Chapter Definitions

  1. Law
  2. Tennessee Code
  3. Property
  4. Mechanics' and Materialmen's Liens
  5. General Provisions
  6. Chapter Definitions

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As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

  1. “Contract” means an agreement for improving real property, written or unwritten, express or implied, and includes extras as defined in this section;
  2. “Contract price” means the amount agreed upon by the contracting parties to be paid for performing work or labor or for furnishing materials, machinery, equipment, services, overhead and profit, included in the contract, increased or diminished by the price of extras or breach of contract, including defects in workmanship or materials. If no price is agreed upon by the contracting parties, “contract price” means the reasonable value of all work, labor, materials, services, equipment, machinery, overhead and profit included in the contract;
  3. “Extras” means labor, materials, services, equipment, machinery, overhead and profit, for improving real property, authorized by the owner and not included in previous contracts;
    1. “Furnish materials” means:
      1. To supply materials that are intended to be and are incorporated in the improvement;
      2. To supply materials that are intended to be and are delivered to the site of the improvement and become normal wastage in construction operations;
      3. To specially fabricate materials for incorporation in the improvement and, if not delivered to the site of the improvement, are not readily resalable by the lienor;
      4. To supply materials that are used for the construction and do not remain in the improvement, subject to diminution by the salvage value of such material; or
      5. To supply tools, equipment, or machinery as permitted by § 66-11-102(g);
    2. The delivery of materials to the site of the improvement shall be prima facie evidence of incorporation of such materials in the improvement;
  5. “Improvement” means the result of any action or any activity in furtherance of constructing, erecting, altering, repairing, demolishing, removing, or furnishing materials or labor for any building, structure, appurtenance to the building or structure, fixture, bridge, driveway, private roadway, sidewalk, walkway, wharf, sewer, utility, watering system, or other similar enhancement, or any part thereof, on, connected with, or beneath the surface; the drilling and finishing of a well, other than a well for gas or oil; the furnishing of any work and labor relating to the placement of tile for the drainage of any lot or land; the excavation, cleanup, or removal of hazardous and nonhazardous material or waste from real property; the enhancement or embellishment of real property by seeding, sodding, or the planting on real property of any shrubs, trees, plants, vines, small fruits, flowers, nursery stock, or vegetation or decorative materials of any kind; the taking down, cleanup, or removal of any existing shrubs, trees, plants, vines, small fruits, flowers, nursery stock, or vegetation or decorative materials of any kind then existing; excavating, grading or filling to establish a grade; the work of land surveying, as defined in § 62-18-102, and the performance of architectural or engineering work, as defined in title 62, chapter 2, with respect to an improvement actually made to the real estate. As the context requires, “improvement” also means the real property thus improved;
  6. “Laborer” means any individual who, under contract, of any degree of remoteness, personally performs labor for improving real property on the site of the improvement;
  7. “Lienor” means any person having a lien or right of lien on real property by virtue of this chapter, and includes the person's successor in interest;
  8. “Owner” includes the owner in fee of real property, or of a less estate in real property, a lessee for a term of years, a vendee in possession under a contract for the purchase of real property, and any person having any right, title or interest, legal or equitable, in real property, that may be sold under process;
  9. “Owner-occupant” means any owner of real property who, at the time the owner contracts for the improvement of the real property, occupies the real property as the owner's principal place of residence;
  10. “Perform”, when used in connection with the words labor or services, means performance by the lienor or by another for the lienor;
  11. “Person” means an individual, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, limited partnership, sole proprietorship, joint venture, association, trust, estate, or other legal or commercial entity;
  12. “Prime contractor” means a person, including a land surveyor as defined in § 62-18-102, a person licensed to practice architecture or engineering under title 62, chapter 2, and any person other than a remote contractor who supervises or performs work or labor or who furnishes material, services, equipment, or machinery in furtherance of any improvement; provided, that the person is in direct privity of contract with an owner, or the owner's agent, of the improvement. A “prime contractor” also includes a person who takes over from a prime contractor the entire remaining work under such a contract;
  13. “Real property” includes real estate, lands, tenements and hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, and fixtures and improvements thereon;
  14. “Remote contractor” means a person, including a land surveyor as defined in § 62-18-102 and a person licensed to practice architecture or engineering under title 62, chapter 2, who provides work or labor or who furnishes material, services, equipment or machinery in furtherance of any improvement under a contract with a person other than an owner;
  15. “Single family residence” means any real property owned and occupied by no one other than the owner and the owner's immediate family; and
  16. “Visible commencement of operations” means the first actual work of improving upon the land or the first delivery to the site of the improvement of materials, that remain on the land until actually incorporated in the improvement, of such manifest and substantial character as to notify interested persons that an improvement is being made or is about to be made on the land, excluding, however, demolition, surveying, excavating, clearing, filling or grading, placement of sewer or drainage lines or other utility lines or work preparatory therefor, erection of temporary security fencing and the delivery of materials therefor.

Code 1932, § 7913; Acts 1965, ch. 312, §§ 1, 2; 1968, ch. 587, § 1; 1975, ch. 264, § 1; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 64-1101; Acts 1990, ch. 641, §§ 1, 2; 2007, ch. 189, § 1; 2013, ch. 469, § 4.

Compiler's Notes. Acts 2013, ch. 469, § 6 provided that the act, which amended this section, shall apply to contracts entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2013, and to liens filed for construction performed on or after July 1, 2013.

Cross-References. Abandonment defined, §66-11-112.

Textbooks. Gibson's Suits in Chancery (7th ed., Inman), § 8.

Tennessee Forms (Robinson, Ramsey and Harwell), Nos. 8-701, 8-703, 8-704, 8-1101.

Tennessee Jurisprudence, 18 Tenn. Juris., Mechanics' Liens, §§ 3-6, 8-12; 21 Tenn. Juris., Railroads, § 55.

Law Reviews.

Mechanics' and Materialmen's Liens, 45 Tenn. L. Rev. 741.

The Art of Perfecting Mechanics' and Materialmens' Liens in Tennessee (Arthur M. Fowler III), 40 No. 3 Tenn. B.J. 17 (2004).


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