Mechanics lien on Flip property for undone work and no contract

[Christopher Dunson]

I have someone who had no license when doing work for me, and now has a handyman's license organizing and subcontracting work on my flip. Initially, I told him that I may have to wait to pay him $15000 for work done until the house sells. He said that's perfectly fine. I have done 3 projects with this guy, and never had a problem. This is a first. I was able to pay him for everything up until we had about $4500 left. We had a disagreement, when I told him I have to wait till the home sells for the rest, and he left without finishing. He only finished around $2000 of work. Later he told me I owe him $4500, I need to pay him, and he'll finish the work. I told him I want to pay him, but he will have to wait. He put a lien on my property for all of the work including the unstarted and unfinished work plus $3500 for nothing. I cannot sell the home, therefor I cannot pay him.

I have since finished the remaining work with somebody else, and got a leaky roof( which he subcontracted out, and then would not give me the phone number to call, nor did he send the roofer back). There are numerous things I later found besides the roof that are done badly or unfinished, ex: 10 outlets not working, or not grounded, or reversed.

I have an offer on the house to close in 28 days, and am looking for quick solution, and or long term action, as trying to mediate the situation with him face to face seems to be costing me and getting me nowhere. Thank you.

[Christopher Brainard]

Originally posted by @Christopher Dunson:

@Christopher Brainard Luckily, everything is permitted to the best of my knowledge.

If you're located in Las Vegas, I have some bad news for you, there is no such thing as a handyman license in Nevada and unlicensed contractors can't pull permits, so I highly doubt anything is permitted. Your handyman is probably working under a standard business license, which forbids being paid or accepting payment for more than $1000 on any job or for any customer in a given year. If you're holding the property in your personal name and you intend to live there, you can pull permits, but they make you sign a form under penalty of perjury that you don't' sell or rent it for at least a year. 

So to answer your questions, you can pay the lien at closing and be done with the situation. Any legal action you take against him will definitely last longer than your escrow, the courts in Clark County aren't super fast. You can call the contractors board, but since you knowingly hired him multiple times, that could be bad for you. You can contact him directly and try to work out some sort of deal to get the lien released prior to close, but if he knows you're going to close he has little incentive to cooperate and it sounds like he knows the game better than you do.

-Christopher

P.S. If you don't have the cash to pay your contractors, you shouldn't buy the house or you should raise funds to cover your shortfall. Its been my experience that most contractors aren't fun to deal with under normal circumstances, but if they even suspect they will get shorted, you're almost guaranteed that they'll stop work immediately and you will face this exact same situation again.