Mechanic’s lien filed under wrong name.

[Augusta Owens]

A contractor filed a mechanic’s lien against me but misspelled my name, so the lien doesn’t show under my legal name or the property in the Dallas county system. Only my counter-affidavit, filed under the correct name, shows up.

The lien is flawed:

• The work was unauthorized (he admitted this both in writing and over the phone).

• He agreed multiple times to be paid upon sale of the property (made in writing).

• He declined a good faith payment plan I offered multiple times on work he did by mistake, and even turned down the option to list the property for commission as he is also a realtor. At the time I wanted to salvage the relationship as I saw him as a potential mentor.

• He stated in writing there would be no additional fees, then added fees and demanded immediate full payment.

I documented all of this in my counter-affidavit visually with texts, emails, and a timeline.

Has anyone had a title company search a lien like this? Wondering if it would even flag, and how they'd treat something this sloppy. The house is edging towards completion and I want to offload it and move on to the deal as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance.

[JD Martin]

Quote from @Bruce Lynn:

Go to you title company.  Tell them you are ready to sell and want a preliminary title search doned...I think you will also have to sign a document at closing stating there are no liens you know about.  

You may need to engage an attorney to resolve this.

 +1. You really need to think about consulting an attorney because you will be committing fraud if you deny knowledge of any existing or potential liens at closing. He obviously intended to file against you, and a simple typographical error is unlikely to clear your title. The other part of that is that you obviously agree that some sort of payment is warranted based on your offers to make payments or pay at closing.