Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Pennsylvania

Re: builder not paying

There are some tricky possible issues here with the Mechanic's Lien especially with a sub-contractor for a Builder. Was there a "waiver of liens" agreement with the developer and, if so, was the waiver timely filed?

I don't know if removing the HVAC equipment would "cut your losses." You can probably get your full contract price together with interest, depending on the terms of the contract, when the house is sold and, again depending upon the terms of your contract, maybe even if it is not sold and that would almost certainly be a better recovery than the cost of the HVAC equipment.

Re: builder not paying

No, you cannot without the permission of the owner. You should file a mechanics lien, but the time limit to do that may have expired. Also, you should file a law suit against the contractor-there's no sense waiting any longer. If the amount is less than $8k you can do it in DJ (small claims) court without an attorney. If you're attempting to collect more then you'll need an attorney to file in our regular trial court. Good luck!