California: Mechanic's Lien Deadlines & Notice Requirements
The short answer
Most claimants must serve a preliminary notice within 20 days of first furnishing work, then record the lien within 90 days after the whole project is completed (sooner if the owner records a Notice of Completion or Cessation), then sue to foreclose within 90 days after recording. A direct contractor gets slightly longer windows than a subcontractor or supplier. Missing the service-of-lien step is fatal even without proof anyone was harmed.
| Governing law | Civ. Code Pt. 6, Tit. 2, Ch. 4 (§§ 8400-8494); comprehensive 2010 recast, not a Uniform Act |
|---|---|
| Who can claim a lien | Direct contractors, subs, suppliers, equipment lessors, laborers, design professionals (§ 8400); unlicensed contractors barred from enforcing a lien (Bus. & Prof. Code § 7031(c)) |
| Preliminary notice | Required from everyone except laborers and a direct contractor dealing only with the owner; due 20 days after first furnishing (§ 8204(a)); late notice narrows, doesn't kill, the lien |
| Deadline to file the lien | Direct contractor: 90 days after completion or 60 days after a Notice of Completion/Cessation, whichever is earlier (§ 8412). Everyone else: 90 days, or 30 days after that notice (§ 8414) |
| Notice of completion effect | An owner-recorded Notice of Completion/Cessation cuts the filing window to 60 days (direct contractor) or 30 days (everyone else), counted from recording (§§ 8412(b), 8414(b)(2)) |
| Serving the lien on the owner | A copy of the recorded lien, with the statutory warning notice, must be mailed to the owner (§ 8416(c)); an unserved lien is unenforceable as a matter of law, no exception for lack of prejudice (§ 8416(e)) |
| Deadline to sue to foreclose | 90 days after recording to sue to foreclose, or the lien expires automatically (§ 8460(a)); extendable only by a recorded credit-extension agreement, capped at 1 year after completion (§ 8460(b)) |
| Homestead/residential extras | None — the same sequence applies to a family home and a commercial building; the one universal precondition is contractor licensure (Bus. & Prof. Code § 7031(c)), which is not property-type specific |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
The short answer
California runs the classic four-step sequence: preliminary notice, then
record the lien, then serve the recorded lien on the owner, then sue to
foreclose if you still aren't paid. Nearly every non-laborer claimant must
serve a preliminary notice within 20 days of first showing up on the job.
The lien itself must be recorded within 90 days after the whole project is
completed — but that window shrinks sharply if the owner records a Notice of
Completion or Notice of Cessation, and a subcontractor or supplier gets a
shorter cushion than a direct (general) contractor. Once recorded, you have
90 days to file a foreclosure lawsuit or the lien simply expires by
operation of law.
Requirements one by one
Governing law
California's mechanic's lien law is Civil Code Part 6, Title 2, Chapter 4
(§§ 8400-8494), part of a comprehensive 2010 recast of the state's
construction-lien statutes that took effect in 2012. It replaced an older,
differently numbered version of the same law; it is not built on any
national uniform act.
Who can claim
Civil Code § 8400 gives lien rights to "a person that provides work
authorized for a work of improvement," and lists direct contractors,
subcontractors, material suppliers, equipment lessors, laborers, and design
professionals by name. There's a hard gate on top of that list, though: if
the work required a contractor's license, Business and Professions Code
§ 7031(c) makes any security interest — including a mechanic's lien —
"unenforceable if the person performing the act or contract was not a duly
licensed contractor at all times during the performance of the act or
contract." An unlicensed contractor can record a lien, but a court will not
let them enforce it.
Preliminary notice
Before recording a lien, most claimants must first give the owner, the
direct contractor, and any construction lender a "preliminary notice." Civil
Code § 8200 requires it of everyone with one narrow set of exceptions: "a
laborer is not required to give preliminary notice," and a claimant who
contracted directly with the owner only has to notify the construction
lender, if any. The deadline is short — Civil Code § 8204(a) requires the
notice "not later than 20 days after the claimant has first furnished work."
Missing that date doesn't destroy your lien rights outright: a late notice
still protects "work performed within 20 days prior to the service of the
preliminary notice, and at any time thereafter," it just gives up everything
furnished earlier.
Deadline to file the lien
The recording deadline splits by claimant type. A direct contractor must
record within "ninety days after completion of the work of improvement" or
"sixty days after the owner records a notice of completion or cessation,"
whichever comes first (§ 8412). Everyone else — subcontractors, suppliers,
equipment lessors, laborers, design professionals — gets the same 90-day
outside date, but only 30 days once a notice of completion or cessation is
recorded (§ 8414). Subcontractors and suppliers also can't record at all
until they've stopped providing work on the project.
Notice of completion effect
California defines "completion" broadly. Under Civil Code § 8180, a project
is complete on actual completion, on the owner's occupation or use paired
with a stop in work, on 60 continuous days with no labor performed at all,
or — this is the trigger for the shortened deadlines above — when the owner
records a notice of cessation after 30 continuous days of no work. Recording
a notice of completion or cessation is optional for an owner, but if they do
it, it immediately starts the shorter 60-day (direct contractor) or 30-day
(everyone else) clock instead of the full 90 days.
Serving the lien on the owner
Recording the lien isn't the last formality. Civil Code § 8416 requires a
copy of the recorded lien — including a specific statutory "Notice of
Mechanics Lien" warning printed in at least 10-point boldface — to be mailed
to the owner. This step has real teeth: § 8416(e) says failure to serve it
"shall cause the claim of mechanics lien to be unenforceable as a matter of
law." Unlike some other formalities in this survey, there's no California
carve-out for a missed service that didn't actually hurt anyone; the statute
makes it fatal outright.
Deadline to sue to foreclose
Recording the lien only preserves it for 90 days. Civil Code § 8460(a) is
direct: "the claimant shall commence an action to enforce a lien within 90
days after recordation of the claim of lien," and if they don't, "the claim
of lien expires and is unenforceable." The one way to buy more time is a
recorded agreement between the claimant and owner to extend credit — but
even then, § 8460(b) caps the extension at 90 days after the credit expires
and never later than one year after the work of improvement was completed.
Homestead/residential extras
California does not layer any extra formality onto residential or homestead
property the way some states do. The notify-file-serve-sue sequence above
applies the same way to a single-family home as to a commercial tower. The
only universal precondition — contractor licensure under Business and
Professions Code § 7031(c) — applies across every property type and isn't a
residential-specific rule.
What trips people up
The 90-day recording deadline is a ceiling, not a guarantee: if the owner
quietly records a Notice of Completion or Cessation, a subcontractor's
window can drop to 30 days without any separate notice requiring the owner
to tell subcontractors that happened. Watching for a recorded notice of
completion is the single most common way lien rights get lost early.
Separately, the mailed-service requirement under § 8416 is easy to treat as
a formality once the lien is already recorded — but California's own statute
makes an unserved lien unenforceable outright, with no exception for a claim
that the owner wasn't actually harmed by not getting the copy.
Common questions
Do I have to record a lien before I can sue for the money I'm owed?
No — this survey covers the lien itself, not the underlying breach-of-contract
claim, which generally runs on its own, longer statute of limitations. The
lien is a separate, faster-moving remedy that attaches to the property.
What if I never got a preliminary notice out?
You still have some protection under § 8204(a): a late notice covers the 20
days before you served it and everything after, it just gives up amounts
for work done earlier than that window.
Does it matter whether I'm a subcontractor or a direct contractor?
Yes — a direct contractor's recording deadline is measured from completing
its own contract and gets the longer 60-day post-notice window, while a
subcontractor or supplier must first stop providing work and only gets 30
days once a notice of completion or cessation is recorded.
Statutes and sources
- Cal. Civ. Code § 8400 (who has lien rights) —
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=8400.&lawCode=CIV
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Bus. & Prof. Code § 7031(c) (unlicensed contractor cannot enforce a lien) —
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=7031.&lawCode=BPC
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Cal. Civ. Code § 8200 (preliminary notice recipients) —
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=8200.&lawCode=CIV
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Cal. Civ. Code § 8204(a) (preliminary notice deadline) —
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=8204.&lawCode=CIV
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Cal. Civ. Code § 8412 (direct contractor recording deadline) —
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=8412.&lawCode=CIV
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Cal. Civ. Code § 8414 (other claimants' recording deadline) —
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=8414.&lawCode=CIV
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Cal. Civ. Code § 8180 (definition of completion) —
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=8180.&lawCode=CIV
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Cal. Civ. Code § 8416 (lien form and service on owner) —
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=8416.&lawCode=CIV
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Cal. Civ. Code § 8460 (deadline to foreclose) —
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=8460.&lawCode=CIV
(accessed 2026-07-04)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.