North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 22C. Payments to Subcontractors § 22C-1. Definitions

(1) “Contractor” means a person who contracts with an owner to improve real property.

(2) “Improve” means to build, effect, alter, repair, or demolish any improvement upon, connected with, or on or beneath the surface of any real property, or to excavate, clear, grade, fill or landscape any real property, or to construct driveways and private roadways, or to furnish materials, including trees and shrubbery, for any of such purposes, or to perform any labor upon such improvements, and shall also mean and include any design or other professional or skilled services furnished by architects, engineers, land surveyors and landscape architects registered under Chapters 83A, 89C or 89A of the General Statutes.

(3) “Improvement” means all or any part of any building, structure, erection, alteration, demolition, excavation, clearing, grading, filling, or landscaping, including trees and shrubbery, driveways, and private roadways, on real property.

(4) An “owner” is a person who has an interest in the real property improved and for whom an improvement is made and who ordered the improvement to be made.  “Owner” includes successors in interest of the owner and agents of the owner acting within their authority.

(5) “Real property” means the real estate that is improved, including lands, leaseholds, tenements and hereditaments, and improvements placed thereon.

(6) “Subcontractor” means any person who has contracted to furnish labor or materials to, or has performed labor for, a contractor or another subcontractor in connection with a contract to improve real property.