FYI: In commercial construction, when a lien is filed it stops the flow of contract funds, so the GC is legally withheld payment until the liens are removed. Every GC contract I've seen puts the responsibility of turning over a lien free project squarely on the shoulders of the GC.
In the future, you could add that clause to any residential contract - then as someone mentioned earlier, release the 10% holdback after 45 days you've hopefully retained.
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