materialmans lien – Creditors Rights 101

Tennessee Legislature overreacted when they repealed Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-21-108.

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was with a lot of disappointment that I’ve discovered that, rather than amending the statute, the 2019 Legislature just repealed the entire statute.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.

Not all tenants are agents of their landlords, says Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-102(d)

When a mechanic’s lien claimant sits down with their attorney to file a mechanic’s lien on real property, the attorney generally leads with the same, initial question: Was your contract directly with the owner or did you deal with a general contractor? The lien laws can take drastically different paths, based on the answer.

But, what if the contractor says: Neither, I dealt with the tenant.

In that case, it depends.

In the past, I’ve generally included a broad allegation that the tenant acted as the owner’s agent for the improvements, based on a few old common law cases.

In 2007, the legislature enacted Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-102(d), which restricted the lien claimant’s ability to assert a lien “unless the lessee is deemed to be the fee owner’s agent.”

This new statute requires a far more detailed showing from mechanic lien claimants. In determining whether the tenant acted as the owner’s agent, the statute states that “the court shall determine whether the owner has the right to control the conduct of the lessee with respect to the improvement…” Further, the Court “shall consider” the following four factors:

Whether the lease requires the lessee to construct a specific improvement on the fee owner’s property;
Whether the cost of the improvement actually is borne by the fee owner through corresponding offsets in the amount of rent the lessee pays;
Whether the fee owner maintains control over the improvement; and
Whether the improvement becomes the property of the fee owner at the end of the lease.

So, to be clear, it’s no longer of simply alleging that a tenant was the owner’s agent. Instead, there is now a clear(er) statutory framework that must be followed.

Simply having a landlord tenant relationship isn’t enough to impute agency for lien purposes. This statute appears to require that the tenant truly acted at the direction of the landlord.

While there haven’t been any Tennessee cases on this statute, legal commentaries have described this as setting a fairly high burden on parties claiming a lien. This may reflect the fairly conservative nature of the Tennessee legislature, but, given the specific text, I’m betting our courts will enforce it as written.

Exceptions to the Automatic Stay Exist to Allow Enforcement of Some Materialmen’s Liens

When a borrower files bankruptcy, a good rule of thumb is that the automatic stay of 11 U.S.C. § 362 applies to stay any and all acts against the borrower or his property related to pre-petition causes of action and debts.

But, 11 U.S.C. § 362(b) provides some exceptions, include the exception found at § 362(b)(3), which provides that the automatic stay does not stay

…any act to perfect, or to maintain or continue the perfection of, an interest in property to the extent that the trustee’s rights and powers are subject to such perfection under section 546(b) of this title or to the extent that such act is accomplished within the period provided under section 547(e)(2)(A) of this title…

This section is most important to creditors who hold some lien interest in the debtor’s property, but the bankruptcy was filed during the time that the creditor was allowed to perfect them (or maintain them).

A Bankruptcy Court in North Carolina recently issued an opinion that clearly shows how this exception should apply in Branch Banking & Trust Co. v. Construction Supervision Services, Inc. (In re Construction Supervision Services, Inc).

In that case, a subcontractor held valid but unperfected materialman’s lien rights on a property, which remained valid and enforceable, but for the bankruptcy filing. Because of the 362(b)(3) exception (i.e. the rights were valid and timely, except for the fact that a bankruptcy was filed), the contractor was able to assert those rights post-petition.

Again, the general rule is that a bankruptcy operates to stay all activity, but there are exceptions.

Remote Contractors Can’t Assert a Materialman’s Lien on Residential Property in Tennessee

In this booming economy, there’s money in real estate, and the contractors who went broke in the Great Recession are back on top. So, let’s talk for a moment about mechanic’s and materialman lien laws, i.e. the Tennessee laws that allow an unpaid contractor to assert a lien claim on the real property that is improved by his labor and materials.

If you’re a contractor and you provide labor and materials to a real property project, you can always assert a lien on the property, right? Well, like many things in the legal world, the real answer isn’t that easy.

Here’s a quick exception to keep in mind.

First off, are you a “remote contractor” or a “prime contractor”?

A contractor who contracts directly with the owner is a “prime contractor.” A “remote contractor” is anyone who provides material, services, equipment or machinery in furtherance of an improvement pursuant to a contract with a person other than an owner (i.e. a subcontractor who is brought on to the project by the general contractor).

Under Tennessee’s lien laws, remote contractors may not assert liens on what is defined as “residential real property.” Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-146(a)(1) defines “residential real property” as a dwelling unit in which the owner intends to reside. There’s an exception under Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-146(b)(2) for situations where the owner is operating as a de facto general contractor (in which case the remote contractor has contracted with the owner, so the remote contractor is really a prime contractor).

So, yes, lien laws are a great way to protect contractors and ensure that their debts are paid. Just not on residential projects.