My husband hired someone to clean our house. We live in a small town - he saw a truck that looked professional took down the number, briefly talked to her and scheduled her to do a job for us. They showed up late and did a really poor job. They asked to be paid. I wrote the check - told them I had not checked the work. Turned to check the work - they disappeared with the money. I immediately tried to reach them (it took about 25 minutes to track down a number) because they did not leave me anything with their company name on it, the were not listed in the phone book, or directory assistance. I immediately told her that I was unsatisfied with the job. I gave her a quick list of the most glaring failures. She asked what I wanted - I told her that I was so upset that I could not tell her what to do and asked her what my options were (we were already late leaving town for an appointment because they had shown up late and now I had wasted an additional 25 minutes tracking her down). The cleaning company owner simply hung up on me. My adult daughter called her back (benefit of the doubt) in case of a dropped call the lady hung up on her too. I tried her back - no answer. My husband tried to call her - no answer. Finally I left a message telling her that she did not give me any option but to stop payment on the check. I did. I took photographs of the problems and showed the quality of the work to witnesses. The cleaning company sent me a demand letter. I responded disputing the charges and told her I was prepared to defend our actions in court and that I would not allow her to rip us off. Now she has filed a mechanic's lien against my house for $118.52 labor/materials and $105 "additional" charges (I assume the cost of filing the lien). What do I do? Do I have to sue her in small claims court to remove the lien? Is there any protection under the Fair Credit Reporting Act? HELP!

Contact your court house, probably the recorders office, to make the inquirey of how to defend yourself against this action. Also to find out if the lien has actually been recorded. It seems that you would have a right to dispute it in some way.

Otherwise contact an attorney with the information.

Hello I:

It's NOT a false lien. You didn't pay a contractor, and they have the right to put a lien on your house until they get paid...

That's not to say that you don't have GOOD reason to withhold their money... I agree with you. I don't pay for shoddy work either.

But, the problem you have is that you DID pay them, and then you stopped payment. That makes it look like YOU'RE the bad guy here - not them. The court will assume, as do most of us, that people DON'T pay for things BEFORE they know what they got.

When they do, as you did, and then change their mind, all sorts of problems ensue. If it was me, I'd reserve my strength to fight the battles that are worth fighting for. A battle for $118 isn't one of those.

excon

PS> If they sue YOU for the money (and I don't know why they don't), YOU'LL lose.