In October 2014 a Travis County homeowner signed a contract with a remodeling company to remodel and expand the house he shared with his wife. She did not sign it. In December he fired the company. Shortly after, a roofing company neither of them had hired filed two affidavits in the county’s real property records, claiming a lien on the house and on money the couple should have held back, for a total of $15,374, court records show.
The remodeler, not the couple, had brought the roofer onto the job to provide “roofing and flashing services.” When it was fired, the roofer sued to foreclose its lien on the home.
The couple answered that the house was their homestead and that the steps Texas law requires before a lien can attach to one were never taken. The most basic: the wife had not signed the contract.
What each side claimed
The husband’s contract had no retainage clause, so the roofer relied on the retainage the Property Code makes an owner hold back, and argued the couple were “personally liable” for it. The parties stipulated he retained nothing, but that if he had, the total “would have been at least $18,589.77.”…