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;
contract signature

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 66-11-101

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Contract: means an agreement for improving real property, written or unwritten, express or implied, and includes extras as defined in this section. See Tennessee Code 66-11-101
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Extras: means labor, materials, services, equipment, machinery, overhead and profit, for improving real property, authorized by the owner and not included in previous contracts. See Tennessee Code 66-11-101
  • 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. See Tennessee Code 66-11-101
  • Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • 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. See Tennessee Code 66-11-101
  • nursery stock: means all trees, shrubs, or other plants, or parts of such trees, shrubs or other plants, grown or kept for, or capable of, propagation, distribution or sale on a commercial basis. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • 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. See Tennessee Code 66-11-101
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • Person: means an individual, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, limited partnership, sole proprietorship, joint venture, association, trust, estate, or other legal or commercial entity. See Tennessee Code 66-11-101
  • Prime contractor: means a person, including a land surveyor as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 66-11-101
  • Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • Real property: includes real estate, lands, tenements and hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, and fixtures and improvements thereon. See Tennessee Code 66-11-101
  • Remote contractor: means a person, including a land surveyor as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 66-11-101
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(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;
(4)

(A) “Furnish materials” means:

(i) To supply materials that are intended to be and are incorporated in the improvement;
(ii) To supply materials that are intended to be and are delivered to the site of the improvement and become normal wastage in construction operations;
(iii) 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;
(iv) 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
(v) To supply tools, equipment, or machinery as permitted by § 66-11-102(g);
(B) 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.
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