{"id":893791,"date":"2018-03-20T16:15:45","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T22:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=893791"},"modified":"2018-03-20T16:15:45","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T22:15:45","slug":"general-assembly-seems-ready-provide-consistency-mechanics-lien-waiver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-assembly-seems-ready-provide-consistency-mechanics-lien-waiver\/","title":{"rendered":"The General Assembly Seems Ready to Provide Some Consistency in Mechanic\u2019s Lien Waiver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher G. Hill | Construction Law Musings<\/a> | March 5, 2018<\/p>\n

Back in 2015, the\u00a0Virginia General Assembly amended the mechanic\u2019s lien statute\u00a0(Va. Code 43-3) here in Virginia to preclude any contractual provision that diminishes a subcontractor or supplier\u2019s\u00a0\u201clien rights in a contract in advance of furnishing any labor, services, or materials<\/span>.\u201d However, this amendment was only applicable to subcontractors and suppliers. For political and other reasons, general contractors in Virginia were left out of this change. This omission by the legislature put Virginia general contractors in the position of potentially being forced by project owners to waive their mechanic\u2019s lien rights without the ability to run that risk down stream to their subcontractors and suppliers.<\/span><\/p>\n

A recent bill enrolled during this legislative session,\u00a0HB823, provides some remedy to this inconsistency. This bill (a .pdf of which\u00a0can be obtained here<\/a>) amends\u00a0Virginia Code 43-3\u00a0and\u00a0Virginia Code 43-21\u00a0to effectively preclude full contractual waiver of lien rights by general contractors with one caveat. That caveat is that with the amendment to 43-21 relating to priority of liens the general assembly has specifically authorized pre or post provision of labor or materials subordination of general contractor mechanic\u2019s liens to any deed of trust on the property in question. In short, general contractors got at least partial relief from the contractual bind that the previous legislation put them in.<\/p>\n

Of course this begs the question of whether subcontractors and suppliers can be forced to subordinate their lien rights given the above-quoted language. Would doing so constitute diminishing those rights through the loss of priority? In the past few years, I haven\u2019t seen a case that answers this question. As always, I recommend that you review the statutes yourself, preferably with the advice of an\u00a0experienced Virginia construction attorney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christopher G. Hill | Construction Law Musings | March 5, 2018 Back in 2015, the\u00a0Virginia General Assembly amended the mechanic\u2019s lien statute\u00a0(Va. Code 43-3) here in Virginia to preclude any contractual provision that diminishes a subcontractor or supplier\u2019s\u00a0\u201clien rights in a contract in advance of furnishing any labor, services, or materials.\u201d However, this amendment was… Continue reading The General Assembly Seems Ready to Provide Some Consistency in Mechanic\u2019s Lien Waiver<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[9895,52,8,121,357],"class_list":["post-893791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mechanics-lien-rights","tag-advise-consult","tag-contractors","tag-mechanics-lien-rights","tag-subcontractors","tag-virginia","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe General Assembly Seems Ready to Provide Some Consistency in Mechanic\u2019s Lien Waiver - 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