Nevada: Mechanic's Lien Deadlines & Notice Requirements
The short answer
Most claimants (other than laborers and anyone with a direct contract with the owner) must first deliver a Notice of Right to Lien at some point after starting work; skipping it bars a lien entirely. Record the lien itself within 90 days after the latest of project completion, your last delivery, or your last work (just 40 days if the owner properly records and serves a notice of completion), then serve a copy on the owner within 30 days. Nevada's foreclosure deadline is short: the lien only binds the property for 6 months after recording, and you can't even file suit until 30 days after recording. Residential projects add a mandatory 15-day Notice of Intent to Lien before you can record at all.
| Governing law | Nev. Rev. Stat. Ch. 108 (Title 9), the mechanics' and materialmen's liens article (§§ 108.221-108.246), comprehensively revised 2003; generally excludes government-owned property from lien exposure except property the government uses for a private or nongovernmental purpose (§ 108.22148) |
|---|---|
| Who can claim a lien | Any 'lien claimant' furnishing $500 or more of work, material, or equipment for construction, alteration, or repair, expressly including artisans, builders, contractors, laborers, equipment lessors/renters, materialmen, miners, subcontractors, and design professionals (architects, engineers, land surveyors, geologists) (§ 108.2214); a contractor or professional required to be licensed has no lien at all if unlicensed (§ 108.222(2)) |
| Preliminary notice | Every claimant except laborers and anyone who contracted directly with (or sold materials directly to) the owner must deliver a 'Notice of Right to Lien' at some point after first furnishing (§ 108.245(1),(5)); giving none bars perfecting or enforcing a lien at all (§ 108.245(3)), and a late notice only protects work furnished from 31 days before the notice forward (§ 108.245(6)) |
| Deadline to file the lien | 90 days after the latest of: completion of the work of improvement, the claimant's last delivery of material/equipment, or the claimant's last performed work; or 40 days after a validly recorded AND served notice of completion, whichever applies (§ 108.226(1)) |
| Notice of completion effect | An owner may record a notice of completion once the work is done, cutting every remaining claimant's filing window to 40 days from that recording — but only if the owner also delivers a copy within 10 days to each prime contractor and to any claimant who already gave notice or requested one; skipping that delivery makes the notice of completion ineffective as to that claimant, who keeps the full 90-day rule instead (§ 108.228) |
| Serving the lien on the owner | A copy of the recorded notice of lien (separate from the earlier Notice of Right to Lien) must be served on the owner within 30 days after recording, by personal delivery, certified mail, or a posting-plus-mailing combination if the owner can't be located (§ 108.227(1)); the statute does not spell out a penalty for a claimant's own missed service the way it does for some other steps |
| Deadline to sue to foreclose | The lien binds the property for only 6 months after recording unless suit is filed or a signed, recorded written extension is obtained (§ 108.233(1)); suit can't even be filed until 30 days after recording (§ 108.244), and filing it requires recording a notice of pendency and publishing a foreclosure notice weekly for 3 successive weeks (§ 108.239(2)) |
| Homestead/residential extras | Residential construction (single- or two-family dwellings, including apartment houses) layers on a mandatory 15-day 'Notice of Intent to Lien,' required of every claimant except laborers, served on both the owner and the reputed prime contractor before recording the lien itself; it extends the recording deadline by 15 days and a lien 'may not be perfected or enforced' without it (§ 108.226(6)-(7)); none of this applies to nonresidential construction |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
The short answer
Nevada requires most claimants to give a "Notice of Right to Lien" at
some point after they start work, before they can ever record a lien —
skip it and you lose lien rights entirely, no exceptions for a late
filer beyond a narrow 31-day lookback. From there, record the lien
itself within 90 days after the project wraps up (or just 40 days if
the owner properly records and serves a notice of completion), then
serve a copy on the owner within 30 days after recording. Nevada's
foreclosure window is one of the tightest in this survey: the lien only
binds the property for 6 months after recording, and you're not even
allowed to file suit until 30 days after recording. Residential projects
add one more mandatory step — a 15-day Notice of Intent to Lien — before
you can record at all.
Requirements one by one
Governing law
Nevada's mechanic's lien law is Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 108
(Title 9), the "Mechanics' and Materialmen's Liens" article (§§ 108.221
to 108.246), comprehensively revised in 2003. It generally doesn't reach
government-owned property, but there's a narrow exception: § 108.22148(1)(f)
includes the state or a political subdivision as a lienable "owner" when
the property "is used for a private or nongovernmental use or purpose,"
while § 108.22148(2)(d) otherwise excludes government ownership from the
definition entirely.
Who can claim
Section 108.2214 defines a "lien claimant" as anyone who "provides work,
material or equipment with a value of $500 or more" for construction,
alteration, or repair, and names the covered categories directly:
"artisan, builder, ... contractor, laborer, lessor or renter of
equipment, materialman, miner, subcontractor," plus anyone "who performs
services as an architect, engineer, land surveyor or geologist." That
last clause makes Nevada one of the more explicit states in this survey
about covering design professionals. There's a hard gate on top,
though: § 108.222(2) says a contractor or professional "required to be
licensed" only "has a lien" "if the contractor or professional is
licensed to perform the work."
Preliminary notice
Nearly every claimant has to send a "Notice of Right to Lien" before a
lien can ever be perfected. Section 108.245(1) requires it from "every
lien claimant, other than one who performs only labor," delivered "at
any time after the first delivery of material or performance of work,"
with a narrow exemption in § 108.245(5) for "a prime contractor or other
person who contracts directly with an owner or sells materials directly
to an owner." This one is unforgiving: § 108.245(3) says "no lien ...
may be perfected or enforced ... unless the notice has been given" — there's
no late-filing fallback the way some states allow. The only cushion is
in § 108.245(6): once given, the notice protects work done "in the 31
days before the date the notice ... is given" and everything after, so a
claimant who waits still recovers something, just not from day one.
Deadline to file the lien
Section 108.226(1) sets the baseline at 90 days "after the date on
which the latest of the following occurs": completion of the whole
project, the claimant's own last delivery of material or equipment, or
the claimant's own last day of work. That drops to 40 days if the owner
has recorded (and properly served) a notice of completion under
§ 108.228.
Notice of completion effect
An owner "may record a notice of completion after the completion of the
work of improvement" (§ 108.228(1)), and doing so cuts the 90-day
recording window down to 40 days. But the shortcut only works if the
owner does their own homework: § 108.228(4) requires the owner to
"deliver a copy of the notice by certified mail" within 10 days to every
prime contractor and to any claimant who already asked for it or already
sent a Notice of Right to Lien. Skip that delivery, and § 108.228(5) is
blunt about the consequence — the notice of completion is "ineffective
with respect to each prime contractor and lien claimant" who should have
gotten a copy, meaning those claimants keep their full 90 days.
Serving the lien on the owner
Recording isn't the end of the road. Section 108.227(1) requires "a copy
of the notice of lien" — the recorded lien itself, not the earlier
Notice of Right to Lien — to "be served upon the owner ... within 30
days after recording," by personal delivery, certified mail, or (if the
owner can't be found) posting a copy on the property plus mailing it to
several fallback addresses. Unlike California or Utah, the statute
doesn't spell out what happens if a claimant simply misses this step
for a single owner; it does clarify that missing service on one of
several co-owners doesn't invalidate service properly made on another.
Deadline to sue to foreclose
Nevada runs one of the shortest enforcement windows in this survey.
Section 108.233(1) says a lien "must not bind the property ... for a
period longer than 6 months after the date on which the notice of lien
was recorded" unless suit is filed in time or the parties sign and
record a written extension agreement. But you can't rush to court
immediately either: § 108.244 bars filing "a complaint for foreclosure
... until 30 days have expired immediately following the recording."
Once you do file, § 108.239(2) requires recording "a notice of pendency
of the action" and publishing "a notice of foreclosure ... at least once
a week for 3 successive weeks" in a local newspaper.
Homestead/residential extras
Residential construction — "multifamily or single-family residences,
including ... apartment houses" — carries its own mandatory pre-filing
step found nowhere else in the chapter. Section 108.226(6) requires
every claimant except laborers to "serve a 15-day notice of intent to
lien ... upon both the owner and the reputed prime contractor before
recording a notice of lien," which also "extend[s] the time for
recording the notice of lien ... by 15 days." It's another
all-or-nothing rule: a residential lien "may not be perfected or
enforced ... unless the 15-day notice of intent to lien has been given."
Section 108.226(7) confirms none of this reaches "any nonresidential
construction project."
What trips people up
The Notice of Right to Lien has no fixed deadline, which makes it easy
to put off — but it's the one notice in this chapter with zero grace
period for skipping it outright: give none at all, and there's no lien
to perfect, period. On residential jobs, that same trap repeats one
level deeper with the 15-day Notice of Intent to Lien, which most
non-Nevada practitioners don't expect on top of the Notice of Right to
Lien. And because the foreclosure window is only 6 months with a
mandatory 30-day waiting period baked in at the front, a claimant who
treats "6 months" as their real planning horizon is really working with
closer to 5 months once the waiting period and time to prepare a
lawsuit are subtracted.
Common questions
Do I need to give a Notice of Right to Lien if I contracted directly
with the property owner?
No. Section 108.245(5) exempts anyone who "contracts directly with an
owner or sells materials directly to an owner," and laborers are
exempt too.
What happens if the owner records a notice of completion but never
tells me?
Under § 108.228(4)-(5), the owner must mail you a copy within 10 days if
you'd already requested one or already sent a Notice of Right to Lien.
If they don't, the shortened 40-day deadline simply doesn't apply to
you — you keep the full 90 days.
How much time do I really have to sue once my lien is recorded?
Six months from recording under § 108.233(1), but you can't file suit
during the first 30 days after recording (§ 108.244) — so plan your
enforcement timeline around roughly 5 months of usable time, not the
full 6.
Statutes and sources
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 108.2214 (definition of "lien claimant") —
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-108.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Nev. Rev. Stat. § 108.222(2) (unlicensed contractor/professional bar) —
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-108.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Nev. Rev. Stat. § 108.245 (Notice of Right to Lien) —
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-108.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Nev. Rev. Stat. § 108.226(1) (lien recording deadline) —
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-108.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Nev. Rev. Stat. § 108.226(6)-(7) (residential Notice of Intent to Lien) —
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-108.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Nev. Rev. Stat. § 108.227(1) (service of recorded lien on owner) —
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-108.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Nev. Rev. Stat. § 108.228 (notice of completion) —
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-108.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Nev. Rev. Stat. § 108.233(1) (6-month lien duration) —
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-108.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Nev. Rev. Stat. § 108.244 (30-day wait before suit) —
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-108.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Nev. Rev. Stat. § 108.239(2) (lis pendens and publication) —
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-108.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Nev. Rev. Stat. § 108.22148 (definition of "owner"; government-property scope) —
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-108.html
(accessed 2026-07-04)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.