Many people are not aware that they must lien a property within 45 days of last doing work on property or supplying materials to that property. This means that you have 45 days within which to registry a builders lien at the land titles office against the certificate of title to the property involved .
Registering a builders lien gives you significantly more ability to collect money owing to you than if you are simply to sue the contractor or the owner as the case may be. If you did work for the contractor you can sue the contractor but you’re not able to sue the owner unless you have filed a lien. If your commencing a lawsuit for the unpaid debt, you can only sue the party with whom you have a contract. If that’s not the owner, then you’re not able to sue the owner. Of course if you did work for the owner or supplied materials directly to the owner, then you can sue the owner
However if you did work for contractor and you file a lien within 45 days of last doing workers by materials, the law allows you to sue both the contractor and the owner. Also filing a lien prevents the sale of the property or if it’s a property under construction, it delays any mortgage advances until your lien is dealt with and paid. These are all remedies under the law but they only exist if you file your builders lien within 45 days.
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