What is a construction lien?

Construction Lien Forms for All States Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Minnesota Michigan Missouri Mississippi Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

A Wisconsin construction lien is a collection tool to “provide protection for …[contractors, subcontractors and suppliers(1)] who improve(2) the property of others by furnishing materials or labor…" City Lumber & Supply Co. v. Fisher, 256 Wis. 402, 41 N.W.2d 285 (1950).

The lien procedure in Wisconsin provides a contractor with the ability to file a legal claim against the title of the property, and then foreclose on that lien to enforce payment of an outstanding balance for materials or labor which were provided to improve that specific property.

The foreclosure process requires a contractor to file a law suit against the owner(3) of the property, to force the owner to either pay the balance owed, or have the property sold at a sheriff's sale (auction), with the proceeds applied to the debt owed.

(1)"Any person who performs, furnishes, or procures any work, labor, service, materials, plans, or specifications, used or consumed for the improvement of land, and who complies with s. 779.02, shall have a lien therefor on all interests in the land belonging to its owners." Wis. Stat. § 779.03.

(2)"Improve" or "improvement" includes any building, structure, erection, fixture, demolition, alteration, excavation, filling, grading, tiling, planting, clearing or, landscaping, repairing, or remodeling which is built, erected, made or done on or to land for its benefit. This enumeration is intended as an extension rather than a limitation of the normal meaning and scope of "improve" and "improvement". Wis. Stat. § 779.01(2)(a).

(3)"Owner" means the owner of any interest in land who, personally or through an agent, enters into a contract, express or implied, for the improvement of the land. Agency will be presumed, in the absence of clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, between employer and employee, between spouses, between joint tenants and among tenants in common, but there shall be a similar presumption against agency in all other cases. Wis. Stat. § 779.01(2)(c).