Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

Illinois mechanic's lien laws are confusing to say the least. A general contractor (and that may include this business depending on certain criteria, and without meeting those criteria may have no lien rights at all...) has 2 years from completion of work to file its lien. HOWEVER the lien is NOT enforceable against a purchaser unless the lien has been flied within 4 months after the work is completed. You are not supposed to be liable as such as long as you were not "on notice" of the unpaid amount. Being on notice means you were given adequate assurances such as a title insurance policy that did not raise the issue. The first thing to do is notify the title insurance company, because they may be responsible to defend you against any legal action that is filed on the claim, and they would normally be entitled to reimbursement for losses, if any, from your seller if the seller gave the title company false or misleading information about the situation at the time. You may recall what's called an "ALTA Extended Coverage Statement" signed by you and the seller, if you got title insurance at closing. If you got no title insurance, then if the deed was a full warranty deed you may have an action against the grantor (seller), but if it was a quitclaim deed of any kind, you may have a problem As you're not sure, for a $22K lien I would take your acquisition information and the lien notice information to an attorney to review for a complete understanding of what is going on here. Then again if the business does not qualify as a contractor for purposes of the Illinois Mechanics Lien Act, the lien may be completely invalid and you may have a suit to quiet title on your hands....which should be covered by the right title insurance policy but again w/o a complete review it's impossible to be certain.

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was the lienholder made a defendant in the foreclosure action? if so, that lien may be extinguished. if you want to discuss further, contact me at 312-372-5600.