The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1913-05-15
SUB-CONTRACT0Rs AFFECTED
Man Selling Material for Buildings
Must Serve Notice Within Ten Days
if He Expects Owner to be RESPONSE
BILE for His Securing His Money.

TO S6CC1e Cue long Hgnb WHICH has OK
listed over the lien which has for sew
eral years been enjoyed by material
men in this state against real proper
ty for material furnished by them for
improvements on the property. A bill
is fast making its way through the
legislature which very radically
changes the security of material
man as regards materials sold to per-
son for building or repair purposes and
which is much more liberal to the real
estate owner than the present law.
Under existing statutes if any material
man furnishes material to contrac-
tor and the contractor fails to pay for
such materials the material man can
file notice Of lien and foreclose for
his debt upon the property.
The new law changes this and pro-
vides that if a material man is wor-
ried about the reliability Of a con-
tractor who is buying materials of him
for improvements on any property
that the material man must within ten
days after furnishing the materials
serve notice on the owner Of the
property that he shall hold him re-
sponsible for the goods furnished and
thus give him notice not to pay the
main contractor until a settlement has
been reached between the main con-
tractor and the material man for the
materials furnished for the improve
ment. If this notice is not served
within ten days the material man has
no lien and no security against the
property attaches for any material
furnished unless the notice is served,
thus giving property owners a chance
to protect themselves in dealings with
an unreliable main contractor.
The new law also affects the sub
contractors liens which are placed on
the same basis as those of the ma
terial men and provides that within
ten days after the beginning Of work
the sub-contractof shall serve the same
notice as is required from the material
man and if the notice is not served
mo Lien attaches on the real estate,
for any work done by a sub-eontractor.
The mechanics lien is left as at pres
ent and is not interfered with by the
proposed law. The theory Of leaving
the mechanics lien is that a man
working by the day has no oppor-
tunity to learn in regard to the credit
of the various contractors and sub
contractors while it is generally I'M
derstood that the material men have
such an. opportunity and that both
material men and sub-contractors are
standing of the main contractors with
whom they deal and are, in fact, bet
ter posted on the subject than the
real estate owners whose property
is subject to the lien under the
present law.
The material man s lien has long
been mooted point with legislatures,
and not until this session have any
definite steps been taken to repeal the
present statute which is claimed to be
such hardship to real estate owners.
The present bill is in the nature of a
compromise and will go through prac-
tically as substitute for bills which
have been before the legislature abol-
ishing the material mans and sub-con-
tractor s liens. The greatest legisla-
tive fight over this question came four
years ago, when a large number of
cases were cited before the legisla-
ture of small real estate owners who
had virtually lost their homes because
of the enforcement of the material
man s lien.
In some of these cases the main
contractors had proved dishonest and
after collecting estimates on the work
done had failed to pay the material
men or sub-contractors and liens had
been instituted for the collection of
the debts which had resulted in the
disposal of the property and loss to
the real estate owners who were not
in position to pay twice for the work
done and the material furnished. In
some of these instances, it was shown
that material men had been practical
~ aware of the unreliability of the
contractors but had not feared to sell
them materials for building purposes
for the reason that they We're perfect
ly aware they were we'll protected I'M
der the lien law and had not made
any, effort to inform the real estate
owners of the hazard .sthey were tax
ing in theirs dealings with the unre-
liable contractors.
The liens have worked the greatest
hardships generally upon small prop
| erty owners for the reason that the
big and wealthy property owners have