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Old 12-16-2010, 06:14 PM
 
6 posts, read 26,660 times
Reputation: 11

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Welcome to TX and watch out! If you are having work done on your home by a contractor - like adding on - beware that if the contractor is paid by you BUT s/he never pays the subs, you as the homeowner are liable! We never even knew who the subs were - until we got a call saying "if you don't pay us we will put a lien on your house"! Wow. There are ways to protect yourself but we had no idea and after the fact is too late. Our builder admits he kept the money because he is broke and says he is sorry! This is awful! Watch out when you hire and builder/contractor. Ask him/her about this and see how they answer. It could save you tons of heartache yet alone money. No Christmas or vacations for us. Our builder took them all!
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Old 12-16-2010, 06:55 PM
 
Location: central Austin
7,228 posts, read 16,100,141 times
Reputation: 3915
two words!

Lien release

I am so sorry this happened to you. It is standard practice to hold back a substantial portion of the contractor's fee until you have the lien release forms from all the subcontractors. I do not think that this is unique to Texas.
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Old 12-16-2010, 07:17 PM
 
Location: 78731
629 posts, read 1,653,222 times
Reputation: 347
That's why there's payment bonds. And, yes, always get an affidavit of all bills paid (or lien release) from suppliers and subs before final payment.
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Old 12-16-2010, 07:25 PM
 
Location: Long Island
9,933 posts, read 23,150,229 times
Reputation: 5910
Quote:
Originally Posted by centralaustinite View Post
two words!

Lien release

I am so sorry this happened to you. It is standard practice to hold back a substantial portion of the contractor's fee until you have the lien release forms from all the subcontractors. I do not think that this is unique to Texas.

You're correct - it's not unique to TX. Same here in NY
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Old 12-17-2010, 08:03 PM
 
Location: Round Rock, Texas
12,946 posts, read 13,336,259 times
Reputation: 14005
One of my sons who is a carpenter/painter/tile setter was shafted by his contractor who didn't pay him for three weeks (subs usually get paid weekly). He walked off the job, taking his tools with him - but never filed a lien against the homeowner. He just ate the time & effort loss, which hurt him & his growing family pretty hard for a couple months.

However, last son heard, that contractor couldn't get a sub to work for him after his reputation got around by word of mouth amongst the blue collar "community".
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