Don't Miss The California 20 day Preliminary Notice Deadline!If you mail the California 20 Day Preliminary Notice within the time-frame allowed then you can usually lien for 100% of what is owed you. (Preliminary Notice forms and Notice to Owner forms for other states) Miss the preliminary notice deadline and you'll probably lose some lien rights!If you mail the notice after the 20 days, then you won't have lien rights on the time prior to the 20 days.Now please note, I am not an attorney nor do I (nor can I) give legal advice. I strongly suggest that you contact a legal professional to advise you for your specific situation(s). The articles I write are designed to provide the general information you need, not to provide legal advice.When sending a California 20 day preliminary notice an original MUST be sent to each of the parties involved such as, the general contractor, the owner, the lender/surety if applicable, the lease hold owner, the trust fund, etc. etc., and it must be mailed certified or registered. Note: While requesting (and paying for) the return receipt is not required, I highly recommend that you do. If you leave it to the post office to keep track of the receipt but the post office loses the receipt (of course this is hypothetical because we all know that the post office never loses anything, right? ;). You have to be able to provide proof that your notice was mailed and received, and you can't do it without that return receipt. I've included, with the California 20 day Preliminary Notice form that we have available for download, an in-depth tutorial on all aspects of the preliminary notice, from preparing it yourself to keeping track of those return receipts to various other methods and who to contact should you have troubles getting paid.
Next article in this series: California 20 day preliminary notice Getting the prelim info from your customer All articles in this series: California law governs the text of the preliminary notice form Make sure your preliminary notice form has the correct text or you may end up without lien rights California 20 day Preliminary notices protect your lien rights Learn how preliminary notices protect your lien rights California Preliminary Notices can protect against being "stiffed" Read on, you'll be shocked at how easy it is to get "stiffed" when you don't protect your right to lien... 20 Day Preliminary Notices and mechanics liens Important: Even if the Owner has paid YOUR customer in full, if you haven't been paid you STILL file your lien. Here's why... California 20 Day Preliminary Notices, the 20 day mark What the 20 days means... Additional Articles: Certified Preliminary Notice mailings that are refused California civil code protects you against refused certified mailings of 20-day preliminary notices Photo-Copied Signatures on California 20-Day Preliminary Notice Forms The preliminary notice form itself can be a photocopy but the signature must be original or "wet" Amending Preliminary Notices You've issued your preliminary notice and now your customer is increasing the amount of work he wants done. Should you amend your preliminary notice by sending another one? Preliminary Notices and Non-Responsibility Forms The Owner filed a Notice of Non-Responsibility. Should the contractor/supplier still send the Owner a preliminary notice? Dollar Amounts on Preliminary Notice Forms Do you need to include a dollar amount on preliminary notices or can you send it without a dollar amount? |
