Subcontractor Security — What Does and Does Not Exist in Georgian Law
Protecting the value of work performed by a subcontractor in Georgian law begins with one important limitation: the institute of an automatic statutory lien, known in the construction practice of other countries, does not exist in the Georgian Civil Code. A subcontractor cannot, by the mere fact of performing the work, obtain a preferential right over the object — security is always established by transaction. The Code gives two real instruments: pledge over a movable (Article 634) and mortgage over the construction land plot (Article 635); alongside them remains the ordinary claim for remuneration. This page teaches the correct use of these three routes.
The practical consequence of this limitation is concrete: a subcontractor's claim without security is an ordinary claim for remuneration — it stands in line with the claims of all other creditors and is satisfied only through enforcement. Establishing security is therefore the most valuable clause of the subcontractor's contract: it takes the claim out of the queue and gives it preferential status.