Over the last few years the Texas lege has made numerous revisions to Texas lien law. Mechanic's and Materialman's liens are an essential part of the the construction process. Liens give even a low level subcontractor a way to protect his or her rights on a job. I've filed numerous lien and been happy to have the lien procedure available. I'm always careful to review invoices, real property records and send the required notice letters. Not everyone is. A few years back there was a rash of bad liens filed as harassment. The legislature responded by granting civil and criminal penalties for erroneous liens. This was a great step to deal with abuse but drafting errors had the effect of subs paying for simple typographical errors. The last session fixed this problem making only bad faith filings subject to penalty.
Now in 2011, we have HB 246 filed by Rep. Kleinschmidt which amends the Property Code to allow attorney fees and costs to be awarded in a suit to remove an invalid lien. This is a great amendment of the code. Lien filers would be aware that invalid liens would be subject to removal at their expense. Valid liens would still serve to protect the rights of labor. This bill has left committee with a unanimous yes vote and has been sent for calendering so it looks like it is on track to pass. Hopefully the lege will, in some future session, streamline the lien process so that the deadlines and notice period is more comprehensible. I recently talked with a Louisiana construction lawyer who was shocked that anyone could work out Texas Lien law. He has a point. This new law would do a long way toward holding fraudulent lien filers accountable.
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