Guest editorial by Brian Schoolman, Safran Law Offices
Rep. Sarah Stevens will chair a stakeholders meeting on Wednesday, January 30, 2013, starting thirty minutes following the House session adjournment, in Room 415 of the Legislative Office Building. The purpose of the meeting is to allow Rep. Stevens to hear “your views on a proposal by some stakeholders that the lien agent requirements enacted in Senate Bill 42, and taking effect on April 1, 2013, be restricted to improvements involving one- and two-family residences.”
All interested parties are invited to attend. Bill Patterson, Staff Attorney with the NCGA Research Division, has set up this online form for parties to sign up if they plan to attend. If any person is unable to attend, but wishes to present his views in writing, the written submission should be sent to Mr. Patterson at by 5:00 PM on Tuesday, January 29.
From Bill Patterson as of 11:05 AM on Jan. 29:
- Each side’s speakers will have thirty minutes to explain their position, beginning with the proponents.
- Unless the speakers for a side agree in advance to a different procedure, the allotted time will be divided equally among the speakers for each side, and they will speak in the order in which they submitted their request to speak. Any change to this procedure must be agreed to by all of the speakers for that side. Please notify me by email no later than 11:00 a.m. tomorrow of any agreed speaker time allocation or order of presentation, with a copy to this distribution list.
- After both sides have presented, questions will be taken, first from any attending members and then from others, time permitting.
- The meeting will adjourn no later than 1:45 p.m.
The deadline for submitting a request to speak and for submitting written comments to this proposal is 5:00 p.m. today. I will collect all written comments received by the deadline and send them by email (as attachments) to all persons on this list by 5:30 p.m. today.
Mr. Patterson has set up a Google Drive location for various submissions, both relating to SB42 and for other lien law revision proposals. Dave Simpson of the Carolinas Associated General Contractors submitted a draft for restricting the lien agent requirements to residential projects, while still protecting the subrogated lien rights for subcontractors that we fought so hard to obtain last year.
Two of the non-SB42 proposals also have particular interest to clients. One submission is a recommendation from the American Subcontractors Association of the Carolinas to fix the Pete Wall problem of liens on leasehold estates. Another proposal, which I submitted based on problems some of our clients have had with discharging notices of claims of lien upon funds when the original notice was not available for filing with the discharge bond. Read More.