Believe it or not, Virginia is one of the strictest states in the United States when it comes to protecting contractor’s rights to get paid by customers in a construction contract. Because of this, there are numerous things that you have to consider in regards to not only securing your rights, but also know that they’ll actually give you the rights to file one, because their laws are also designed to protect the customers from possible false claims. In this guide, we’re going to give you some tips on how to secure your rights in the state of Virginia.

Preparing the Mechanic’s Lien Form

You can’t just jump in and get a mechanic’s lien first off without filing a Memorandum of Lien (although it’s one of the first forms you’ll fill out). You also have to make sure that you, and all parties that are working on a project (subcontractors, suppliers, etc.) are all fully licensed in their field. Once this is done, you have to start off with the Memorandum of Lien.

Keep Your Information Correct

Once the above step is complete, you have to know all of the details that you have to fill out. You have to know the owner’s information, as well as use your own, and then the lien amount, date that the debt was owed to you, and a brief description of the property you’re claiming for the lien. Lastly, you have to have the document signed and fully notarized legally to make it official.

Timing is Literally Everything

When you’re going to file a mechanic’s lien in Virginia, we can’t stress enough that you have to get everything done in a certain timeframe. In Virginia, you can file the claim no matter how far into the project you are, but you have only 90 days from the last day of the month that you finished working on a project (or delivered materials) in order to get the project paid for. Virginia has a 150-day rule meaning they’ll only cover the 150 days before the last day of work, so you may have to file multiple leans on the project if you are having problems getting paid for the whole thing.

Consider Hiring a Team

One thing you can do if need be, is hire a professional lien service to help you secure your rights, give you the right answers to all of your question, and have some help filling out all of the paperwork when it comes to a project. You’ll want to sign up with them and have them in play throughout the whole thing, but definitely begin your service with them before you ever start working for the property owner.

Conclusion

By using a high quality service to help you file your liens and preliminary notices, you can be sure to have the ability to get paid, no matter what the client in question (the property owner in most cases) has to say about it. The primary thing is that since you have a lot of paperwork and time aside from your actual job involved, you’ll need the help of a service like Bicanet, who has a reputable standing service that has proven to help secure billions of dollars in their long time running. They have numerous years of experience in the field of helping other contractors get their hard earned money.