt was invalid.
We never received any more paperwork of any form from any of the parties (prime contractor, subcontractor or their legal firm).
Now when I search the county property records I see that there is a "Homestead Affidavit Claiming a Lien" on my property. The line below that title states "Affidavit Claiming Mechanics' and Materialmen's Lien". This was filed in December 2008.
What are my options at this point - I would like to sell the property this year and this is obviously a problem. I thought I'd seen somewhere that a mechanic's lien expires after 2 years and a constitutional lien expires after 4 years. Is there a process to remove them?
Many thanks for anyone's patience in getting to this point and for any help you can offer!
UKMatt
Contractors and Subcontractors: Subcontractor Placed (What I Think is an Invalid) Lien on My Property
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