Bill Text: IL HB0236 | 2009-2010 | 96th General Assembly | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Amends the Mechanics Lien Act. Requires that a contractor for improvements of an owner-occupied single-family residence give the owner written notice before filing a lien against any property of the owner. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)

Status: (Passed) 2009-08-25 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 96-0654 [HB0236 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2009-HB0236-Enrolled.html

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AN ACT concerning civil law.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Mechanics Lien Act is amended by changing
Section 7 as follows:
(770 ILCS 60/7) (from Ch. 82, par. 7)
Sec. 7. Claim for lien; third parties; errors or
overcharges; multiple buildings or lots.
(a) No contractor shall be allowed to enforce such lien
against or to the prejudice of any other creditor or
incumbrancer or purchaser, unless within 4 months after
completion, or if extra or additional work is done or labor,
services, material, fixtures, apparatus or machinery, forms or
form work is delivered therefor within 4 months after the
completion of such extra or additional work or the final
delivery of such extra or additional labor, services, material,
fixtures, apparatus or machinery, forms or form work, he or she
shall either bring an action to enforce his or her lien
therefor or shall file in the office of the recorder of the
county in which the building, erection or other improvement to
be charged with the lien is situated, a claim for lien,
verified by the affidavit of himself or herself, or his or her
agent or employee, which shall consist of a brief statement of

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the claimant's contract, the balance due after allowing all
credits, and a sufficiently correct description of the lot,
lots or tracts of land to identify the same. Such claim for
lien may be filed at any time after the claimant's contract is
made, and as to the owner may be filed at any time after the
contract is made and within 2 years after the completion of the
contract, or the completion of any extra work or the furnishing
of any extra labor, services, material, fixtures, apparatus or
machinery, forms or form work thereunder, and as to such owner
may be amended at any time before the final judgment. No such
lien shall be defeated to the proper amount thereof because of
an error or overcharging on the part of any person claiming a
lien therefor under this Act, unless it shall be shown that
such error or overcharge is made with intent to defraud; nor
shall any such lien for material be defeated because of lack of
proof that the material after the delivery thereof, actually
entered into the construction of such building or improvement,
although it be shown that such material was not actually used
in the construction of such building or improvement; provided,
that it is shown that such material was delivered either to the
owner or his or her agent for that building or improvement, to
be used in that building or improvement, or at the place where
said building or improvement was being constructed, for the
purpose of being used in construction or for the purpose of
being employed in the process of construction as a means for
assisting in the erection of the building or improvement in

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what is commonly termed forms or form work where concrete,
cement or like material is used, in whole or in part.
(b) In case of the construction of a number of buildings
under contract between the same parties, it shall be sufficient
in order to establish such lien for material, if it be shown
that such material was in good faith delivered at one of these
buildings for the purpose of being used in the construction of
any one or all of such buildings, or delivered to the owner or
his or her agent for such buildings, to be used therein; and
such lien for such material shall attach to all of said
buildings, together with the land upon which the same are being
constructed, the same as in a single building or improvement.
In the event the contract relates to 2 or more buildings on 2
or more lots or tracts of land, then all of these buildings and
lots or tracts of land may be included in one statement of
claims for a lien.
(c) A statement that a party is a subcontractor shall not
constitute an admission by the lien claimant that its status is
that of subcontractor if it is later determined that the party
with whom the lien claimant contracted was the owner or an
agent of the owner.
(d) A contractor for improvements of an owner-occupied
single-family residence must give the owner written notice
within 10 days after recording a lien against any property of
the owner. The notice is served when it is sent or personally
delivered. If timely notice is not given and, as a result, the

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owner has suffered damages before notice is given, the lien is
extinguished to the extent of the damages. The mere recording
of the lien claim is not considered damages. This subsection
does not apply to subcontractors, and it applies only to
contracts entered into after the effective date of this
amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly.
(Source: P.A. 94-627, eff. 1-1-06.)