Checking the validity of a mechanics lien on a owner occupied, remodel project by a sub contractor.

There are good attorneys in Seattle who can help you with this. In the meantime, while you look for one, you might want to tell L&I what is happening. A registered contractor who allows a sub to claim a lien has to have a bond to cover issues like this. You need to have a little more information. Save your documentation, including your contract and a copy of your cancelled check.

There is a statute for dealing with frivolous liens, but this sounds a little more interesting than that.

Hope this gives you a place to start - Elizabeth Powell

The Scaffolding Company would have had to have provided you with "pre-lien" notice that tracks specific language from the lien statute RCW 60.04 "immediately after having agreed to provide service." This must be provided in accordance with the statute in order to have the right to file a lien. Check your records. If the scaffolding sub did not provide this motice, it is likely that the lien is not valid. RCW 60.04 provides for removal of invalid (or "frivolous liens") and the recovery of attorneys' fees to do so.

From the information you've provided above, there are several issues you need to be aware of or you WILL pay twice for the work.

A subcontractor may file a lien against a homeowner if they have provided "Pre-Claim Notice" of lien within 90 days of the last day the subcontractor worked on a home. If they do, the lien is proper, valid, and enforceable. This is true even if a homeowner has fully paid a Contractor for the subcontractors ir part of the work.

The Pre-Claim Notice is designed to protect you (the homeowner) and any subcontractors from wrong-doings by you contractor. The notice follows a very detailed format and must include several conspicuous statements (there is an example on the Washington Department of Labor and Industries website).

The registered mail that you declined may have been that notice. Check these dates: the last day the sub-contractor worked on your house, and the day you would have received the registered mail. If there is less than 90 days between the two, and if the registered mail was the Pre-Claim notice, the subcontractor probably has a valid lien.

Consider calling the subcontractor and demanding a copy of the Pre-Claim Notice. If they can't provide it, there's a good chance you can move the Court to remove the lien. You get attorney fees with that, too. If the subcontractor can provide it and it meets all the notice requirements, then you should immediately contact your contractor to demand and receive a refund of all the money the subcontractor is claiming due to your contractor's failure to pay the subcontractr. If the contractor won't refund the money, you'll have to file suit (almost immediately) to get the money back.

There are many other considerations in your case. There are other required documents that you should have been provided with throughout your contracting/subcontracting process.

An experienced attorney can help you with all of this, and make sure you don't end up in a foreclosure of lien that will cost you even more money.

Good luck, Mark Arend.

Lien laws traditionally create double-payment liability for parties that have no contractual relationship with (not to mention control over) the lien claimant. Unfortunately, in this economy, double-payment liability is becoming an all too common experience for both owners and contractors. Fortunately for you, however, you fall into a narrow class of people that Washington's lien statute purposely protects from this kind of liability. As a homeowner repairing an existing owner-occupied residence, your liability to the scaffolding company is limited to only those amounts that hadn't been paid to the masonry contractor at the time you received the scaffolding company's pre-lien notice.

I think it's more likely that the Feb '09 letter was a copy of the lien that was recorded against your property (this is done to preserve the scaffolding company's claim for attorneys' fees). Still, assuming you were provided a pre-lien notice sometime during construction, depending on when you received the pre-lien notice in relation to your Nov '08 final payment, you could very well have limited or no liability to the scaffolding company. Of course, there is always the possibility that you were never provided a pre-lien notice, in which case the scaffolding company is liable to you for recording a frivolous lien; however, scaffolding companies are typically well rehearsed when it comes to getting their pre-lien notices out the door, so I would be surprised if the scaffolding company is unable to produce some proof of at least attempting delivery.

In any case, while I would need to know more, there are likely some opportunities to take care of this without much fuss.