Ohio: Mechanic's Lien Deadlines & Notice Requirements

The short answer

Ohio's lien scheme is built around a document the owner files, not one the
claimant sends. Before work starts, an owner may record a "Notice of
Commencement" naming the project, the original contractor, and any lender.
Once one is on file, most subcontractors and material suppliers have to
respond with their own "Notice of Furnishing" within 21 days of first
showing up on the job, or risk losing lien rights for work done before
that window. If the owner never records a Notice of Commencement, no
Notice of Furnishing is required at all. From there, the actual lien
affidavit is due within 60 days of last furnishing on a one- or two-family
home, or 75 days on anything else, and a copy has to reach the owner within
30 days after filing. The lien then sits for up to 6 years unless the owner
speeds things up with a formal demand to sue.

Requirements one by one

Governing law

Ohio's private-improvement lien statute is R.C. Chapter 1311, the
"Mechanics' and Materialmen's Liens" chapter, running from § 1311.01 to §
1311.22. The same numbered chapter also covers public-improvement liens,
animal liens, and several unrelated lien types in later sections, but this
survey covers only the private-works sections.

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 flips the usual script: instead of a claimant sending an early
warning, the owner may record a Notice of Commencement before work begins,
listing the project, the original contractor, and any construction lender.
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" is pulled out of the ordinary
scheme entirely: the Notice of Commencement/Notice of Furnishing machinery
doesn't apply at all, and 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

Because Ohio's Notice of Commencement is optional for the owner to file,
subcontractors sometimes assume no notice was filed and skip checking —
but 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 from first
furnishing labor or material to send a Notice of Furnishing; if they
didn't, nothing is due.

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. 1311.01(D)-(E) (subcontractor/original contractor defined) —
  https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.01
  (accessed 2026-07-04)
• R.C. 1311.02 (who has a lien) —
  https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.02
  (accessed 2026-07-04)
• R.C. 1311.05(A) (21-day Notice of Furnishing) —
  https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.05
  (accessed 2026-07-04)
• 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 2026-07-04)
• R.C. 1311.06(B) (60/75/120-day filing deadlines) —
  https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.06
  (accessed 2026-07-04)
• R.C. 1311.04(T)(4) (completion affidavit doesn't affect lien deadlines) —
  https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.04
  (accessed 2026-07-04)
• R.C. 1311.07 (30-day service of affidavit on owner) —
  https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.07
  (accessed 2026-07-04)
• R.C. 1311.13(C) (6-year lien duration) —
  https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.13
  (accessed 2026-07-04)
• R.C. 1311.11(B) (60-day notice-to-commence-suit deadline) —
  https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1311.11
  (accessed 2026-07-04)
• 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 2026-07-04)