Mechanic's liens and construction claims

Business & Civil Litigation

Deadlines run from the month the work was performed, not from the argument about payment.

Texas gives contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and labourers a statutory lien against the property they improved. It is powerful — it clouds title, it interferes with financing and sale, and it usually produces a conversation that months of invoices did not. It is also governed by notice and filing deadlines calculated from the month in which labour or materials were provided, and those deadlines are applied strictly. Days matter, and a late notice generally cannot be cured.

The sequence, in outline

• Track the months. Every month of unpaid work starts its own clock. Waiting to see whether payment arrives is what destroys most lien rights.
• Send the required notices. Subcontractors and suppliers must give statutory notice to the owner and, where applicable, the original contractor, by certified mail within the statutory window.
• File the lien affidavit in the county property records within the deadline for the project type, then send the required copy to the owner and contractor.
• Enforce. A lien must be foreclosed by suit within the statutory period or it expires. A recorded lien that is never enforced eventually becomes worthless.

Residential and non-residential projects carry different deadlines, and homestead property adds its own requirements — including a contract signed by both spouses before work begins and specific disclosures, without which a lien on a homestead generally fails.

Who holds lien rights

• Original contractors who dealt directly with the owner.
• Subcontractors and sub-subcontractors, subject to the notices that apply to their tier.
• Material suppliers and equipment lessors.
• Labourers and individual workers.
• Design professionals — architects, engineers and surveyors — where the work meets the statutory requirements.

The notices, in practical terms

Three questions decide whether a notice worked: who had to receive it, when it had to be delivered, and whether you can prove it was delivered. Notices go by certified mail to the owner and, depending on your tier, to the original contractor, within a window measured from the month the work was performed. Keep the green cards and the tracking. A notice you cannot prove you sent is a notice you did not send.

Getting paid once the lien is filed

A recorded lien changes the conversation, and most claims resolve from there: a payment demand, a negotiated settlement, or an agreed payment schedule with the lien released on clearing. Where it does not, the claim is enforced by suit and a court order for foreclosure. Lien releases should be exchanged at the right moment and in the correct statutory form — releasing early is how contractors end up unsecured and unpaid.

Before the job starts

The cheapest work in this area is contract review: payment schedules, retainage clauses, pay-when-paid provisions and the notice requirements the contract imposes on top of the statute. Knowing what your own subcontract says about payment is what lets you act on day thirty rather than day ninety.

Other routes to payment

• Constitutional lien — available to an original contractor who dealt directly with the owner, without the statutory filing requirements, though weaker against subsequent purchasers.
• Payment bond claims on bonded private projects and on state and local public work, where a lien against public property is not available and the bond is the remedy.
• Federal Miller Act bond claims on federal construction projects, which run on their own notice and suit deadlines.
• Prompt payment statutes, which can add interest to wrongfully withheld payments and give a contractor a right to suspend work.
• Trust fund claims, where money paid for the project went somewhere else.

If a lien has been filed against your property

Do not ignore it. There are procedures to remove an invalid or fraudulent lien, including summary motions to remove and bonding around the lien so a sale or refinance can proceed. Deadlines apply to your response as well, and a lien filed by someone with no lien rights, or filed late, or covering amounts never owed, can and should be challenged.

Common questions