THE LAWS OF CREDIT AND COLLECTIONS

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                            REPAIRMEN'S LIENS

If you repair a customer's equipment at your business, you are entitled to a possessory lien:  you don't have to return the repaired item until you are paid for the repair.

You cannot hold the equipment hostage in order to get paid for repairs made to the customer's other equipment.

Each state has its own rules for repairmen's liens, but the rules are fairly similar in each.  You must review each state statute, in order to see the rules for selling the equipment if the customer does not pay you.  In no state can you hold on to more money than you are owed for the repair.

Exception:  some states have special rules for repair of airplanes.

In most states:  once you return the equipment to the customer, you lose your lien rights on that  equipment, even if the customer brings the same equipment back to you for a different repair.