Sale of Land Jeopardizes Lien Recovery
If you begin work for Owner A on a given parcel but that owner sells its interest in the land to Owner B in the middle of your work, what impact does this transfer have on your ability to enforce your mechanics lien - especially for that portion of the service performed after the land sale?
According to this new Division 1 case, the impact is considerable - and negative. That's because the lien statute (RCW 60.04.051) assumes that the owner or its agent is the party requesting the service to be performed - and in fact makes the validity of the lien depend on that being the case.
So when the ownership changes from A to B in mid-stream, the work done by the contractor under its contract with Owner A but which now benefits the land owned by Owner B may well fall outside the lien statute because Owner B did not request the service. Keeping an eye on who actually owns the property is thus yet another to-do item for lien claimants under this case.