Mechanic's liens for unpaid work: the clock that starts on your first day, not your last

What the lien does, and what it does not

A mechanic's lien — construction lien, materialman's lien, or on site just the lien — attaches to the property your work improved, turning an unsecured debt into an encumbrance on land. The owner cannot sell or refinance cleanly while it sits on title, and a lender will usually stop drawing funds until it is discharged. But it is not a judgment. It orders nobody to pay, and it bites hardest on property that has to be transacted, much less so on a building the owner means to sit in for twenty years.

The failure mode is treating the recording as the finish line. It is the middle: notice, then recording, then an action to foreclose, each stage extinguishing the last one's work if its deadline slips. On an ordinary disputed bill you can take months deciding whether to sue, as the customer will not pay sets out. Here you cannot.

The clock that starts before anyone is late

Most states require early warning from anyone not contracting directly with the owner, given days after the work starts rather than after payment fails. In California it is the preliminary notice; in Florida the Notice to Owner; elsewhere a notice of furnishing, a notice to contractor, or simply the prelim. Names and deadlines differ. The structure does not: give it, or you have no lien however good the debt.

California scales the penalty rather than applying it wholesale. Civil Code § 8204 requires the notice within 20 days of first furnishing. Miss it and your lien, stop payment notice and bond rights reach only the work done in the 20 days before you eventually served, plus everything after — so six weeks of framing preceding a notice that arrives in month three is simply unsecured. Florida is blunter: under § 713.06 failure to serve on time is a complete defence.

It also does not go to the person who hired you. California requires it to reach the owner or reputed owner, the direct contractor above you, and the construction lender if there is one. The point is to tell whoever still holds money that you exist, before they part with it. That is routine paperwork, not aggression — what damages a relationship is appearing on title six months later having never introduced yourself.

Can a subcontractor lien a house the owner has already paid for?

In many states, yes, and this is the part homeowners find hardest to accept. Lien rights arise from the improvement, not from a contract with the owner. If the owner paid the builder in full and the builder did not pay the roofer, the roofer may still have a claim against the house. States split on how far that goes: some allow a lien for the full value owed whatever the owner has already paid, others cap it at what remains unpaid on the prime contract.

Florida illustrates the capped version. Section 713.06 limits all liens under a direct contract to the contract price, and an owner who retained what the statute requires but otherwise paid improperly is liable only to the extent of those retentions and improper payments. Real protection — conditional on the owner having done the retention arithmetic. It cannot be bought with a clause either: under California Civil Code § 8122 nobody can waive another claimant's lien rights by contract, so a "no liens" line does nothing about the electrician.

The second clock runs from your last day, not your last invoice

Once the work stops, a recording deadline starts. In California a claimant who is not the direct contractor must record after ceasing work and before the earlier of 90 days after completion of the whole improvement, or 30 days after the owner records a notice of completion or cessation (Civ. Code § 8414). A direct contractor gets 60 days from that notice rather than 30.

Not every state counts from your last day at all — some anchor the deadline to a fixed day of a calendar month after the month you last supplied, and several run a shorter clock on residential work. The other recurring fight is what your last day was. Returning to fix a snag or honour a warranty call is the classic argument. Assume corrective work restarts nothing, and diarise from the last day of productive work.

Recording is the middle of the process

A recorded lien has its own expiry. California gives 90 days from recording to commence an action to enforce it, after which the claim "expires and is unenforceable" (Civ. Code § 8460). Most liens are never sued on: they are recorded, they apply pressure for three months, then they lapse — a legitimate tactic only if you diarised the expiry the day you filed. Owners are not defenceless meanwhile: most states allow bonding around the lien, or a summary petition to release one that is untimely, overstated or against the wrong parcel.

The waiver you sign to get paid can waive money you never receive

Every progress payment on a well-run project comes with a waiver to sign. There are four, and the gap between two of them is the gap between a secured claim and nothing.

California prints the warning on the form. Its statutory unconditional waiver on progress payment, Civil Code § 8134, must carry in type as large as anything else on the page: "THIS DOCUMENT WAIVES AND RELEASES LIEN, STOP PAYMENT NOTICE, AND PAYMENT BOND RIGHTS UNCONDITIONALLY AND STATES THAT YOU HAVE BEEN PAID FOR GIVING UP THOSE RIGHTS. THIS DOCUMENT IS ENFORCEABLE AGAINST YOU IF YOU SIGN IT, EVEN IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN PAID." Few statutes are that direct. It reads that way because the practice is common.

Only a minority of states prescribe the wording. Elsewhere the waiver is whatever the contractor's form says, so it has to be read rather than recognised. Two habits cover most of the risk: never sign an unconditional form before the money is in the account, and list disputed extras in the exceptions box instead of leaving it blank. If your own paperwork is loose, the invoice and the payment schedule in your service agreement are where the exposure starts.

On public projects there is nothing to lien

Government property cannot be encumbered by a private claimant, so the lien route does not exist on a school, a courthouse or a base. The substitute is a payment bond the prime contractor must post, and its deadlines are unrelated to any lien deadline you have learned.

On federal work the Miller Act sets it out at 40 U.S.C. § 3133. A claimant with no direct contract with the prime must give it written notice within 90 days of last furnishing, stating with substantial accuracy the amount claimed and who it was supplied to; any action on the bond must be brought within one year of that last day. Most states run an equivalent scheme for public work, generally a Little Miller Act.

Before you record anything

The discipline here has to happen while nothing is wrong. Preliminary notices go out on jobs being paid on time, to people who have given you no trouble, against a risk that has not appeared — the only moment the paperwork is cheap. By the time an invoice is ninety days old the question is no longer what your rights are but which of them you still have. If the lien has gone, a demand letter and the interest and late payment terms you agreed have not.