Hints and Tips on Filing a Lien for a Mechanic

Do you want help with lien filing? Then the first thing you need to know is that you have to be careful. The reality is that filing a lien is very unforgiving. Miss a single deadline by just a single day and your rights will be lost. It doesn’t matter what kind of lien you are trying to place or what you want to place it on, you must follow the rules to the letter.

Working out the Time Period for Filing a Lien

You need to learn how to work out the time period. Let’s assume, for arguments sake, that you are filing a lien for materials and labour provided on the 10th of april. This means you have 10 days to file your lien. Here are the rules you need to contend with:

• The first date, being the 10th of April in this example, should be ignored. You have 10 days after completion and the final day on which you actually did work does not count. As such, it is actually the day after completion that matters, regardless of whether that falls on a working day, a holiday or a weekend. So, in the example, your first day would be the 11th of April.

• Always make sure you use calendar days for your counting, and not working days. This means you should also count federal holidays and weekends. The exception is if your last day would fall on such a day. In that case, you have until close of play on the working day following the weekend or holiday.

So, in the example above, the last day for you to be able to file a lien would be the 20th of April.
You need to go to the Court Clerk or Recorder for lien filing. Do make sure you have looked into which of the two you need, as this varies from one geographical area to another, even though most counties have both a Court Clerk and a Recorder. You will immediately know and have proof of having met deadlines, because the top part of the very first page will be stamped with a date on.
You also need to be able to prove that you sent relevant documentation out. In case of a lien, this will generally be the pre-lien notice, which must be served. What you have to prove, through a date stamp and proof of postage, is that the paperwork was sent out before the end of the deadline. Whether or not the person who you are serving against received it within that deadline is not your responsibility.
Unfortunately, filing a lien is a complicated process that seems designed to make you fail. However, the reason for this is that if a lien does get placed, the courts know for a fact that it has a right to be there. After all, liens often force people into administration or bankruptcy, which is not something anybody wants to cause.