Civ. Code, § 8470 · Article 6. Enforcement of Lien
Civ. Code, § 8470
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
In an action to enforce a lien for work provided to a contractor:
(a) The contractor shall defend the action at the contractor’s own expense. During the pendency of the action the owner may withhold from the direct contractor the amount of the lien claim.
(b) If the judgment in the action is against the owner or the owner’s property, the owner may deduct the amount of the judgment and costs from any amount owed to the direct contractor. If the amount of the judgment and costs exceeds the amount owed to the direct contractor, or if the owner has settled with the direct contractor in full, the owner may recover from the direct contractor, or the sureties on a bond given by the direct contractor for faithful performance of the direct contract, the amount of the judgment and costs that exceed the contract price and for which the direct contractor was originally liable.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Stats. 2010, Ch. 697, Sec. 20. (SB 189) Effective January 1, 2011. Operative July 1, 2012, by Sec. 105 of Ch. 697 and by Section 8052.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=8470.
- Text hash
- sha256 0492c4b9a6449e859cf2acf37de465f17774d21942327731340aa384a3980a19
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.