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Preliminary notices are an important tool for protecting your right to payment in construction projects and are required by law in many states to be sent at the start of every project.

Pre-liens serve as a formal notice to the property owner, general contractor, and construction lender of your involvement in the project.

However, in order for your preliminary notices to be effective, they must be received by the correct parties. CNS has partnered with USPS to offer our customers a new address verification feature for the accuracy of your preliminary notices.

Below, we’ll cover the importance of address verification and how CNS helps you avoid mailing mistakes.

To get a preliminary notice started, send us a message or call us at 800-366-5660.

The Importance of Address Verification

There are many pitfalls one can encounter when preparing and sending preliminary notices.

One of the biggest challenges in sending preliminary notices is ensuring they are sent to the correct parties. With many companies working and supplying materials on a single project, it is easy for mistakes to happen when information is being passed from one entity to another. It isn’t uncommon for addresses and other important job site information to be accidentally mistyped or transposed.

Construction projects often involve multiple stakeholders, such as the property owner, general contractor, and construction lender, each of whom may have a different mailing address. If your prelims are sent to the wrong addresses, they may never be received, resulting in possible delays and the loss of your mechanics lien rights.

Because of this, it is critical that delivery addresses in preliminary notices are correct.

USPS Address Verification Service

CNS provides address verification for our customers’ preliminary notices through a partnership with the United States Postal Service (USPS).

By verifying all addresses before sending out a pre-lien, you reduce the risk of the notice being lost, returned, or misdirected. This new service can be especially beneficial for companies that may not have the bandwidth, resources, or necessary experience to verify the addresses of the property owner, general contractor, and construction lender.

Our address verification not only helps ensure that preliminary notices are sent to the correct addresses and received by the intended parties, but it can also save time and money for all parties involved by avoiding delays and disputes. Most importantly, however, it helps protect your mechanics lien rights in a slow, short, or no pay situation.

Preliminary Notice Services With CNS

At CNS, our goal is to provide our customers with preliminary notice services that make the process as easy and accurate as possible. This includes address verification, in-depth research, and transparent pricing.

We also utilize an in-house mailing team to oversee the entire process of your prelims, from research to preparation and, finally, delivery. Through this, we are able to stay on top of any changes in the mailing process, such as the recent increase in postage stamp price, so you don’t have to.

Contact us today to get a preliminary notice started.

Prefer to call? You can reach us at 800-366-5660.

Disclaimer: CNS is not an attorney, and if you need legal advice, please contact one.

Subscription services have been on the rise over the last few years. Everywhere you look now, it is more likely to see yearly contracts and monthly fees rather than one-time payments.

Lately, subscription services have made their way into the construction industry, more specifically for construction notices such as pre-liens.

Unfortunately, subscription notice services might not be as good of a deal for all contractors, subcontractors, and material suppliers as they might first seem.

In this article, we’ll go over the various downsides of subscription services for preliminary notices to help you decide whether it’s the right choice for your business.

To get a preliminary notice started, contact CNS today or call us at 800-366-5660.

Construction Isn’t Steady Year Round

One of the primary issues with subscription services for your prelims is that construction work isn’t always steady throughout the year. Some months see spikes in business, with 5 to 10 projects going on at the same time, while other months can be slower, with a maximum of 1 or 2 projects.

Subscription services might seem enticing at first, offering you a high number of prelim processing per month at a set rate. And while the high number of prelims you can send every month might make the monthly payment or upfront yearly cost seem like a steal, it’s important to actually do the math.

If you don’t have a consistent number of projects every month, those prelims you don’t send become unnecessary expenses without any benefit to you. By the end of your contract, you might realize that you actually spent way more than you used.

Locked Into a Contract

That brings us to our next point, getting locked into a contract.

Most subscription services for pre-lien processing require a 6-month to a 1-year commitment with either monthly payments or one upfront payment that covers the contract’s entire duration. That means that if you become dissatisfied with the services or realize that you’re not sending as many prelims as you initially thought you would, you are still contractually obligated to keep paying for the service — even if you’re not using it.

Additionally, some prelim providers that only offer subscription services don’t always strive for excellent customer service since they have customers secured for 6 months to a year. This often leads to a customer replacement business model rather than one focusing on customer retention through quality services.
Things can also change drastically and instantly in the construction industry. Take the pandemic, for example, or even natural disasters. One month you might have several projects going, and the next, they can come to a halt.

Being tied to a contract could become a financial nightmare for many if work were to suddenly slow down or stop altogether. And to make matters worse, subscription services often leave out additional hard costs from their subscriptions, such as postage, recording, and research, leading to extra fees. Because of this, it is essential to always read the fine print before signing up.

Pay Only for What You Need With CNS

At CNS, our services are designed to go the extra mile for our customers, providing them with flexibility in their choice of service and ensuring there is never any unnecessary pressure on them from long-term commitments.

Given the nature of the construction industry, we don’t believe our customers should have to pay for services in advance. Since we don’t offer subscription-based services, our preliminary notice and mechanics lien services are a la carte, allowing you to pay as you go and only for what you need.

We’re confident that the quality of our services speaks for itself, so we’ll never lock customers into long-term contracts. We want to ensure that you always have control over the services you need and that the success of your business always comes first.

To get a preliminary notice started, contact us today.

Prefer to call? You can reach us at 800-366-5660.

Disclaimer: CNS is not an attorney, and if you need legal advice, please contact one.

Preliminary notices are a valuable resource to protect your right to payment in the event of slow pay, short pay, or no pay situations. Because of this, it is critical to always send a pre-lien at the start of every project. However, although a pre-lien can help you get paid faster, it is significantly different from collection services.

Collection companies have earned a bad reputation in the construction industry. As a result, most contractors dislike dealing with collection agencies and will sometimes even be uncooperative. On the other hand, preliminary notices are seen in a positive light because they are as valuable a tool for GCs and property owners as they are for you. Be sure to read our article on how “Preliminary Notices Benefit the Entire Payment Chain” to learn more about the benefits of prelims for all parties involved.

At CNS, we are strictly a data verification business. We do not offer collection services in order to ease the pre-lien information gathering process and maintain positive relationships between subcontractors or material suppliers and their respective customers.

Continue reading to learn about our decision not to offer collection services in order to benefit our customers.

Contact CNS today to get a preliminary notice started or call us at 800-366-5660.

The Issue With Collection Services Alongside Construction Documents

Relationships between contractors and their customers are often built on trust. And while documents like prelims serve to protect your rights in the event of payment disputes, they don’t negatively impact your relationship with your customer because they are meant to benefit them as well.

However, if your customer receives a call to gather information on a project you are working on (or about to work on) and it comes from a collection agency, even if it is not for collection services, it can be misinterpreted. This can, in turn, give your customer the wrong idea, cause a strain on your working relationship, and make it more difficult for your pre-lien to be prepared correctly. If your pre-lien does not contain all the necessary information, you risk losing your mechanics lien rights to secure due payment.

This is an issue that many pre-lien providers run into because they also offer collection services. These companies often have “lien,” “collection,” or “recovery services” in their names, raising a red flag for the parties being contacted for pre-lien information and leading to problems down the contracting chain.

Why CNS Isn’t a Collection Company

At CNS, our services rely heavily on information verification inquiries (phone calls, emails, etc.) to provide in-depth research for the preparation of our customers’ preliminary notices. We do this because even the slightest mistake can render your prelim ineffective.

By inquiring for information, our process finds missing information in prelims and verifies their accuracy to protect your lien rights. As a strictly data verification business, we avoid straining your relationship with your customer or having our inquiries be perceived in a negative light (what happens when a collection company calls).

When your property owner and general contractor receive a preliminary notice from Construction Notice Services (CNS), there isn’t any confusion about our intention. Our name reflects the business we’re in — construction notices, not construction collections.

Choosing CNS for Your Pre-Lien Information Gathering

In order to provide our customers with the best services, CNS refrains from offering collection services so as to avoid being associated with the negative stigma of collection agencies.

We work as an extension of your business and, as such, are committed to maintaining positive relationships between our customers and their customers. Don’t upset your customers or make them feel blindsided due to a misinterpretation; simply protect your lien rights with CNS.

Contact us today to get a prelim started.

Prefer to call? You can reach us at 800-366-5660.

Disclaimer: CNS is not an attorney, and if you need legal advice, please contact one.

By now, you’re likely no stranger to preliminary notices.

When sent at the start of a project, they can be the difference between getting paid and experiencing slow pay, short pay, or no pay situations.

Better yet, they are necessary for securing your mechanics lien rights in the event that you are not paid for your work.

We’ve talked before about the importance of preparing your prelims correctly and the many pitfalls you can encounter when doing so, which is why it can be advantageous to utilize preliminary notice services.

But little thought is given to the mailing process after your pre liens have been prepared.

Many preliminary notice service providers utilize off-site third parties for the actual mailing process. This can lead to several disadvantages for you because the company you hired to send your prelims doesn’t actually have control of that notice in its final steps.

At CNS, we have our own in-house mailing team to ensure that we oversee the entire process of your prelims, from research to preparation and finally delivery to the required parties.

Continue reading to learn about the benefits of utilizing an in-house mailing team with CNS.

To get a preliminary notice started, contact CNS today or call us at 800-366-5660.

Avoid Additional Costs When Mailing Your Pre Liens

Preliminary notice service providers often utilize third-party mailing services. This results in incurred costs that are then placed on you as additional fees for postage.

A couple more dollars might not seem like a lot at first, but the more work you get and the more prelims you send, the more these costs will amount to in the long run.

Especially given the fact that your prelims need to be sent out to various parties, typically the general contractor, owner, and lender. In some instances, however, these parties could include several more individuals.

That means you’ll be charged additional fees for each prelim copy that needs to be sent.

At CNS, however, we have our own in-house mailing team. By doing so, we are able to reduce the cost of mailing and, in turn, remove any hidden fees that might otherwise fall on you.

Control Potential for Error in Mailing

In order for your pre lien to protect your mechanics lien rights, it must be received by the required parties.

Having your pre liens sent through a third party means that your pre liens need to pass through more hands to get to their destination. This can increase the margin of error.

Relying on a third party for mailing services also complicates matters further if an error does occur. It becomes more difficult to determine what exactly happened, at what step in the process it happened, and who should be contacted to resolve the issue.

At CNS, our in-house mailing team reduces the risk of processing mistakes by minimizing the points of contact, allowing us greater control over the mailing of your preliminary notices. If an error does occur, we are able to monitor the documents and correct the situation.

Sometimes prelims can be sent back due to a faulty address. In this instance, the CNS team would perform additional research to see why the address was incorrect, rectify it, and resend the prelim to the new address as part of our service.

Recordkeeping of Your Pre Liens

Most states require prelims to be sent as certified mail with signature confirmation in order to track the notice in transit and verify that it was delivered to the appropriate parties.

If a prelim is returned unclaimed (a recipient wasn’t available to accept the notice) or refused (the recipient decided not to accept the notice), it is still considered delivered from a legal perspective. However, if you choose to enforce a mechanics lien, you’ll likely be required to provide a proof of service affidavit.

Through our in-house mailing team, we file any and all returned, refused, or unclaimed documents as proof of your lien rights. We also maintain a logbook stamped by the postmaster and audit trails to ensure thorough record-keeping for our customers.

If you ever require proof of service, CNS can immediately provide you with all the necessary documentation as a complementary service rather than having to go through a third party.

Mailing Your Preliminary Notices With CNS

Preliminary notices are incredibly useful for resolving slow pay, short pay, and no pay situations.

But they will only work as they are supposed to if they are properly prepared, mailed out, and recorded.

At CNS, we utilize an in-house mailing team to provide our customers with accurate and dependable preliminary notice services. This, in turn, saves you money and ensures that your mechanics lien rights are protected.

Contact us today to get a prelim started.

Prefer to call? You can reach us at 800-366-5660.

Disclaimer: CNS is not an attorney, and if you need legal advice, please contact one.

As a contractor, subcontractor, or material supplier, you need to protect your right to payment when taking on new projects. That’s where preliminary notices come in.

Sending a pre lien at the start of your project is critical in the event of a slow, short, or no pay situation as it ensures that you have rights to file a lien later on.

But preparing pre liens can be a full-time job in and of itself. Not only do you have to send one for all your projects, but you also need to keep up with timelines, state and county requirements, and more.

To make the process easier, various companies offer preliminary notices services. But what’s the difference between them, and how do you know which provider is best for you?

At CNS, we let our services do the talking because we are confident in the value we provide.

Our approach is simple: offer our customers the best services in a way that truly works for them. We do this because we understand the importance of establishing long-lasting partnerships, which can only be done through good and reliable services.

Below, we’ll explain some of the reasons our services separate us from the competition.

To start your next prelim, send us a message or call us at 800-366-5660.

Premium Customer Service

At CNS, we take pride in providing the highest level of customer service across the board.

Our goal is to work as an extension of your team, learning the ins and outs of your company and how you like to do business.

To achieve this, we assign you a dedicated customer representative for personalized assistance unique to your business and situation.

But our customer service doesn’t stop there. After all, the most important aspect of pre lien services is the level of research and attention dedicated to ensuring their accuracy.

In-Depth Research Is the Standard

Many prelim services offer varying degrees of customer service and research based on the tier you choose to pay for. Not us.

We make sure that premium customer service and in-depth research are standard for all our customers — whether they do one job with us or multiple.

We don’t believe in making our customers pay extra for greater attention to detail because preparing and sending prelims is all about attention to detail.

Even the slightest mistake when preparing a pre lien can render it completely ineffective.

In other words, anything less than the best can lead to you losing your lien rights and put your due payment at risk.

To ensure our customers always receive the best service, we provide a robust research process to find missing information in prelims and verify their accuracy.

Be sure to read our article, “What Goes Into Our Preliminary Notice Services?” to learn more.

Almost 4 Decades of Experience

CNS was founded in 1984, that’s the same year that California began instituting the preliminary notice.

Now, almost 40 years later and hundreds of thousands of construction notices processed, we are still helping contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers, and rental equipment companies get paid.

We’ve been there from the start, staying on top of every new law, deadline, timetable, and requirement implemented. And because of that invaluable experience, we’ve been able to perfect our process to achieve greater accuracy in preparing your pre liens than anyone else in the industry.

Transparent Pricing

Pre lien services exist to help with payment issues. The last thing we want is for our customers to have to deal with more money-related problems when working with us.

As such, our preliminary notice services require NO SETUP FEES, SUBSCRIPTIONS, OR LONG TERM COMMITMENTS.

Our pricing is upfront, so you know exactly what to expect from the get-go. This structure also offers additional benefits to you.

Pay Only for What You Need

At CNS, we’re aware that construction job flow is seasonal. That means that pre lien services should be as well. Otherwise, you’re incurring costs when you’re not working.

By not dealing with subscriptions or long-term contracts, our customers only pay for our services when they need them.

Your Number of Jobs Doesn’t Affect Pricing

Many prelim services offer different pricing options based on how many jobs you work on in a certain period.

However, the issue with this is that construction work isn’t always consistent.

We never want our customers to worry about meeting a certain number of jobs to ensure a specific price for their services.

So instead of offering different price packages that could fluctuate, we offer straightforward pricing that causes no stress or headaches.

Don’t Put Your Construction Payment at Risk

All preliminary notice services are not created equal.

Because of that, it is critical that you do your research when trying to determine the best pre lien services for you and your business.

After all, pre liens are the first step to protecting your right to payment, and inadequate services could jeopardize your hard-earned pay.

If you wish to learn more about CNS and what we offer, be sure to read about our services.

Or contact us to get a pre lien started and protect your right to payment.

Prefer to call? You can reach us at 800-366-5660.

Disclaimer: CNS is not an attorney, and if you need legal advice, please contact one.