New York Consolidated Laws, Lien Law - LIE § 7. Liability for advance payments, collusive mortgages and incumbrances

Any payment by the owner, contractor or subcontractor upon a contract for the improvement of real property, made prior to the time when, by the terms of the contract, such payment becomes due, for the purpose of avoiding the provisions of this article, shall be of no effect as against the lien of a subcontractor, laborer, or materialman under such contract, created before such payment actually becomes due. A conveyance, mortgage, lien or incumbrance made by an owner of real property, for the purpose of avoiding the provisions of this article, with the knowledge or privity of the person to whom the conveyance is made or in whose favor the mortgage, lien or incumbrance is created, shall be void and of no effect as against a claim on account of the improvement of such real property, existing at the time of the making of the conveyance or the creation of such mortgage, lien or incumbrance.

Nothing in this chapter shall subject the title of a purchaser of real property for value whose conveyance is recorded prior to the filing of a lien pursuant to this chapter to any such lien, provided the instrument of conveyance contains the provisions mentioned in subdivision five of section thirteen.