by Ryan McKeen
I love the area of mechanic’s lien law. For real.
A Connecticut Superior Court in McGhee-Fichtner v. Kusek ruled that the placement of a generator at the construction site was sufficient to give a mechanic’s lien priority over mortgage.
Off site preparation by a contractor is not sufficient to give sufficient notice of visible work to establish priority.
That may sound like a subtle difference but for a contractor that may be the difference between being paid in full or not paid at all. If the lien has priority over the mortgage then the lienor is in the driver’s seat to get paid. If the situation is the mortgage precedes the lien then the contractor may be SOL.