California | Construction Law
Legal Question
Our contractor walked off the job, and now we are involved in a mechanics lien law suit filed against us by a lumber supplier, who supplied for our framing material AND exterior siding material. Below is the summary of what happened:
1/5/2010 Lumber supplier sent a P-20 to our old address. We never received it or knew about it until the lawsuit was filed. Based on the amount and date on the P-20, we understand the notice was for framing material and the estimated amount is $47k. We later received lien release of $48k from the supplier in July.
From June to August of 2010, our contractor ordered and installed $20k of siding material from the same supplier. We received lien releases from our contractor (dated after the material delivery), but later learned that the contractor did not pay the lumber supplier for the siding material.
November 19, 2010, lumber supplier file a mechanics lien to the County recorder.
In mid Jan, 2011, lumber supplier file a lawsuit to both us the homeowners, the contractor, and our construction loan bank.
We have paid the contractor in full and of course don't think we should paid twice, but the mechanics' law isn't very homeowner friendly. The couple of arguing points that we can think of:
1. P-20 was sent to wrong address that was not on the building permit.
2. The intent of the original P-20 was for framing material and was not for siding material which was delivered more than 6 months later. We believed these were two separate orders (hence two separate contracts) and thereby a separate P-20 with a new estimated amount should have been served between June and September.
The attorney for the lumber supplier, however, claimed that one P-20 is sufficient for the entire project. We want to see if it is legitimate to argue that the two orders were separate contracts deserving separate P-20's with correct amount for each, because when the first P-20 was issued, we had no intention of ordering siding materials from them and had not talked to anyone in their company about potential subsequent purchases.
Share This On:
