Connecticut: Mechanic's Lien Deadlines & Notice Requirements

The short answer

Connecticut uses a single flat deadline for every mechanic's lien claimant:
record a sworn certificate with the town clerk within 90 days after you
stop furnishing labor or materials. Whether you also need to send a notice
beforehand depends on your contract. The original contractor, and a
subcontractor whose contract with the original contractor is written and
mutually assented to, don't need to send anything in advance. Everyone
else -- an unwritten-contract subcontractor or a material supplier -- must
also give the owner and the original contractor written notice of intent
to claim a lien, within that same 90-day window. After recording the
certificate, the claimant has 30 days to serve a true copy on the owner --
skip either the certificate or the service, and the lien "is not valid."
From the recording date, the claimant then has 1 year to sue to foreclose
and file a notice of lis pendens. Separate from all of this, Connecticut's
Home Improvement Act imposes strict writing requirements on a general
contractor's residential-improvement contracts, and courts have held that
a general contractor who skips them forfeits mechanic's lien rights on
that job entirely -- though a subcontractor's own lien survives regardless.

Requirements one by one

Governing law

Connecticut's mechanic's lien law is Title 49, Chapter 847, "Liens"
(§§ 49-33 to 49-40). Connecticut courts describe it as "a creature of
statute" that "establishes a right of action where none existed at common
law" -- there's no independent common-law lien to fall back on if the
statute isn't followed exactly. A separate statute, the Home Improvement
Act (Title 20, Chapter 400), layers additional contract-formality
requirements onto residential improvement work; see Homestead/residential
extras below.

Who can claim

Section 49-33(a) covers "any person" with a claim over ten dollars for
materials or services in constructing, raising, removing, or repairing a
building, or in improving or subdividing a lot or plot of land, "by virtue
of an agreement with or by consent of the owner" or someone "rightfully
acting for the owner." A subcontractor gets the same lien, but subsection
(e) caps it "to a greater extent in the whole than the amount which the
owner has agreed to pay" the party through whom the subcontractor claims,
and subsection (f) makes the subcontractor "subrogated to the rights of
the person through whom" they claim. The statute's own text never mentions
architects, engineers, or surveyors; Connecticut courts, not the statute,
have extended lien rights to their work when it satisfies a judicially
created "physical enhancement" test -- meaning the services must actually
lead to or be an essential part of the physical construction, not just
planning that never gets built.

Preliminary notice

Section 49-35(a) draws the line at contract formality. The original
contractor, and "a subcontractor whose contract with the original
contractor is in writing and has been assented to in writing by the other
party," don't need to send anything before filing. Every other claimant
must, "after commencing, and not later than ninety days after ceasing, to
furnish materials or render services," give "written notice to the owner
... and to the original contractor" that they've furnished or begun
furnishing, and "intend[] to claim a lien." An original contractor is only
entitled to receive that notice if they recorded a business-name and
address affidavit with the town clerk "not later than fifteen days after
commencing" the work -- though failing to record it doesn't cost the
original contractor their own lien rights, only their right to be notified
of other claimants' liens.

Deadline to file the lien

Section 49-34(1) sets one flat deadline for every claimant, with no
tiering by contract position: "within ninety days after he has ceased to"
furnish services or materials, lodge a sworn certificate with "the town
clerk of the town in which the building, lot or plot of land is situated."
The certificate has to describe the property, state the amount claimed and
that it's justly due, and be "subscribed and sworn to by the claimant."

Notice of completion effect

Connecticut has no such mechanism. Chapter 847 doesn't let an owner record
a notice of completion or cessation that shortens any claimant's 90-day
window; the clock always runs from that claimant's own last day of
furnishing. Connecticut courts have added a related gloss: trivial work
performed after the job is already substantially complete -- punch-list
items, warranty repairs -- doesn't restart that 90-day clock.

Serving the lien on the owner

Filing the certificate with the town clerk isn't the last step. Section
49-34(2) requires the claimant, "not later than thirty days after lodging
the certificate," to "serve[] a true and attested copy of the certificate
upon the owner," using the same delivery method set out for the § 49-35
notice of intent (personal or abode service if the owner lives in town,
registered or certified mail if not, publication if that's returned
unclaimed). The opening sentence of § 49-34 makes both steps equally
essential: "A mechanic's lien is not valid unless" the claimant does both
the timely certificate and the timely service.

Deadline to sue to foreclose

Section 49-39 gives a claimant "one year from the date the lien was
recorded" to "commence[] an action to foreclose it" and "record[] a notice
of lis pendens" on the land records -- both steps required, not just the
lawsuit. That deadline extends to "sixty days of any final disposition" of
a discharge-or-reduction application under § 49-35a, whichever is later.
Miss the window and the statute is explicit: the lien "shall be invalid
and discharged as a matter of law."

Homestead/residential extras

Nothing inside Chapter 847 itself singles out homestead property. But a
separate statute, the Home Improvement Act's § 20-429(a)(1)(A), makes a
general contractor's residential-improvement contract unenforceable
against the homeowner unless it is "in writing," "signed by the owner and
the contractor," dated, states "the contractor's registration number,"
includes "a notice of the owner's cancellation rights," and shows "a
starting date and completion date," among other requirements. Connecticut's
Supreme Court held in Barrett Builders v. Miller that a general contractor
who fails to meet these requirements can't recover from the homeowner at
all -- including through a mechanic's lien -- even for work performed in
good faith. That bar doesn't extend down the chain, though: appellate
courts have held that a subcontractor's own mechanic's lien survives the
general contractor's noncompliance with the Act, because subcontractors
"do not fall within the statutory definition of home improvement
contractor" and aren't required to have a written contract themselves.

What trips people up

General contractors sometimes assume that doing good work is enough to
protect their right to be paid on a residential job, without realizing
that a contract missing even one of the Home Improvement Act's required
elements -- commonly the registration number, the cancellation notice, or
a start/completion date -- can bar recovery entirely, mechanic's lien
included, once the homeowner raises the defect. Separately, the two-part
90-day notice-and-30-day-service structure in §§ 49-34 and 49-35 is easy to
compress into a single mental deadline; missing the SEPARATE 30-day service
window after an otherwise-timely certificate is just as fatal as missing
the certificate itself.

Common questions

I'm a subcontractor and the general contractor's homeowner contract
didn't include a cancellation-rights notice -- does that affect my lien?
No. Connecticut courts have held that a subcontractor's own mechanic's
lien survives even if the general contractor's contract violates the Home
Improvement Act, since the Act's writing requirements don't apply to
subcontractors.

Do I need to send a notice before I even start work to protect my lien
rights?
Only if you're a subcontractor without a written, owner-assented contract,
or a material supplier. In that case, send written notice of intent to
both the owner and the original contractor sometime after starting and no
later than 90 days after your last day of work.

Does recording my lien certificate finish the process?
No -- § 49-34(2) also requires you to serve a true copy on the owner
within 30 days of recording. Miss that separate deadline and the lien "is
not valid," even if the certificate itself was recorded on time.

Statutes and sources

• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-33 (who can claim; subcontractor cap and
  subrogation) —
  https://web.archive.org/web/2025/https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_847.htm
  (accessed 2026-07-05)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-34 (90-day filing; 30-day service on owner) —
  https://web.archive.org/web/2025/https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_847.htm
  (accessed 2026-07-05)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-35 (notice of intent; original-contractor
  affidavit) —
  https://web.archive.org/web/2025/https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_847.htm
  (accessed 2026-07-05)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-39 (1-year deadline to foreclose; lis pendens) —
  https://web.archive.org/web/2025/https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_847.htm
  (accessed 2026-07-05)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 20-429 (Home Improvement Act; required residential
  contract terms) —
  https://web.archive.org/web/2025/https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_400.htm
  (accessed 2026-07-05)