Purpose.

The legislature finds there are practices within the industry of constructing residential properties containing not more than four dwelling units resulting in certain financial inequities and, therefore, declares that the purpose of the Stop Notice Act is to: provide for timely payment by an original contractor to persons contracted with to furnish labor or materials incorporated or to be incorporated in residential construction; define stop notices and their legal usage; encourage construction lenders to assert reasonable supervision, monitoring and control of funds disbursed to the original contractor for the timely payment of labor or materials; restrain and bar diversion of funds for purposes not directly involved with construction of the residential site improvement; and provide for criminal penalties.