SS/SCS/HCS/HB 2058 - This act modifies the law relating to mechanic's liens against residential real property.Those seeking to preserve the right to assert a mechanic's lien against residential real property, shall record a notice of rights in the office of the recorder of deeds for the county in which the property is located not less than 5 days prior to the intended closing date as stated in a notice of intended sale. A claimant accurately identified in a previously recorded notice of rights shall not be required to record a notice of rights. Those failing to record notice shall waive their right to assert a claim. A notice of rights filed after the owner's conveyance of the property to a bona fide purchaser for value shall not preserve the filer's rights to assert a claim. The act contains the form of notice to be used.
The recorder of deeds shall record the notice in the land records whereby the owners shall be designated "grantors" and claimants shall be designated "grantees". The grantee's signature shall not be required for recording.
If the record title owner has contracted with a claimant to perform work on the property to facilitate a sale, the owner shall record a notice of intended sale in the office of the recorder of deeds no less than 45 days prior to the earliest date the owner intends to close on the sale of the property. The notice shall state the intended date of closing.
The owner's recording of a notice of intended sale is a condition precedent to a claimant's obligation to record a notice of rights in order to retain mechanic's lien rights. The owner shall post a copy of the notice of intended sale at the property.
The owner shall provide a claimant with a copy of the notice of intended sale and a legal description within 5 days after the date of the owner receives a request from the claimant to do so. A claimant shall then provide any entity with which it has contracted the same notice within 10 days of a request.
Owners failing to record or disclose shall be liable for the claimant's actual and reasonable costs, including attorney's fees to obtain a legal description of the property. Owner's failure to deliver the information shall not affect the claimant's obligation to record a notice of rights.
Owners shall not be liable for error in the content of its disclosures. If the claimant relies in good faith upon the legal description provided by the owner, the notice shall comply and the rights to assert a lien shall be retained.
Currently, mechanic's lien claimants are required to file a just and true account of the demand due under section 429.080 when filing a lien. This act enumerates the items that shall be required to satisfy that requirement with respect to liens against residential real property.
Those wishing to have one's property released from a mechanic's lien may do so by depositing a sum, to act as substitute collateral for the lien, in an amount not less than 150% of the lien with the circuit clerk and record a certificate of deposit with the circuit clerk that includes a listing of the sum deposited, the name of the claimant; the number assigned to the lien; the amount being released; the legal description of the property; the name, address, and property interest of the person making the deposit; and a certification that the person has mailed a copy of the certificate of deposit to the claimant. Upon release of the property from the lien, by depositing the substitute collateral, the claimant's rights are transferred from the residential real property to the substitute collateral.
Requirements for valid, unconditional, final lien waivers for residential real property are enumerated and the form supplied. Such waivers are valid notwithstanding the claimant's failure to receive any promised payment or other consideration.
Claimants who have recorded a notice of rights and who have been paid in full for the work performed shall timely execute an unconditional, final mechanic's lien waiver.
This act is similar to SB 893 (2010), SB 934 (2010), and SB 935 (2010).
CHRIS HOGERTY