Mechanic’s Lien Claims Not Voided Despite Date Errors
Let’s say you’re in the unfortunate situation where a contractor has filed a mechanics lien against you. Without getting into the merits of whether or not the contractor has a valid claim, for whatever reason, you decide you don’t want to pay him. So you start looking for problems with the claim. You look and look and look, and aha! You found a problem. Looks like the contractor put the wrong completion date in the complaint he filed with the court. With this error in hand, you seek to get the case thrown out, right?
Wrong. In North Shore Community Bank & Trust Co. v Sheffiled Welling, LLC, 2014 IL App (1st) 123784, the property-owner sought to have the contractor’s claim dismissed based on the contractor stating the incorrect date of completion in the complaint. The court ruled that as long as the actual completion date was within the time periods required under the Illinois Mechanics Lien Act, a simple error should not cause the contractor’s lien claims to be defeated. Otherwise, the court felt, the purpose of Mechanics Lien Act would be defeated.