Tennessee: Mechanic's Lien Deadlines & Notice Requirements
The short answer
Tennessee's lien splits sharply by tier. A prime contractor with a direct contract with the owner has a full year to sue and only has to record a sworn notice within 90 days of completion to protect priority against third parties — not the owner. A remote contractor (any subcontractor or supplier) has to serve a written notice of lien on the owner within that same 90 days, then sue within just 90 more days of serving it, and on most non-residential jobs must also send a monthly notice of nonpayment or lose that month's lien rights entirely. On owner-occupied residential property of four units or fewer, none of that matters for a remote contractor: only the prime contractor gets lien rights at all.
| Governing law | Tenn. Code Ann. Title 66, ch. 11, Part 1, "General Provisions" (§§ 66-11-101 to -150); a traditional single-chapter statutory lien law, substantially reorganized by 2007 Tenn. Acts ch. 189, not tied to any uniform act |
|---|---|
| Who can claim a lien | A prime contractor (direct privity with the owner) and a remote contractor (any tier below) who complies with the contractor-licensing statute, Title 62 ch. 6 — an unlicensed lienor gets no lien at all (§ 66-11-102(a)); land surveyors and architects/engineers under contract with the owner also qualify, except design-professional liens don't reach an owner-occupied one- or two-family detached home (§ 66-11-102(b)-(c)); on residential real property generally, only the prime contractor has lien rights at all (§ 66-11-146(a)) |
| Preliminary notice | No pre-work notice; the closest analog is a monthly Notice of Nonpayment a remote contractor must serve on the owner and prime contractor within 90 days of the last day of each unpaid month, required only for non-residential work — missing any month's notice permanently forfeits lien rights for that month (§ 66-11-145) |
| Deadline to file the lien | A prime contractor records a sworn notice within 90 days of completion or abandonment to preserve priority against later purchasers/encumbrancers, though recording isn't required as against the owner itself (§ 66-11-112(a)); a remote contractor must instead serve a written notice of lien on the owner within that same 90-day window (§ 66-11-115(a)) |
| Notice of completion effect | An owner-recorded notice of completion accelerates any unregistered claimant's deadline to serve written notice of claim: 10 days for a one- to four-family residential project, 30 days for everything else, or lien rights expire outright (§ 66-11-143(e)) |
| Serving the lien on the owner | A remote contractor's lien requires actually serving a written notice of lien on the owner (§ 66-11-115(a)); a prime contractor's lien needs no owner service, only recording to protect priority. Service by registered/certified mail, hand delivery, or a tracked commercial carrier, presumed complete on a set schedule for each method (§ 66-11-149) |
| Deadline to sue to foreclose | A prime contractor's lien continues, and suit must be brought, for 1 year after completion or abandonment (§ 66-11-106); a remote contractor's lien continues only 90 days from the date its notice of lien was served, and suit must be filed within that same 90 days (§ 66-11-115(b)) |
| Homestead/residential extras | On residential real property (a building of 1-4 dwelling units where the owner resides or intends to reside), lien rights exist only in favor of the prime contractor — no subcontractor, supplier, or other remote contractor has lien rights there at all (§ 66-11-146(a)); an unlicensed firm doing licensed residential construction/home improvement gets no lien on residential property either (§ 66-11-150); the completion-notice deadline is also shorter there (10 vs. 30 days) |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
The short answer
Tennessee draws a hard line between a "prime contractor" (anyone in direct
privity with the owner) and a "remote contractor" (everyone else down the
chain), and gives each a genuinely different set of rules. A prime
contractor's lien lasts a full year and only needs to be recorded within 90
days of completion to protect its priority against later buyers or lenders —
not to bind the owner. A remote contractor instead has to serve a written
notice of lien on the owner within that same 90 days, then sue within just
90 more days after serving it, and — on most non-residential jobs — also
send a monthly notice of nonpayment or permanently lose that month's lien
rights. None of the remote-contractor machinery matters at all, though, on
an owner-occupied home of four units or fewer: Tennessee simply doesn't give
a subcontractor or supplier lien rights there in the first place.
Requirements one by one
Governing law
Tennessee's mechanic's lien law is Tennessee Code Annotated Title 66,
Chapter 11, Part 1, "General Provisions" (§§ 66-11-101 to -150). It's a
traditional, single-chapter statutory lien scheme with roots going back to
an 1845-46 act, substantially reorganized (not rewritten in substance) by
2007 Tenn. Acts ch. 189. It isn't built on any national uniform act. Part 2
of the same chapter, the "Truth in Construction and Consumer Protection Act
of 1975," imposes separate contractor-disclosure duties whose violation is a
misdemeanor but — by the statute's own terms — doesn't affect a prime
contractor's lien rights, so it sits outside this survey's scope.
Who can claim
Section 66-11-102 grants a lien to a "prime contractor or any remote
contractor" who has complied with the contractor-licensing requirements of
Title 62, Chapter 6 — without that license, "no lien is established by this
chapter" at all. The same section extends lien rights to a land surveyor and
to an architect or engineer under contract with the owner, but that design-
professional lien carries its own carve-out: it "shall not apply to owner-
occupants of one-family or two-family detached unit homes." The sharpest
limit sits in a different section entirely — on residential real property,
Section 66-11-146(a) confines lien rights to the prime contractor alone (see
Homestead/residential extras below).
Preliminary notice
Tennessee has no notice required before or during the work itself. Its
closest functional equivalent is the Notice of Nonpayment in Section
66-11-145, but it's a recurring, monthly obligation rather than a one-time
filing, and it applies only to non-residential jobs: "every remote
contractor with respect to an improvement, except one-family, two-family,
three-family and four-family residential units, shall serve, within ninety
(90) days of the last day of each month" in which unpaid work was provided,
a notice of nonpayment on both the owner and the prime contractor. The
consequence of skipping it is total, not partial: "a remote contractor who
fails to provide the notice of nonpayment in compliance with this section
shall have no right to claim a lien under this chapter" for that work.
Deadline to file the lien
The filing step itself splits by tier. A prime contractor doesn't have to
record anything to bind the owner, but Section 66-11-112(a) requires
recording a sworn statement "no later than ninety (90) days after the date
the improvement is complete or is abandoned" to preserve the lien's priority
against a later purchaser or lender. A remote contractor has a different,
stricter obligation: Section 66-11-115(a) requires actually serving "a
notice of lien, in writing, on the owner of the property," within that same
90-day window measured from § 66-11-112(a) — recording alone isn't enough
for a remote contractor's lien to exist.
Notice of completion effect
An owner who records a notice of completion accelerates the deadline for any
claimant who hasn't already registered a contract or sworn statement.
Section 66-11-143(e) splits that accelerated window by property type: "for
improvements to or on real property for one-family, two-family, three-family
and four-family residential units," written notice of the claim must be
served within 10 days of the recording, while "for all other contracts,"
the window is 30 days — and in either case, "if notice is not served within
that time, the lien rights of the claimant shall expire" outright, not
merely narrow.
Serving the lien on the owner
This, too, differs by tier. A remote contractor's lien depends on serving
the owner directly under Section 66-11-115(a); a prime contractor's lien
needs no separate owner-service step at all, since recording under
§ 66-11-112 only affects priority against third parties, not the owner.
Section 66-11-149 standardizes how any required notice under the chapter
must be served — "registered or certified mail, return receipt requested,"
notarized hand delivery, or a tracked commercial carrier — and sets when
service is presumed complete for each method.
Deadline to sue to foreclose
Here the tiers diverge sharply. Section 66-11-106 gives a prime contractor's
lien a full year: it "shall continue for one (1) year after the date the
improvement is complete or is abandoned, and until the final decision of any
suit properly brought within that time." A remote contractor gets far less
under Section 66-11-115(b): its lien "shall continue for the period of
ninety (90) days from the date of service of notice," meaning suit has to be
filed within 90 days of serving the notice of lien on the owner — not from
completion of the project.
Homestead/residential extras
Tennessee's residential rule is the most categorical in this survey so far.
Section 66-11-146 defines "residential real property" as a one- to four-
dwelling-unit building where the owner resides or intends to reside as a
principal residence, and then states flatly: "on contracts to improve
residential real property, a lien or right of lien on the property shall
exist only in favor of a prime contractor." A subcontractor, supplier, or
any other remote contractor simply has no lien rights there, full stop —
which is also why Section 66-11-145 exempts residential jobs from the
Notice of Nonpayment requirement in the first place. When the owner and the
general contractor are the same person or under common control, subsection
(b) narrows things further, limiting lien rights to only those lienors "in
contractual privity with the owner or general contractor." A separate
licensing bar reinforces the point: Section 66-11-150 denies any lien on
residential property to an unlicensed firm performing residential
construction or home improvement where the jurisdiction requires a license.
What trips people up
Subcontractors and suppliers used to other states' lien laws often assume
they have some lien right on a house under construction, only to discover
Section 66-11-146 gives that right to the prime contractor alone on
residential property — there's no notice or workaround that creates it.
On non-residential jobs, the monthly notice-of-nonpayment requirement is
easy to under-count: it isn't one filing but a running obligation for each
month of unpaid work, and Section 66-11-145 makes clear that missing any
single month's window loses only that month's rights, but loses them for
good.
Common questions
Does it matter whether I'm a prime contractor or a subcontractor in
Tennessee?
Enormously. A prime contractor gets a full year to sue and no owner-service
requirement; a remote contractor must serve the owner directly within 90
days and then sue within only 90 more days — a much tighter overall clock.
Can I put a lien on someone's house if I'm a subcontractor who was never
paid?
Generally no. Section 66-11-146 reserves lien rights on residential real
property (a one- to four-unit owner-occupied building) to the prime
contractor only.
What happens if the owner records a notice of completion while I'm still
owed money?
It shortens your deadline to serve written notice of your claim — to 10
days for residential work, 30 days for everything else — and missing that
window ends your lien rights entirely.
Do I have to send anything before I start work, the way some states
require?
No. Tennessee has no pre-work notice requirement. The closest thing is the
monthly Notice of Nonpayment a remote contractor on a non-residential job
must send once work goes unpaid — an ongoing obligation, not a one-time
step at the start.
Statutes and sources
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-101 (definitions: owner-occupant, single family
residence) —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-tn/transforms/tn/octn/r74/gov.tn.tca.title.66.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-102 (lien for work/materials; licensing gate;
design-professional carve-out) —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-tn/transforms/tn/octn/r74/gov.tn.tca.title.66.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-106 (prime contractor's foreclosure deadline) —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-tn/transforms/tn/octn/r74/gov.tn.tca.title.66.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-112 (recording deadline; priority) —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-tn/transforms/tn/octn/r74/gov.tn.tca.title.66.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-115 (remote contractor's lien, service, and
foreclosure deadline) —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-tn/transforms/tn/octn/r74/gov.tn.tca.title.66.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-143 (notice of completion) —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-tn/transforms/tn/octn/r74/gov.tn.tca.title.66.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-145 (notice of nonpayment) —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-tn/transforms/tn/octn/r74/gov.tn.tca.title.66.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-146 (residential real property; prime-contractor-
only lien rule) —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-tn/transforms/tn/octn/r74/gov.tn.tca.title.66.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-149 (service methods) —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-tn/transforms/tn/octn/r74/gov.tn.tca.title.66.html
(accessed 2026-07-04) - Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-150 (unlicensed contractor barred from residential
lien) —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-tn/transforms/tn/octn/r74/gov.tn.tca.title.66.html
(accessed 2026-07-04)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.