Quality Should Be Your First Consideration

Understanding mechanic’s liens

On Behalf of | Mar 3, 2019 | Aviation

As a supplier or service provider in Houston, you take comfort in the notion that as long as you fulfill your contractual promises to your clients, you will be compensated accordingly. If your work involves servicing aircraft or supplying fuel or other equipment to local plane owners and operators, that includes payment for any services or supplies rendered. So what happens in such a scenario, then, if your clients refuse to pay? Many come to us here at The Kruckemyer Law Firm with this very question, wondering if there is any legal recourse available to them in these situations. 

A mechanic’s lien allows you to put a lien on a property on which you rendered services if you are not paid for your work. The true power of such action is that it adds an additional layer of accountability for the repayment of your work. For example, your service or supply contracts with local airfields are likely with the airfields themselves, not the actual owners of the aircraft stored there. Yet in the event the airfield owners do not meet their contractual obligations, a mechanic’s lien allows you to bring the aircraft owners into the situation by putting a lien on their property. 

Per the State Bar of Texas, you must provide all parties to your service and supply contract (both contractors and/or aircraft owners) of your right for contractual retainage within 30 days of performing your services. Notices of unpaid accounts must then be sent no later than the 15th of the second month following each month in which you were not paid. Only after meeting this obligation can you then initiate a mechanic’s lien. 

More information on enforcing your aircraft service or supply contracts can be found throughout our site.