(770 ILCS 60/7) (from Ch. 82, par. 7)
Sec. 7. Claim for lien; third parties; errors or overcharges; multiple buildings or lots.
(a) No contractor shall be allowed to enforce such lien against
or to the prejudice of any other creditor or incumbrancer or purchaser,
unless within 4 months after completion, or if extra or additional
work is done or labor, services, material, fixtures, apparatus or machinery, forms or form work is delivered therefor within 4 months after
the completion of such extra or additional work or the final delivery of
such extra or additional labor, services, material, fixtures, apparatus or machinery, forms or form work, he or she shall either bring an action to enforce
his or her lien therefor or shall file in the office of the recorder
of the county in which the building, erection or other improvement to be
charged with the lien is situated, a claim for lien, verified by the
affidavit of himself or herself, or his or her agent or employee, which
shall consist of a
brief statement of the claimant's contract, the balance due after allowing all
credits, and a sufficiently correct description of the lot, lots or
tracts of land to identify the same. Such claim for lien may be filed at
any time after the claimant's contract is made, and as to the owner may be filed at
any time after the contract is made and within 2 years after the
completion of the contract, or the completion of any extra work or the
furnishing of any extra labor, services, material, fixtures, apparatus or machinery, forms or form work thereunder, and as to such owner may be
amended at any time before the final judgment. No such lien shall be
defeated to the proper amount thereof because of an error or
overcharging on the part of any person claiming a lien therefor under
this Act, unless it shall be shown that such error or overcharge is made
with intent to defraud; nor shall any such lien for material be defeated
because of lack of proof that the material after the delivery thereof,
actually entered into the construction of such building or improvement,
although it be shown that such material was not actually used in the
construction of such building or improvement; provided, that it is shown that
such material was delivered either to the owner or his or her agent for that
building or improvement, to be used in that building or improvement, or
at the place where said building or improvement was being constructed,
for the purpose of being used in construction or for the purpose of
being employed in the process of construction as a means for assisting
in the erection of the building or improvement in what is commonly
termed forms or form work where concrete, cement or like material is
used, in whole or in part.
(b) In case of the construction of a number
of buildings under contract between the same parties, it shall be
sufficient in order to establish such lien for material, if it be shown
that such material was in good faith delivered at one of these
buildings for the purpose of being used in the construction of any one
or all of such buildings, or delivered to the owner or his or her agent for
such buildings, to be used therein; and such lien for such material
shall attach to all of said buildings, together with the land upon which
the same are being constructed, the same as in a single building or
improvement. In the event the contract
relates to 2 or more buildings on 2 or more lots or tracts of land,
then all of these buildings and lots or tracts of land may be included in
one statement of claims for a lien.
(c) A statement that a party is a subcontractor shall not constitute an admission by the lien claimant that its status is that of subcontractor if it is later determined that the party with whom the lien claimant contracted was the owner or an agent of the owner.
(d) A contractor for improvements of an owner-occupied single-family residence must give the owner written notice within 10 days after recording a lien against any property of the owner. The notice is served when it is sent or personally delivered. If timely notice is not given and, as a result, the owner has suffered damages before notice is given, the lien is extinguished to the extent of the damages. The mere recording of the lien claim is not considered damages. This subsection does not apply to subcontractors, and it applies only to contracts entered into after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly. (Source: P.A. 96-654, eff. 1-1-10.)
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