Mechanic's Lien Deadlines & Notice Requirements in Kentucky
At a glance
| Governing law | KRS Chapter 376, "Statutory Liens": the private-improvement mechanic's/materialman's lien provisions, §§ 376.010 to 376.100, recodified in 1942 from 19th-century Kentucky Statutes sections and amended piecemeal since (most recently 2023); a separate public-improvement lien track runs under §§ 376.210-376.260 |
|---|---|
| Who can claim a lien | Anyone furnishing covered labor or materials under the contract or written-consent relationships in § 376.010(1)(a); design professionals use § 376.075. For insurance-funded contracts entered on or after July 15, 2026, a contractor may not claim a § 376.010 lien solely because the insured refused an excess charge above the insurer-paid or expected amount (§ 367.628(2)(g)) |
| Preliminary notice | Required from claimants without a direct contract with the owner, owner's agent, or lessee: 75 days after last furnishing for claims under $1,000 and 120 days for claims over $1,000; the text leaves exactly $1,000 unassigned (§ 376.010(4)). Covered owner-occupied property instead always uses 75 days (§ 376.010(5)) |
| Deadline to file the lien | One flat deadline for every claimant, with no tiering by claimant type: file a sworn lien statement with the county clerk of the county where the property sits within 6 months after the claimant ceases to labor or furnish materials (§ 376.080(1)) |
| Notice of completion effect | None. Chapter 376's private-improvement sections have no owner-recorded notice of completion or cessation mechanism; the 6-month filing clock always runs from the claimant's own last day of work or delivery, regardless of when the overall project finished |
| Serving the lien on the owner | The claimant must mail a copy of the filed lien statement to the owner's last known address within 7 days of filing with the county clerk; missing this mailing dissolves the lien outright, not merely to the extent it prejudiced someone (§ 376.080(1)) |
| Deadline to sue to foreclose | 12 months from the day the lien statement was filed with the county clerk to bring an action enforcing it, extended by a further 6 months from a deceased debtor's personal representative qualifying if the debtor dies before the 12 months run (§ 376.090(1)) |
| Homestead/residential extras | Work on an owner-occupied single or double family dwelling (or related agricultural/personal-use improvements on contiguous land) swaps the general notice for a flat 75-day notice regardless of claim size, bars the contractor or subcontractor from acting as the owner's 'authorized agent' for receiving that notice, and shields the owner from lien liability for any amount already paid to the contractor before the notice arrives (§ 376.010(5)) |
Requirements one by one
Governing law
Kentucky's private-improvement mechanic's and materialman's lien rules begin at KRS § 376.010. KRS § 376.210 opens a separate public-improvement track, which the official Chapter 376 index carries through KRS § 376.260; that track is outside this survey's scope.
Who can claim
KRS § 376.010(1)(a) gives a lien to "any person who performs labor or furnishes materials" for erecting, altering, or repairing a structure, for excavation work, or for improving real property more generally, but only if that work happens "by contract with, or by the written consent of, the owner, lessee, contractor, subcontractor, architect, or authorized agent." Licensed design professionals, engineers, architects, landscape architects, and land surveyors, have their own separate lien under KRS § 376.075 and must contract directly with the owner or the owner's agent. For an insurance-funded real-estate contract entered on or after July 15, 2026, KRS § 367.628(2)(g) also bars a contractor from claiming a KRS 376.010 lien solely because the insured refused an excess charge above the amount paid or expected from the insurer.
Preliminary notice
Whether you need to send a notice before filing turns on whether you dealt with the owner directly. If you contracted "directly with the owner, the owner's agent, or the lessee," no pre-filing notice is required at all. Everyone else has to send one under KRS § 376.010(4): written notice of "his or her intention to hold the property liable and the amount for which he or she will claim a lien," within "seventy-five (75) days on claims amounting to less than one thousand dollars ($1,000) and one hundred twenty (120) days on claims in excess of one thousand dollars ($1,000)" after the last item of labor or material was furnished. Those words do not place an exact $1,000 claim in either bracket. Mailing the notice to the owner's last known address is enough proof of delivery. Covered owner-occupied property uses the residential rule described below instead.
Deadline to file the lien
Section 376.080(1) sets a single flat deadline for every claimant, with no tiering by claimant type: file a sworn statement with "the county clerk of the county in which the building or improvement is situated ... within six (6) months after he ceases to labor or furnish materials." The statement has to include the amount due, credits and set-offs already known, a description of the property, and the owner's name if known. Miss the six-month window and, in the statute's own words, the lien "shall be dissolved."
Notice of completion effect
The current Chapter 376 index contains no private-work notice-of-completion or cessation mechanism. KRS § 376.080(1) keeps the filing clock tied to when the claimant ceases labor or furnishing materials, not to a separate owner filing.
Serving the lien on the owner
Filing with the county clerk isn't the last step, § 376.080(1) also requires the claimant to "send by regular mail a copy of the statement to the property owner at his last known address within seven (7) days of filing the statement with the county clerk." This isn't a minor formality: the same subsection says the lien "shall be dissolved if a copy of the statement is not sent to the property owner as provided in this subsection," full stop, regardless of whether the owner was actually prejudiced by the delay.
Deadline to sue to foreclose
Once filed, § 376.090(1) gives a claimant "twelve (12) months from the day of filing the statement in the clerk's office" to bring an action enforcing the lien, or it's "deemed dissolved." If the property owner dies before that year runs out, the statute adds "a further period of six (6) months from the date of the qualification of his personal representative" to sue.
Homestead/residential extras
Section 376.010(5) swaps in a different notice rule for anyone claiming a lien on "an owner-occupied single or double family dwelling," its appurtenances, or related agricultural or personal-use improvements on contiguous land held by the same owner, when the claimant didn't contract directly with the owner or the owner's agent. Instead of the amount-based 75/120-day split under subsection (4), this claimant always gets a flat 75 days after the last item of labor or material to notify the owner, described by the statute as "in lieu of the notice provided for in subsection (4)." Two more protections come with it: the lien "shall not be applicable" to the extent the owner already paid the contractor for work done before the notice arrived, and "the contractor or subcontractor cannot be the authorized agent" for purposes of receiving this notice, which closes off a claimant using the very party who owes them money to accept notice on the owner's behalf.
What trips people up
The 75/120-day notice under § 376.010(4) looks straightforward until a claimant realizes their work was on an owner-occupied home, in that case the amount-based split doesn't apply at all, and the flat 75-day residential notice under subsection (5) governs instead, even for a claim well over $1,000. Missing that distinction can mean sending the wrong notice on the wrong timeline. Separately, the service requirement in § 376.080(1) is easy to treat as a formality once the lien statement is filed with the county clerk, but the statute is explicit that skipping the 7-day mailing to the owner dissolves the lien, there's no prejudice analysis to fall back on.
Common questions
Do I need to send a notice before I file my lien? Only if you didn't contract directly with the owner, the owner's agent, or a lessee. Direct contractors can go straight to filing within the 6-month window.
I'm owed more than $1,000 for work on someone's house they live in, which notice deadline applies? The residential rule in § 376.010(5), not the general 120-day rule. Because the property is an owner-occupied single or double family dwelling, you get a flat 75 days from your last day of work to send notice, regardless of how much you're owed.
Does the 12-month deadline to sue run from when I finished the work? No, § 376.090(1) measures it from the day you filed the lien statement with the county clerk, which is itself already up to 6 months after your last day of work.
Statutes and sources
- KRS 376.010 (lien grant; who can claim; preliminary notice; residential notice and protections) — https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=54156 (accessed 2026-08-11)
- KRS 376.075 (separate design-professional lien) — https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35288 (accessed 2026-08-11)
- KRS 376.080 (filing deadline; form of statement; mailing to owner) — https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35289 (accessed 2026-08-11)
- KRS 376.090 (12-month deadline to sue to enforce; priority) — https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35290 (accessed 2026-08-11)
- KRS 376.210-376.260 (separate public-improvement track) — https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/chapter.aspx?id=39141 (accessed 2026-08-11)
- KRS 367.628(2)(g) (insurance-funded excess-charge lien prohibition) — https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=57393 (accessed 2026-08-11)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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