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Our Lien Service submitted another lien to the Santa Clara County Clerk Recorder’s Office yesterday & their normal turn-around-time to return the Original Document is 6-8 weeks, but you can request a Conformed Copy of the original document.

Conformed Copies have all of the recording information and for Santa Clara County will be sent in 2-3 business days after recordation. The fee is $5.00 in addition to the recording fees. Be sure to include an additional copy of the Lien Notice and an additional Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. Also, make a note on the cover sheet that you are requesting a Conforming Copy.

Each County has different turn-around-times and charge different fees for Conformed Copies–often they’re free. For more information, check out the Assessors/Clerks/Recorders section at the bottom right of our webpage.

The State of California has passed some new laws regarding construction notices. As a national lien service, we are on top of this. Confusion exists as to the effective date of these new laws. Previous laws relating to verbiage on Mechanic’s Liens went into effect on 1/1/11, so there is a misunderstanding that the new laws went into effect on 1/1/12. They will not start until 7/1/12.

Most of the changes are minor and intended to standardize and simplify the California lien laws into a new subdivision–Civil Codes §§ 8100-8118. Additionally, Code §§ 8120-8138 requires new waiver and release forms to be created/used.

Future blog postings will address in detail the additional changes coming up.

Those unable to personally deliver Mechanic’s Liens to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s Office may be surprised by the long turn-around-time. Currently, it takes 4-6 weeks from the time the Lien is received until it is recorded. Additionally, it takes another 4-6 weeks for them to mail the original paperwork back to you, and neither the Lien document nor the Indexing Information are available on the web.

On the bright side, a Conforming Copy of the original document can be sent to you within 2 weeks after recordation. Conforming Copies are non-certified copies on a lien that have all of the indexing information: Document number, date & time of recording, etc.  There is no extra fee if you include an additional copy of the notice and an additional Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. Be sure to indicate that you are requesting a Conforming Copy.

For more information about all California County Recorders, click here.

Effective January 1, 2012, pursuant to subchapter L, Chapter 53, TEXAS Property Code, statutory forms are required for any waiver and release of a lien or payment bond claim. An excellent reference for these changes can be found on the TEXAS Construction Association website at the following link: http://www.texcon.org/index.php/resources

The following notices have significant new updates:
-Conditional Waiver And Release Upon Final Payment
-Conditional Waiver And Release Upon Progress Payment
-Unconditional Waiver And Release Upon Final Payment
-Unconditional Waiver And Release Upon Progress Payment

Use of a Notary for these Waivers is highly suggested. Additionally, use of added language, through dates, special instructions, invoice numbers and other added text is strongly discouraged, as any variation in text will deviate from the statuatory language. While you might not have a problem 99% of the time, the time your added language gets challenged in a lawsuit could make you learn a very difficult lesson.  The opinion of TRADITION NOTICE SERVICES is always to keep a document as clean, brief and statuatory as possible. Don’t give someone an opening to challenge you.

In just one week recently, Tim Loden, Amanda St. Germain and Craig Altman completely redesigned the TRADITION NOTICE SERVICES website for 2012.

After redesigning the TRADITION SOFTWARE and TRADITIONINK.COM websites in 2011, this site was overdue for an update.  The new website, which is based in the popular CMS (Content Management System) WordPress, is enhanced with the latest SEO (Search Engine Optomization) techniques.