Mechanic's Lien Deadlines & Notice Requirements in Ohio

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law

R.C. § 1311.22 identifies R.C. §§ 1311.01-1311.22 as one statutory lien scheme. Those sections define the participants, create the lien, and set the notice, filing, service, and enforcement steps covered here.

Who can claim

An "original contractor" has a direct contract with the owner and includes a "construction manager" who has that same direct privity. A "subcontractor" is defined broadly as "any person who undertakes to construct, alter, erect, improve, repair, demolish, remove, dig, or drill any part of any improvement under a contract with any person other than the owner" — no fixed tier limit. Material suppliers and laborers get their own lien rights directly under § 1311.02 as well.

Preliminary notice

Ohio starts with an owner-side filing. R.C. 1311.04(A)(1) says the owner, part owner, or lessee "shall record" a Notice of Commencement before labor, work, or materials begin. If one is recorded, most subcontractors and material suppliers — but not original contractors, laborers, or suppliers already in direct privity with the owner — must serve a Notice of Furnishing "within twenty-one days after performing the first labor or work or furnishing the first materials" to preserve lien rights. And if the owner skips recording a Notice of Commencement altogether, the statute says plainly that "no subcontractor or material supplier... has to serve a notice of furnishing ... in order to preserve" lien rights at all — the whole notice step disappears.

Deadline to file the lien

The affidavit of mechanics' lien is due within one of three windows depending on the property: 60 days after last furnishing for "a one- or two-family dwelling or... a residential unit of condominium property," 120 days for an oil or gas well lien, and 75 days for everything else. All three run from the claimant's own last date of labor, work, or material furnished — the same trigger regardless of claimant tier.

Notice of completion effect

Ohio has no owner filing that shortens a claimant's deadline. The Notice of Commencement runs the opposite direction in time — it's filed before work starts, not after completion — and only starts the subcontractor's 21-day notice clock. An owner can later file an "affidavit of completion" to mark the Notice of Commencement expired in the county's records, but the statute says outright that doing so does not "extend the rights of any party seeking to file an affidavit of mechanic's lien" or "affect any time periods... set forth in this chapter."

Serving the lien on the owner

Once the affidavit is filed, the claimant "shall serve a copy of the affidavit on the owner, part owner, or lessee of the improved property or his designee, within thirty days after filing the affidavit." If service can't be completed under the Act's general service-of-process rules, the fallback is to post the copy "in some conspicuous place on the premises of the improved property within ten days after the expiration of the thirty days."

Deadline to sue to foreclose

A recorded lien "continue[s] in force for six years after an affidavit is filed," or until final judgment if suit starts within that time. An owner or any other interested party can cut that short by formally serving a "notice to commence suit"; if the lienholder then fails to sue "within sixty days after completion of service... the lien is void and the property wholly discharged from the lien."

Homestead/residential extras

Two separate rules apply to residential work. First, the general filing deadline itself is shorter — 60 days instead of 75 — for "a one- or two-family dwelling or... a residential unit of condominium property." Second, and more significant, an owner-occupied "home construction contract" or a "home purchase contract" follows R.C. 1311.011. The ordinary Notice of Furnishing requirement does not apply; a lender may still require a Notice of Commencement under R.C. 1311.04(O). No one — original contractor, subcontractor, supplier, or laborer — has any lien if the owner or purchaser paid the original contractor in full before ever receiving a copy of a lien affidavit. Short of full payment, a subcontractor's lien on a home construction job is capped at whatever the owner still owes the original contractor, not the subcontractor's own unpaid balance.

What trips people up

Although R.C. 1311.04 requires the owner-side Notice of Commencement, subcontractors still need to check the county record rather than assume the owner omitted it. If one was recorded and they miss the 21-day Notice of Furnishing window, they don't lose the lien outright; the statute only cuts off lien rights for work performed more than 21 days before the late notice was served, while work from that point forward stays protected. People also tend to treat a home renovation the same as any other private job, but the home-construction track removes the owner's exposure entirely once they've paid the general contractor in full — a homeowner who pays their contractor and never gets a lien affidavit copy owes nothing more to an unpaid subcontractor down the chain.

Common questions

Do I have to send a notice before I start work on a private job in Ohio? Only indirectly. There's no claimant-sent pre-work notice. Whether you need to act at all depends on whether the owner recorded a Notice of Commencement — if they did, you generally have 21 days after first furnishing labor or material to send a Notice of Furnishing; if they didn't, that Notice of Furnishing is excused.

What if I'm working on someone's house and they paid the general contractor already? If it's a "home construction contract" and the owner paid the original contractor in full before receiving a copy of a lien affidavit, no subcontractor, supplier, or laborer has any lien at all against that property for that job.

Can the owner force me to sue faster than the 6-year window? Yes. Serving a formal notice to commence suit cuts the deadline to 60 days from completed service; missing that shortened window voids the lien entirely.

Statutes and sources

• R.C. 1311.22 (statutory span and construction rule) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.22 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.01(D)-(E) (subcontractor/original contractor defined) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.01 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.02 (who has a lien) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.02 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.04(A)(1) (owner-side Notice of Commencement) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.04 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.05(A) (21-day Notice of Furnishing) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.05 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.05(D)(1) (effect of a late Notice of Furnishing) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.05 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.05(H) (no notice needed if no Notice of Commencement recorded) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.05 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.06(B) (60/75/120-day filing deadlines) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.06 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.04(T)(4) (completion affidavit doesn't affect lien deadlines) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.04 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.07 (30-day service of affidavit on owner) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.07 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.13(C) (6-year lien duration) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.13 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.11(B) (60-day notice-to-commence-suit deadline) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.11 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.011(B)(1) (home construction/purchase contract no-lien-if-paid rule) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.011 (accessed 2026-08-11)
• R.C. 1311.011(B)(2) (downstream lien cap when the original contractor is not fully paid) — https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.011 (accessed 2026-08-11)