Oregon: Mechanic's Lien Deadlines & Notice Requirements
The short answer
Oregon ties its mechanic's lien deadline to the project's completion rather than only to each claimant's own last day of work: everyone must perfect (file) a lien within 75 days after completion of construction, and general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and equipment lessors get an alternate, often earlier, trigger of 75 days after their own last day of work instead, whichever comes first. Anyone who didn't deal directly with the owner must also send a 'notice of right to a lien' at some point during the job -- it only reaches back 8 business days before it's sent -- except that claimants on a purely commercial project don't need to send this notice at all. Once filed, the claimant must mail notice of the filing to the owner and any mortgagee within 20 days (missing it only costs attorney fees, not the lien itself), then has 120 days from filing to sue to enforce it, extendable to up to 2 years if a payment plan is written into the lien claim. Residential work adds real teeth on top of that: a subcontractor can't lien an owner-occupied home renovation at all if the contractor above them was unlicensed, and an original contractor who skips the required written contract or the mandatory 'Information Notice to Owner' on a residential job over $2,000 loses lien rights on that job entirely.
| Governing law | Oregon's Construction Lien Law, ORS 87.001 to 87.060 and 87.075 to 87.093, sits inside the broader Chapter 87 "Statutory Liens" (which also covers unrelated chattel, medical, and agricultural liens, not part of this survey); enacted 1975, amended piecemeal through 2010 |
|---|---|
| Who can claim a lien | Anyone performing labor, transporting or furnishing material, or renting equipment used in constructing an improvement at the owner's or the owner's construction agent's instance (§ 87.010(1)-(2)); trustees of an employee benefit plan owed contributions for labor on the improvement (§ 87.010(4)); and, unlike states that wall design professionals off into a separate statute, architects, landscape architects, land surveyors, and registered engineers who prepare plans or supervise construction at the owner's or agent's request, covered in this same section (§ 87.010(5)-(6)) |
| Preliminary notice | Anyone who didn't furnish at the owner's own request must give a "notice of right to a lien" at some point during the project -- it isn't a strict pre-filing deadline, but only protects work done in the 8 business days before it's delivered and afterward (§ 87.021(1)); claimants on a purely commercial improvement are exempt from sending this notice at all (§ 87.021(3)(b)), so in practice it mainly matters for residential claimants without owner privity |
| Deadline to file the lien | General contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and equipment lessors (§ 87.010(1)-(2)) must perfect the lien within 75 days after their own last day of work or 75 days after completion of construction, whichever is earlier; every other claimant (design professionals, employee-benefit trustees) gets only the completion-based 75 days, with no own-last-day alternative (§ 87.035(1)) |
| Notice of completion effect | Rather than shortening a separately running deadline, a posted-and-recorded completion notice (or an abandonment notice, or 75 days of no work with no nonabandonment notice filed) is how "completion of construction" itself gets fixed for the § 87.035 75-day clock, since the fallback trigger is only "substantial completion," a fact-specific date the notice mechanism lets an owner, contractor, or mortgagee pin down in the county record instead (§ 87.045) |
| Serving the lien on the owner | The claimant must mail the owner and any mortgagee notice that the claim has been filed, with a copy attached, within 20 days of filing; missing this deadline doesn't dissolve the lien, it only forfeits the claimant's right to costs, disbursements, and attorney fees in a later foreclosure suit (§ 87.039) |
| Deadline to sue to foreclose | 120 days after the claim of lien is filed to bring suit enforcing it, or 120 days after an extended-payment period stated in the claim itself expires, but never more than 2 years total from filing under any payment-plan extension; a separate notice of intent to foreclose must also reach the owner and mortgagee at least 10 days before suit is filed, on pain of losing costs and attorney fees (§§ 87.055, 87.057) |
| Homestead/residential extras | Several residential-only rules layer on top of the general scheme: a subcontractor can't lien an owner-occupied residence being renovated at all if the contractor they dealt with was unlicensed when hired (§ 87.036); an original contractor loses all lien rights on residential work over $2,000 if a written contract was legally required and none exists (§ 87.037); and that same contractor must deliver a board-approved "Information Notice to Owner" at signing of any residential contract over $2,000, again forfeiting every lien right on the job if it's skipped (§ 87.093) |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
The short answer
Oregon's mechanic's lien deadline is unusual among the states in this survey
because it isn't tied only to your own last day of work. Every claimant
must perfect (file) a lien within 75 days after the whole project reaches
"completion of construction," and general contractors, subcontractors,
suppliers, and equipment lessors get an alternate trigger too -- 75 days
after their own last day of work -- whichever comes first. Anyone who
didn't deal directly with the owner also has to send a "notice of right to
a lien" at some point during the job; it isn't a fixed deadline, but it
only protects work done in the 8 business days before it's sent, and
claimants on a purely commercial project skip this notice entirely. After
filing, the claimant must mail notice of the filed lien to the owner and
any mortgagee within 20 days -- missing that only costs attorney fees, not
the lien itself -- then has 120 days from filing to sue to enforce it,
stretchable to up to 2 years if a payment plan is written into the lien
claim. Residential work carries sharper consequences: a subcontractor
can't lien an owner-occupied home renovation at all if the contractor
above them was unlicensed, and an original contractor who skips the
required written contract or the mandatory "Information Notice to Owner"
on a residential job over $2,000 loses lien rights on that job completely.
Requirements one by one
Governing law
Oregon's Construction Lien Law is ORS 87.001 to 87.060 and 87.075 to
87.093, a subset of the broader Chapter 87, "Statutory Liens." The rest of
Chapter 87 covers unrelated lien types -- chattel liens, medical services
liens, agricultural produce liens -- that have nothing to do with
construction and are outside this survey. The Construction Lien Law was
enacted in 1975 and has been amended piecemeal since, most recently to the
sections used here in 2010.
Who can claim
Section 87.010 casts a wide net. Subsection (1) covers "any person
performing labor upon, transporting or furnishing any material ... or
renting equipment used in the construction of any improvement," at the
instance of the owner or the owner's "construction agent." Subsection (2)
adds anyone improving or preparing a lot, or improving an adjoining street
or road, at the owner's request. Subsection (4) gives trustees of an
employee benefit plan a lien for unpaid contributions tied to labor on the
project. Unlike states that carve design professionals into a wholly
separate lien statute, Oregon covers them in this same section: subsection
(5) gives architects, landscape architects, land surveyors, and registered
engineers a lien for plans or supervision provided at the owner's or an
agent's request, and subsection (6) extends that to landscape and
land-surveying work on a lot itself.
Preliminary notice
Whether you need to send a notice before filing depends on two things:
whether you dealt with the owner directly, and whether the project is
residential or commercial. Section 87.021(1) requires anyone who wasn't
furnishing "at the request of the owner" to send a "notice of right to a
lien" -- but there's no fixed deadline to send it by. Instead, "the notice
may be given at any time during the progress of the improvement," and it
"only protects the right to perfect a lien for materials, equipment and
labor or services provided after a date which is eight days ... before the
notice is delivered or mailed." Send it late, and you simply lose lien
rights for everything furnished more than 8 business days earlier.
Subsection (3)(b) then carves out an exception that matters a lot in
practice: anyone working on a "commercial improvement" doesn't need to
send this notice at all to perfect a lien. That leaves the notice
requirement mostly relevant to non-privity claimants on residential
projects.
Deadline to file the lien
Section 87.035(1) splits the filing deadline into two tracks, both 75
days long but with different starting points. Claimants under
§ 87.010(1) or (2) -- general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers,
equipment lessors, and site-preparation workers -- must perfect the lien
"not later than 75 days after the person has ceased to provide labor, rent
equipment or furnish materials or 75 days after completion of
construction, whichever is earlier." Every other claimant (design
professionals, employee-benefit trustees) only gets the completion-based
75 days, with no alternative "ceased work" trigger of their own.
Notice of completion effect
Oregon doesn't use a completion notice to shorten an otherwise-longer
deadline the way some states do; instead, § 87.045 uses it to define when
"completion of construction" itself happens, which is what starts the
75-day clock running in the first place. Completion occurs at the
earliest of three events: the improvement is "substantially complete," a
completion notice is "posted and recorded," or the improvement is
"abandoned." Abandonment defaults to "the 75th day after work ... ceases"
unless someone records an abandonment notice sooner, or unless the owner
or mortgagee heads it off by posting a nonabandonment notice "not later
than the 74th day after work ... ceases" (renewable every 150 days). In
practice, this lets an owner, contractor, or mortgagee pin down a
definite completion date in the county record rather than leaving
claimants to guess when "substantial completion" actually happened.
Serving the lien on the owner
Filing with the county isn't the end of the claimant's notice
obligations. Section 87.039(1) requires the claimant to "mail to the
owner and to the mortgagee a notice in writing that the claim has been
filed," with "a copy of the claim of lien ... attached," and to do so "not
later than 20 days after the date of filing." Unlike states where a missed
service deadline dissolves the lien outright, Oregon's consequence is
narrower: subsection (2) says "no costs, disbursements or attorney fees
... shall be allowed to any party failing to comply" -- the lien itself
survives, but the claimant gives up the chance to recover fees in a later
foreclosure suit.
Deadline to sue to foreclose
Section 87.055 gives a claimant 120 days after the lien is filed to bring
suit, or the lien stops binding the property. That window can stretch,
though: "if extended payment is provided and the terms thereof are stated
in the claim of lien," the 120 days instead runs "after the expiration of
such extended payment," capped at "two years from the time the claim of
lien is filed." Separately, § 87.057(1) requires a "notice of intent to
foreclose" delivered to the owner and mortgagee "not later than 10 days
prior to commencement of the suit" -- and, like the post-filing notice,
skipping it costs the claimant costs and attorney fees rather than the
lien itself.
Homestead/residential extras
Oregon layers three separate residential-only rules on top of the general
scheme. First, § 87.036(1) bars a subcontractor from perfecting a lien
against "an existing owner-occupied residence" being renovated at all if
the contractor they dealt with "was unlicensed" when the subcontractor
first contracted with them or first delivered labor or materials --
unless the work was "purchased with cash or consumer credit." Second,
§ 87.037 strips an original contractor of lien rights entirely "if a
written contract for the work is required by ORS 701.305" -- which
requires a written contract whenever a residential contract price exceeds
$2,000 -- "and the contractor does not have" one. Third, § 87.093 requires
every original contractor to deliver a board-approved "Information Notice
to Owner" at signing of any residential construction or improvement
contract over $2,000 (or within five days of the price crossing that
line); subsection (6) makes the consequence just as severe as § 87.037's:
skip the notice, and the contractor "may not claim any lien" for that
residential job at all.
What trips people up
The 75-day filing deadline looks like a single number until a claimant
realizes it can be triggered two different ways -- their own last day of
work, or the project's completion, whichever comes first -- and that a
recorded completion notice can fix an earlier completion date than the
claimant expected, shrinking the runway to file. Separately, subcontractors
sometimes assume the "notice of right to a lien" is optional paperwork,
not realizing that on a residential job it caps their lien at whatever
work was done in the 8 business days before the notice went out --
anything earlier simply isn't covered, no matter how much is owed for it.
Common questions
Do I need to send a notice before I start work to protect my lien
rights?
Only if you didn't contract directly with the owner and the project isn't
purely commercial. Even then, there's no fixed sending deadline -- you just
lose lien rights for anything furnished more than 8 business days before
you send it, so sending it early protects more of your work.
Does the 75-day filing deadline run from when I personally finished my
work?
Only if you're a general contractor, subcontractor, supplier, or equipment
lessor under § 87.010(1)-(2), and even then only if that date comes before
the project's completion date. Design professionals and benefit-plan
trustees only get the completion-based 75 days.
I'm a subcontractor on a home renovation and just found out the general
contractor wasn't licensed -- can I still file a lien?
No. Section 87.036 bars a subcontractor from perfecting a lien against an
owner-occupied residence if the contractor they dealt with was unlicensed
when hired, unless the work was paid for with cash or consumer credit.
Statutes and sources
- ORS 87.010 (who can claim: laborers, suppliers, equipment lessors,
benefit-plan trustees, design professionals) —
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors087.html
(accessed 2026-07-05) - ORS 87.021 (notice of right to a lien; commercial-improvement exemption)
—
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors087.html
(accessed 2026-07-05) - ORS 87.035 (75-day filing deadline; two tracks by claimant type) —
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors087.html
(accessed 2026-07-05) - ORS 87.045 (completion, abandonment, and nonabandonment notices) —
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors087.html
(accessed 2026-07-05) - ORS 87.039 (20-day post-filing notice to owner and mortgagee) —
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors087.html
(accessed 2026-07-05) - ORS 87.055 (120-day foreclosure deadline; extended-payment stretch) —
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors087.html
(accessed 2026-07-05) - ORS 87.057 (10-day notice of intent to foreclose) —
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors087.html
(accessed 2026-07-05) - ORS 87.036 (subcontractor barred from lien on unlicensed-contractor
residential job) —
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors087.html
(accessed 2026-07-05) - ORS 87.037 (no lien without required written residential contract) —
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors087.html
(accessed 2026-07-05) - ORS 87.093 (Information Notice to Owner; residential contracts over
$2,000) —
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors087.html
(accessed 2026-07-05)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.