Adventures in Mechanic’s Lien Filing

It’s four o’clock on the 30th day after the notice of completion was filed. I’d given the customer every opportunity to make payment and he’s failed to comply. I have no choice. The law in California requires that a lien must be filed in the county where the work was done no later than thirty days after notice of completion. I’m in the Los Angeles County Recorder’s office in Norwalk. It shouldn’t take long. There are no less than twelve stations, glass windows with a gap and a tray at the bottom and a hole in the middle so you can talk to the clerk without bending down and talking sideways. The line extends the entire length of the hall, because there are only two stations open and one of them is being manned by The Claw Woman.

In Los Angeles, liens and any other document to be recorded, much first pass a review by one of these clerks. They check it for mistakes, making certain primarily someone is not trying to record a document in the wrong county and that all of the blanks are correctly completed. Sometimes their scrutiny borders on practicing law, but one does not dare complain. It is the reason I am hand carrying the document. Had I mailed it a week ago and one of these clerks decided that it was unacceptable; it would be weeks before I would find out my lien rights had evaporated.

The clock on the wall ticks and the line barely moves. Someone is arguing with the clerk in station one. They have a rule here now that only the person who signed the lien can bring it in to record, effectively eliminating messengers unless they work for a courier service who suffer a procedure all their own. Off to my left I can see the Claw Woman and I shudder. I probably should have arrived earlier because at five o’clock the windows close that the clerks abandon their stations leaving those in the hall without a recorded document. If that happens to me, my lien rights go down the drain.

And this is just the review line. I will still have to stand in the payment line. The guy with the complaint is moved to the supervisor window where he will stand until he gets frustrated and leaves and the line moves forward. I can see the Claw Woman. She has fingernails that are about twelve inches long and curled. After reviewing the document she must stamp it with two different stamps, one assigns it a document number and the second says “Amount _____” wherein she then must pick up a pen and write in the fee amount. She picks up the first stamp carefully, looking like the claw at the carnival that slowly makes its way to the prize and invariably fails to retrieve it. Slowly, she eases the stamp up and then down on to the document. I hear a murmur through the line, cheering her on. One down, one to go and it’s ten past four.

In nearby Orange County, incredibly, there is rarely a line. Two, usually attractive young ladies, record your document and take your money, a whopping six dollars plus another dollar for the conforming copy. The entire process takes about seven minutes. Over in Riverside County, the fee is nine dollars and one person does it all. San Bernardino County charges nine dollars, requires a review first before going to the pay station, but the line moves much more quickly there.

In Los Angeles, there is the base fee of $7.00, another $9.00 “involuntary lien fee”, and a $2.00 District Attorney Fraud fee, a total of $18.00. I’m praying now that I can get the job done within an hour. The Claw Woman has completed a second stamp and is carefully picking up a pen. We are all watching, wondering how she can hold a pen with all those curling fingernails in the way. The clock ticks off another minute.

Each county has its own recording foibles. One of the worst is unannounced fee increases. You’ll send your lien to some far off Northern California county, relying on the fee schedule posted on the website, only to learn, when the document is returned unrecorded and your lien time expired, that the fees changed while your document was in transit. Some counties require a space of at least six inches at the top of the document in order to fit their two inch recording document stamp and if they don’t have six inches they need to stamp a nearly blank second page, at a cost of another $3.00. If they don’t have the money, they return the document unrecorded.

I’m at a station. Thankfully the Claw Woman is not looking at my document. I pass inspection and rush to the next line. I have more than enough cash just in case. This line moves a little faster, usually there are three to four stations manned to take your money. I’m out before five. Too bad for all those I left behind.

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