Roofer did not pay for materials - lien

[sphinxman]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?
Louisiana

We are building a new home and our roofer did not pay for the materials. The lumber yard is now threatening to place a lien on our house. We were notified by a phone call from the lumber yard on Thursday Sept 9. Apparently the certified letter was sent to the building site and not to our mailing address. The roofer was paid in full for services and materials. We were informed by the lumber yard that this contractor has done this before.

Can the lumber yard place a lien on our house for non-payment of a bill from the roofers account?

Can the roofer open an account using our property as collateral?

Since we did not recieve any notice of lien in writing from the lumber yard, are we entitled to time to dispute this lien? The lien will be processed on Friday Sept 17.

What recourse do we have. Should we pay the balance and sue the contractor for reimbursement? Can we sue the lumber yard if the lien is processed since they knew that the contractor was known for doing this?

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?
Louisiana

We are building a new home and our roofer did not pay for the materials. The lumber yard is now threatening to place a lien on our house. We were notified by a phone call from the lumber yard on Thursday Sept 9. Apparently the certified letter was sent to the building site and not to our mailing address. The roofer was paid in full for services and materials. We were informed by the lumber yard that this contractor has done this before.

Can the lumber yard place a lien on our house for non-payment of a bill from the roofers account?

**A: yes and it is called a materialman's or supplier lien.
*******
Can the roofer open an account using our property as collateral?

**A: no.
******

Since we did not recieve any notice of lien in writing from the lumber yard, are we entitled to time to dispute this lien? The lien will be processed on Friday Sept 17.

**A: I don't know, but you have no argument if the material house can prove they did not get paid.
*****

What recourse do we have. Should we pay the balance and sue the contractor for reimbursement?

**A: ask your attorney. Maybe you can post a bond.
*****
Can we sue the lumber yard if the lien is processed since they knew that the contractor was known for doing this?

**A: no, it is not their job to disclose, but yours to inquire prior to hiring this loser.

 

[sphinxman]

Thanks for the advice.

What would posting a bond do?

 

[sphinxman]

UPDATE

We contacted the DA's office to find out what could be done about this roofer. They directed us to contact the police department file a complaint. Apparently there has been widespread misappropriations from many roofers in our area. The officer who took the report also stated that the same lumber yard has had a majority of the repeat offenders open multiple job accounts. When we contacted the lumber yard and told them that we had contacted the DA's office and the police, they decided to settle for a check for a partial amount of the balance due. They agreed not to cash/deposit the check until all actions were settled with the roofer. Fortunately this will stop the lien action. My uncle, who is a lawyer, will attend the meeting with the lumber yard and notarize all of the paperwork of our agreement.

All we can do now is press charges and warn others about this LOSER. Hopefully an investigation into this lumber yard will open their eyes to not allowing deadbeats to continually open accounts with them.

 

[JETX]

All we can do now is press charges and warn others about this LOSER.

Most of the victims of these 'gypsy roofers' become victims due to their own failures. So, what EXACTLY did you do to investigate this roofer BEFORE you hired him?? Did you get references and contact them?? Did you check his work history?? Did you make sure that he has been in business by making sure he is listed in the phone book and/or runs a yellow page ad???

Or did you just hire him out of the 'Thrifty Nickel'??

 

[sphinxman]

Actually, my wife was an employee of his company and witnessed alot of his work. When she was employed by him, he did quality work and gave a fair price. The quality of the work he did for us is exceptional. He advertises in the yellow pages and was known at several roofing distribution companies, including the lumber yard that is threatening the lien. A few days before we started the job, my wife and I went to the lumber yard to pick out the roof shingle. The salesman asked us who would be roofing the house. When we told him, he said he was a "good guy." In fact we hired him over another roofer, who was a "friend" of a family member, because he was insured and had professional advertisements. The other guy did roofing on the side with a "pick-up" crew and was not insured.

The lumber yard stated that he has always paid "just in time" to stop the lien; however, I am hesitant to believe them. The DA's office is curious as to why so many complaints as of late have been about roofers and this particular lumber yard. There were no other complaints filed about him or his company with the police department, ours is the first. Tomorrow we will be filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the state's Attorney General's office.

 

[HomeGuru]

Actually, my wife was an employee of his company and witnessed alot of his work. When she was employed by him, he did quality work and gave a fair price. The quality of the work he did for us is exceptional. He advertises in the yellow pages and was known at several roofing distribution companies, including the lumber yard that is threatening the lien. A few days before we started the job, my wife and I went to the lumber yard to pick out the roof shingle. The salesman asked us who would be roofing the house. When we told him, he said he was a "good guy." In fact we hired him over another roofer, who was a "friend" of a family member, because he was insured and had professional advertisements. The other guy did roofing on the side with a "pick-up" crew and was not insured.

The lumber yard stated that he has always paid "just in time" to stop the lien; however, I am hesitant to believe them. The DA's office is curious as to why so many complaints as of late have been about roofers and this particular lumber yard. There were no other complaints filed about him or his company with the police department, ours is the first. Tomorrow we will be filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the state's Attorney General's office.

**A: anything new?