If you’ve spent any time on this blog, you’ve know all about Tennessee’s wrongful lien statute, Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-21-108.
It’s a fairly new statute, enacted on May 21, 2018, and I’ve called it the scariest statute I’ve seen. That’s because the statute imposes broad (and automatic) penalties on lien claimants who lose a lien challenge, with the penalties being so harsh that it could have a chilling effect on lien claims.
So, having said that, I was glad to see that the Tennessee Legislature was going to walk back some of those automatic penalties with some proposed amendments to the statute for 2019. Specially, the changes to 66-21-108 would impose a “malice” requirement and would change the “shall recover” language to “may recover.” These changes would protect the mechanic’s liens with justifiable claims, but would preserve claims against those creditors who are looking for undue (and illegal) advantage.
In the end, I was glad to see some correction to the statute, but, candidly, I also thought that the changes took basically all the teeth out of the statute. From my time fighting in Bankruptcy Court, I know that “malice” isn’t an easy concept to prove.
I also know that some creditors’ philosophy is “when in doubt, why not file a lien”? Under the old statute, if those creditors weren’t careful, they would definitely get hit with damages. I’ve seen a lot of bad liens in my time, and this statute provided a remedy that homeowners legitimately needed.
So, it was with a lot of disappointment that I’ve discovered that, rather than amending the statute, the 2019 Legislature just repealed the entire statute.
The statute was designed to solve a very real problem. As it stands right now, there are no real remedies for a property owner to recover costs and expenses when challenging a wrongful lien on their property. As a result, there’s no real disincentive to keep a creditor from recording a questionable lien.
At some point, the cost, expense, and hassle of fighting over an invalid lien isn’t worth the fight. Lien creditors know that they get incredible leverage when they record a lien, and, under now existing law, there’s not much risk to them.
Honestly, I’d rather have the original version of the statute (which made lien claimants really evaluate their claims and think twice before encumbering a person’s property) than no statute at all.
Creditors Rights 101 