The California Association of REALTORS
® is OPPOSING AB 2416 (Stone), a bill that creates a new kind of lien for wage claim disputes.
C.A.R. opposes AB 2416 because it denies due process to the owner of the property, and unnecessarily clouds title. The bill was just passed by the Senate Appropriation Committee and could make it to the Senate floor by Monday August 18th.
Call your State Senator TODAY and ask him or her to vote NO on this killer bill.
REALTORS
®: Check your email for an alert from C.A.R. and follow the instructions to call in and make
your voice heard!
Background
Under existing law, trades people and others who have
conducted work to improve a property have the right to record a mechanics lien
against the property for payment for that work. This bill is not like a
mechanics' lien. Additionally, if an employee has a wage dispute with their
employer there are multiple legal remedies available to them to seek fair
compensation. This is a new and different remedy.
AB 2416 seeks to create a new wage lien, without the
procedural protections of the mechanics lien so that an employee may
record a lien against any property owned by the employer, even property that
has NO connection to the dispute. The new rule purports to exempt principal
residences, but the bill invites "shotgun" recordings that will hit
all properties.
Remember:
- Property owners are
denied due process. AB 2416 allows an employee to record a lien
against an employer’s property without adequate notice or opportunity to
contest the claim before the lien attaches.
- The bill invites misuse by
unscrupulous creditors of an employee. Allowing unscrupulous creditors
to take over the employee's wage
claim, without even the need for a garnishment order, invites employees
(and
property owners) to be victimized twice.
- Innocent property owners are unfairly burdened. The
bill allows a lien against commercial property of a landlord whose tenant has a
dispute with one of his or her employees.
- AB 2416 allows an
employee’s wage dispute to cloud title on ALL
property owned by an employer even though the dispute does not involve the
property, and even though there has been no hearing on the issue.
- There are already
existing legal remedies for wage disputes. Between
arbitration, grievance processes, and lawsuits, employees already have
sufficient legal options at their disposal to address wage disputes without
chilling the availability of mortgage finance and unnecessarily clouding title.
For More Information
