Can a home engineer place a lien against my property in NYS when I did not hire him???

Question

We were in a deal to sell a house where the purchasers agent acted as dual agent because we were giving up and about to rent the property after being on the market for 6 months. Need less to say it was a nightmare. The home inspector broke our furnace boiler which in turn flooded our house. It is a he said she said thing so we sucked it up and moved on. That same worthless inspector scared our buyers by telling them that the foundation was shot. So we are smart and educated people offered to have a engineer come in. The agent wanted us to use their person because he could come in faster and quoted me a cost of between $300-$400 for it so we agreed. I tried numerous times to get the price but the agent told me not to worry about it needless to say the deal fell apart and now this guy is trying to bill us $750 which he lowered to $510 after we flipped out. I told him I do not think I should have to pay more than the quoted amount and he is saying he is goin to put a lien on the house

Oh yeah the guy thought he was working for the purchasers which is why he refused to talk with my husband on anything when he came to our house.. needless to say his report was a 1 page sheet for that much!!! He said any idiot can repair the couple of things on this 100 year old house!

Home inspector was a whole different issue... is a mechanical lien the same a lien?"

Answer 1

How many hours did the engineer spend (including drive time and time to write up the report)? When I hire an engineer (PE) to inspect a home for a claim - they charge me about $125 per hour.

You may want to ask the engineer to submit a bill showing the hours involved and the hourly rate you are being charged.

Answer 2

He will need a court order to place lien on the house. If he decides to take you and your husband to court just make sure that you appear in court. Do not ignore any letters sent directly from the court.

Sometimes contractors give you an estimated quoted amount, unfortunately sometimes when they arrive at the home they find other things that also need to be replaced in order for the stuff to work properly.

Now I got to say that a furnace is an expensive unit as well as to fix it. Call around other contractors and see what they would have charged for doing the same work that your contractor did. Who knows your contractor is probably been more than reasonable with you......

Wish you luck...........

Answer 3

I live in Ca. My husband is a General Contractor, I do have a Real Estate License. First I would call the Real estate Board and let them know about this agent. But, did you get a Estimate in writing? Of course Laws are different in each State. But I do believe that NYS has laws to protect you from this. After you call the board. You need to find out where the Engineer and what company he is with. Call Consumer Affairs also. You might have to hire an attorney. Sounds fishy and I think you could prevail. If you don't hire someone, why should you have to pay?