The Lien Zone

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By: The Barthet Firm

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Alex Barthet
Patrick Barthet
Robert Klasfeld

Latest from The Lien Zone

You’ve likely heard that to recover your incurred legal fees in a case, you either have to have a prevailing party attorney’s fee provision in your construction contract or you must be suing or be sued under a statute which allows for the recovery of fees. That’s true. But what you may not know is that a proposal for settlement (previously called an offer of judgment) may also allow a party to recover his/her legal…
Ensuring you get paid on a public project can be tricky if there’s no bond.  As a subcontractor, a sub-subcontractor or a supplier, you may consider yourself lucky to have been selected for a public job. Why?  Because in the event you are not paid, you believe you can put your faith in payment bonds, a type of debt security that municipalities use to finance new projects and improvements.  But it doesn’t always work…
Who doesn’t want to have a detailed and coherent construction agreement in place on every job? It minimizes confusion, makes clear everyone’s respective responsibilities, and should reduce disputes. You can do so by simply making sure you address the following 6 topics. Define the scope You need to define what the scope of work is that you will be providing. Will it be only materials; will it be materials and labor; or will it be…
Retainage is a part of every pay application, especially on a commercial job. But you may be in luck if you’re working for a local municipality. That’s because at 50 percent completion “… most public entities must reduce to 5 percent the amount of retainage withheld from each subsequent progress payment made to the contractor”. The term “50-percent completion” means the point at which the public entity has expended 50 percent of the total cost…
A contractor’s final affidavit is a document advising the owner of a property that the contractor is asking for final payment. The document lists any unpaid lienors. If there’s nobody that has lien rights and unpaid, there’s a section in the form to indicate that. Know that this form titled contractor’s final affidavit and found in Florida’s lien law statute only needs to be sent by those that have a direct contract, also known as…
A contractor’s final affidavit is a document advising the owner of a property that the contractor is asking for final payment. The document lists any unpaid lienors. If there’s nobody that has lien rights and unpaid, there’s a section in the form to indicate that. Know that this form titled contractor’s final affidavit and found in Florida’s lien law statute only needs to be sent by those that have a direct contract, also known as…
Courts have found that an original design of a building embodied in any tangible medium of expression, including plans or drawings, is subject to copyright protection. Unhappy with the final bid price he received from contractor A, an owner sought out contractor B and provided him copies of contractor A’s plans and specifications, after having first deleted contractor A’s name and address. Contractor B provided a lower price and was retained by the owner. However, nearly all aspects…