My husband, who is a framer, has a client who hasn't made a payment in 3 months. The job is now complete and still no payment. We are considering filing a lien. Does anyone know or can anyone direct me to where I can find the proper procedures for filing a lien in Texas?

Look online for your county courts for your county. Filing a lein is very easy, but you must follow your county courts procedures like how to notify the owner of the property, you may have to file once a year, etc. You may have to notify the property owner that you are filing a lien prior to actully filing. There should be information on thier site to things like this and maybe even the forms online.Look up at the county clerk and recordeds office and see if it names the morgage company that has a lien on his property. Send them a copy of the lien and you may get paid very quickly, since most of the time your lien gets first place, and the morgage company moves to second place. They will not like this.
Good Luck

Do a Google for Texas Materialsmens lien--it will bring up a couple of documents that go over all that is possible in the State of Texas
to try to recover your money.

We have done custom design/build out of the Dallas area for 25 years, and learned our lesson on liens early on....re-adapt your billing so you never get behind work completed with client payments, and don't go forward until they are caught up with their end of the agreement. If you have to change your contractual forms, do so before the next job, as, unfortunately in our state, when as in framing installation, it is not possible in most cases to remove your materials and labor product from the job, the only good accomplished in most cases with a lien--
provided the court, homeowner and deed holder are notified of filing, is to recover your money when and if the house is sold. You might also wish to consider a formal arbitration to at least recover funds to pay your supplier account, but it is costly, time-consuming, and can be a 'crap-shoot'. If you retain a lawyer for your business, you might pay him to send The First Letter, again good money after bad, and no guarantee of results. In our state, for a lot of reasons, sometimes you find it is easier to 'lick your wounds and go forward"

You can file with your county clerk of records (you can download generic liens online from sites like BFI--be careful not to get California ones--their construction laws are totally different than ours). Be sure besides the county, the homeowner of record and the mortgage lender or deed holder get copies as well. And, as rkstaggers mentioned, you may have to renew the filing annually, if not settled with your husband by the client.

Good luck, the way our rules work in Texas, this is not a position you want to find yourself in!

In Tennessee, you are required to send a certified letter with a 10 day notice of intent to proceed with a lien on the property. A return receipt is to your benefit. Upon receiving the return receipt, I recommend you call the customer to see if it can be settled amicably. If this is not an option, then proceed with your local county clerk's form. There is a fee to file a lien and it will vary according to your locale. Your best defense is a good offense. Also, be aware that when you file the lien, you may be entitled to any necessary attorney fees, along with court costs and filing fees. This needs to be added into the total of the lien prior to filing. A good rule of thumb to follow is to take action once an account has reached 30 days past due. Usually, sending a notice of demand for payment certified after 30 days will be enough to receive your payment in a more timely manner and with less hassle on your part. Good luck.

Well at least one good thing here in Colorado is that you can foreclose on the property.