Sec. 1. (a) If:
(1) a person owns or has an interest in real estate to which a mechanic's lien has been attached;
(2) the debt secured by the lien has satisfied or paid; and
(3) the person who owns or has an interest in the encumbered real estate demands that the lien be released;
the lienholder shall release the lien within fifteen (15) days after the demand.
(b) If the lienholder does not release the lien within fifteen (15) days after the demand, the lienholder is liable to the person who owns or has an interest in the real estate to which the mechanic's lien has been attached for the greater of:
(1) actual damages; or
(2) liquidated damages in the sum of ten dollars ($10) per day from the fifteenth day until the release or expiration of the lien.
(c) A person who owns or who has an interest in real estate to which a mechanic's lien has been attached may, at any time thirteen (13) months after the date of the filing of the notice of the lien, file in the office of the recorder of the county in which the real estate is situated an affidavit stating that no suit for the foreclosure of the lien is pending and that no unsatisfied judgment has been rendered on the lien.
[Pre-2002 Recodification Citation: 32-8-6-1.]
As added by P.L.2-2002, SEC.13.