After a condominium is registered, it is a complicated and costly process to register a construction lien for work done on the condominium project. However, the Construction Lien Act now requires that developers and builders post a Notice of Intention to Register a Condominium in a construction trade magazine prior to taking the steps to register the condominium by sending the description to the municipality where the property is located. This Notice must be published between 5 and 15 days (not including Sundays and holidays) before the description is sent to the municipality. The published Notice gives lien claimants an opportunity to register a construction lien against the property prior to title of the individual units being registered.
It is much less expensive to register a construction lien prior to registration because it is a single property owned only by the developer/builder. After registration of the condominium, the common elements are owned collectively by all of the condominium unit owners and as such, a construction lien must be registered against every condominium unit for work pertaining to the common elements.
You can search to see if a Notice has been published on the Daily Commercial News website and Construction Record. Under the heading “CSPs”, you can search to determine if a Notice of Intention to Register a Condominium has been published.
If an owner (builder/developer) fails to publish the required Notice, the owner is liable to any person entitled to a construction lien who has suffered damages as a result. If you did not file before the registration of the condominium, you will still want to look to see whether there were any Notices published in case the builder/developer forgot to file a Notice as this would mean you would be able to look to the builder/developer to cover any additional damages caused by the lack of Notice.
The content contained in this blog is intended to provide information about the subject matter and is not intended as legal advice. If you would like further information or advice please contact the author.
