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Question - filing liens

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Ken:

    Love the forum.  Have a question regarding liens.  Seems more and more people are transferring property into trusts. In these cases, can a UCC-1 lien be perfected if our contract is with the beneficiary, the user of the system, instead of the Trustee, who typically lives elsewhere?  Would it be better to have our contract with the Trustee, and have the beneficiary be an "authorized user" of the alarm system?

    What about a mechanic's lien as referenced by Attorney Alan Pepper?  Does your All-in-One contain language allowing a mechanic's lien to be perfected, in which case property ownership becomes a non-issue?  (It's our understanding that to perfect a UCC-1 lien, the contract must be sign by the property owner. Correct?)  

Thank you.

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Answer

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    Lot of legal issues and perhaps misconceptions.  

    If it turns out that a Trust is the one hiring you to install or perform work then you need the Trustee to sign the contract.  It would be a good idea to get the end user of the services to sign also - can be contract that states someone else is making the payments.  Think of it same as a tenant engaging you but the landlord is going to pay you; they both sign a contract.

    Liens and your right to file them are either a creature of statute or contract, or both.  The filing of a UCC-1 financing statement is a matter of contract and the All in Ones do authorize the filing.  Mechanic Liens arise by statute and you can file a Notice of Mechanics Lien when you perform improvement to real property.  I've suggested that you are going to resort to the Mechanic lien rarely and actually proceeding with a foreclosure action even more rarely.  Filing a UCC is easier and less costly to file and enforce.

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ignoring licensing law

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Ken 

    This business clearly prefers to ignore the licensing law. He has been operating without a license for a number of years and while he was sent a letter from the local alarm association he has still yet to comply.

    Several times I have had to  compete against him and lose because of price…and the clients do not care about whether he is licensed or not.

    Now he is in the local newspaper and his website clearly states he does security cameras. It really chaffes me the wrong way when people like this clearly ignore the law and choose to conduct business that violates why we worked so hard to (1) get licensed and (2) to get the state to make it mandatory to have a license.

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Response

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    Report unlicensed activity to proper authorities, such as State Attorney General, Dept of Consumer Affairs; District Attorney.

    Ask your potential subscribers if they's mind being driven around by someone who didnt have a drivers license.

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