Mechanic’s Liens and Preliminary Notices in Illinois

When you are working on a project in Illinois, there may be times when you have trouble getting the payment you deserve from your client. If you don’t end up getting paid on time, you may end up having the right to file what’s called a mechanic’s lien in Illinois so you can ensure that you get paid. What some contractors don’t know, is that there are time limits in place, and that in the state of IL, you need to meet certain criteria in order to file for the lien. We’ll cover a bit of that in this guide, so you can make sure you get your lien if you have to.

What About Commercial Jobs

For commercial job liens, you can actually claim them in IL, but you have to make sure that your commercial client receives what’s called a courtesy notice. You do this to let the customer know that if they’re not going to pay you, then you’re going to go to the courthouse and file a mechanic’s lien, forcing them to pay. You will do this in the office of the County Recorder at the county your job is in.

If you have a good lien filing company that can help you ensure that you meet all deadlines with the courtesy letter, then you should have no problem. You need to know that the preliminary notice needs to be sent to the client by the first 90 days after the materials are placed onsite. Some companies who may be shady will make sure that this warning gives them the incentive to pay up when the time comes.

Residential Liens

When you’re doing a project on an owner’s home, you need to do a bit more than you would for a commercial project. For starters, you’ll have to send the notice of intention to your customer that’s not wanting to pay you. This is what is called the preliminary notice. If you do this, then you’re basically letting them know that if you don’t get paid at the end of the project, you’re going to do what you have to in order to get paid, even if that means taking legal action. So, there are no questions as to whether or not they need to pay and what they need to pay upon completion of the job.

After the job is done though, you have to follow the dates and timing practices just the same in order to file your construction liens. You have 90 days to send this notification to the customer just as you would in a commercial job.

Just make sure you make it within the window of opportunity or you will be out of luck and will not have a leg to stand on in court if something were to go wrong and the customer does not pay.

That is where services for mechanic's liens come into play. They make sure all your “I’s” are dotted and “T’s” are crossed. It may not sound important now, but just wait until you have a situation and you will know how important this step is and not to overlook it.

Conclusion: Get What You Need

When you file a lien, you have to do a ton of paperwork, but if you hire a company like BICA Net, you’ll be able to get all of the paperwork done for you so you can have your payment secured on time, every time. There aren’t a lot of companies that can claim the success rate that BICA Net has in the years that they’ve been around. They have helped secure the payment of millions of contractors in their long history of helping reputable contractors and construction companies since they started decades ago.