Legal Question in Construction Law in California

Mechanics Lien

My husband and I hired a handyman who is not a contractor to do some painting for us, as we are putting our house up for sale. He was recommended by a neighbor. He finished the work, although not very good, and was paid cash. He damaged some of our furniture by getting paint on it. Since we are not living in the house, my husband was not there everyday. This handyman was there by himself doing this work. When my husband returned on the day he was to be completed. Some of what he had done was not completed, and then he had started new projects like ripping up the carpet, which we did not ask him to do, but he had heard my husband talking about having to pull up carpet because new carpet was coming.

Now he has just served some sort of complaint which basically says we owe him $1400 and that we have 20 days to respond or a mechanic's lien will be filed.

I have just went into contract to sell this property with a 15 day escrow.

My questions are this: Does this guy have a leg to stand on?

What implications does this have on the title of my property as I am the owner?

What implications does this have on the title if I have already sold the property?

Is this something I have to disclose?

Thank you for your advice


Asked on 4/11/05, 1:31 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Gary Redenbacher Redenbacher & Brown, LLP

Re: Mechanics Lien

If the guy isn't licensed, you don't owe him a penny. In fact, you could theoretically recover every penny you've paid him to date. In practice, these unlicensed guys live from paycheck to paycheck so you probably will never get this money back. Nor can he maintain a lien on your property. He can record the lien, but there is a summary procedure for getting the lien back off. The problem is that you'll probably have to hire a lawyer to do it. Again, you can theoretically get an order that the unlicensed guy has to pay your lawyer (up to a certain amount). Again, you'll need some luck to collect.

If you really need to get the lien off in a hurry, you can purchase and record a mechanics lien release bond and then do the summary procedure to get rid of the bond.

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Answered on 4/11/05, 2:44 pm


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