An unpaid sub always has the right to file a Lien against a homeowners property if the Contractor of Record did not pay him for his services. But he must follow a notification of property owner protocol.
I'm not intimate with Arizona but would guess it to be near to as follows.
An unpaid invoice to the builder nearing 30 days of age will require a 10 day "Intent to Lien" letter (1 certified, 1 regular mail)
After 10 days the Lien is filed with the County Courthouse (1 mailed certified, 1 regular mailed)
No matter how much you paid the GC, since he didn't pay, the sub will now have a legitimate lien against the property.
I'd be shocked if Arizona is any different than other states in this manner of addressing an unpaid Subcontractor.

See ya,
Kelly

In AZ, In order for a sub to be able to put a lien on your property they must file a 20 day prelien. That means that they must file that within 20days of the day they started the work, or they lose the right to lien the work preformed outside of that 20 day notice.
For every prelien that is filed you will get notice of that in the mail. So you know who has the ability to lien your property. Most subs in the pool business here do not prelien, I know none of mine do. Now there is another lien, which is a materials lien, and really the only one that does that is some of the ready mix companies if they are not being paid on time.

During our build in SoCal, I received 2 certified letters. One from the ready-mix company, and one from the plaster company. It was called a 20 day preliminary notice. I called them both to inquire about it and they said that there was nothing to worry about and that it was standard procedure for them to send the letters out. They do it to all of their customers.

If they didn't get paid after a certain amount of time, then they had the right to place a lien against our property, even though our payments were made to the PB.

You could ask the PB for lien releases before making your payment.

That is scary! The more reason to get good references and not chase a deal over a PB with a good track record and reputation. One of the PB builders was just in the new in Raleigh a few months ago for not finishing a bunch of jobs. I hope the laws in NC are protect those families from any liens.

You can file a lien on a property in NC within 120 days of work performed and the owner won't know it until somebody does a title search. I think you have another 180 days to "perfect" the lien. Its only value is to put a damper on the sale of the property. The owner can dispute the lein and if they can prove payment to the General Contractor for the work performed it is usually removed. I have never had to provide subcontractor lien releases on any jobs.

Thank you for all the information...you guys are great!