California Mechanics Lien Deadline Calculator, the Earlier of Two Clocks
California does not give you ninety days to record a mechanics lien. It gives you the earlier of ninety days after completion and a much shorter window that opens the moment the owner records a notice of completion, sixty days if you contracted with the owner and thirty if you did not. Put in where you are and this counts both, tells you which one is actually controlling, and checks your preliminary notice while it is there.
Worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with and the answer it gives. Change anything above and every number below moves with it.
- Who you are on this jobSubcontractor or supplier
- Days since the work of improvement was completed38 days
- Has the owner recorded a notice of completion or cessationYes
- Days since the owner recorded it12 days
- Days since you first furnished work on this job74 days
- Preliminary notice already servedYes, within 20 days of starting
- Days of slack you want before the deadline5 days
Days left to record the claim of lien18 days
The owner already cut your window. You were counting 52 days under the 90 day rule and the notice of completion recorded 12 days ago leaves 18. Nothing obliged anybody to tell you it had been recorded.
Recording the lien is the middle of the job. Civil Code 8460(a) gives you 90 days after recordation to commence an action to enforce it, and says that otherwise the claim of lien expires and is unenforceable. That is a second date, it starts the day you record, and nothing about a promise to pay pauses it.
| Your rule | Civil Code 8414not a direct contractor, 90 days or 30 from a notice of completion |
|---|---|
| Ninety days from completion | 52 days leftday 38 of 90 |
| Owner's notice window | 18 days leftday 12 of 30 |
| Which one controls | the owner's noticethe statute says the earlier of the two, never the later |
| Record it by | 13 days from nowkeeping 5 in hand for the recorder, off a window that closes in 18 |
| Preliminary notice | served in timecovers the whole job back to your first day |
| Then sue by | 90 days after you record8460(a), or the claim of lien expires and is unenforceable |
What this calculator assumes
- Every count here is calendar days, and every one of them runs from completion of the work of improvement, not from your last day on site and not from your invoice. Civil Code 8180 says completion happens on actual completion, on the owner occupying or using the job with labor stopped, on labor stopping for 60 continuous days, or on a notice of cessation recorded after 30 days of stoppage.
- The deadline is the earlier of two dates, not the later. Ninety days from completion is the one you control. Sixty days for a direct contractor, or thirty for everybody else, from the day the owner records a notice of completion or cessation is the one the owner controls.
- Recording means recording the claim of lien with the county recorder where the property sits. Sending it to the general contractor is not recording.
- This is California private work. Public work runs on a stop payment notice and a payment bond instead, and 8180(b) puts completion on acceptance by the public entity.
Two clocks, and the shorter one wins
Civil Code section 8412 tells a direct contractor to record the claim of lien after completing the direct contract and before the earlier of two times: ninety days after completion of the work of improvement, or sixty days after the owner records a notice of completion or cessation. Section 8414 says the same thing to everybody else, except that the second figure is thirty days rather than sixty.
Read the words "the earlier of" twice, because everything on this page follows from them. The ninety days is not a right. It is a ceiling that applies only while the owner has done nothing, and the owner can take it away without asking you, without telling you, and without doing anything you would notice on site.
Section 8182(a) is what makes it bite. An owner may record a notice of completion on or within fifteen days after the date of completion. So a subcontractor who finished on the first of the month, saw the job wrap up, and started counting to day ninety can find that a notice recorded on the fourteenth quietly moved his deadline to the forty fourth day. He was never wrong about the ninety. It simply stopped being the earlier of the two.
Completion is a defined event, not a feeling
Both clocks are measured from completion of the work of improvement, which section 8180 defines rather than leaving to the job. It happens on actual completion, on occupation or use by the owner accompanied by cessation of labor, on cessation of labor for a continuous period of sixty days, or on recordation of a notice of cessation after labor has stopped for thirty days. On a public job subject to acceptance, completion happens on acceptance.
Two of those four can happen while the job still looks alive. An owner who moves in and lets the trades drift away has completed the work of improvement under subdivision (a)(2) even though the punch list is open, and a stalled job completes itself on the sixtieth day of silence under (a)(3). Neither produces a document, an email or a phone call, which is why the honest answer to "when did it complete" is sometimes earlier than the last date on your own timesheet.
Your own last day matters for a different reason. Section 8414 says a claimant other than a direct contractor records after ceasing to provide work, so finishing your part is the earliest you may record, not the latest. The deadline is still counted from completion of the whole work of improvement.
The preliminary notice is a prerequisite, not a courtesy
Section 8200(c) states it plainly: compliance is a necessary prerequisite to the validity of a lien claim. A perfectly timed claim of lien recorded on day twenty nine by a subcontractor who never served a preliminary notice is not a late lien, it is not a lien at all.
The notice is due not later than twenty days after you first furnished work, under section 8204(a). Miss that and the notice is not dead, it is shortened, and this is the sentence worth memorizing: you are entitled to record a lien, give a stop payment notice and assert a claim against a payment bond only for work performed within twenty days prior to the service of the preliminary notice, and at any time thereafter. Four months of work with a notice served in month five reaches almost none of it. Serving late is still much better than not serving, and it should happen the day you realize.
Two people are excused. Section 8200(e)(1) says a laborer is not required to give preliminary notice. Section 8200(e)(2) says a claimant with a direct contractual relationship with the owner gives it only to the construction lender, if there is one, which is why a general contractor on an unfinanced job has nobody to serve.
Recording the lien is the middle of the job
Section 8460(a) gives you ninety days after recordation of the claim of lien to commence an action to enforce it, and says that otherwise the claim of lien expires and is unenforceable. It expires by itself. No hearing, no motion from the owner, no notice.
That is a second deadline, it starts on the day you record rather than on the day you finished, and the most common way to lose a good lien in California is to record it correctly and then wait for a conversation that never converts into a payment. If the owner agrees to extend credit, subdivision (b) lets a recorded notice of that extension buy more time, but no later than one year after completion in any case.
So the sequence is four dates, not one: serve the preliminary notice by day twenty of your work, watch the recorder for a notice of completion, record the claim of lien before the earlier of the two windows, and file suit within ninety days of recording.
Questions people ask
How long do I have to file a mechanics lien in California?
The earlier of ninety days after completion of the work of improvement and, if the owner records a notice of completion or cessation, sixty days after that recording for a direct contractor under Civil Code 8412 or thirty days for everybody else under 8414. Because it is the earlier of the two, the ninety days is only ever a ceiling.
Can the owner shorten my California lien deadline without telling me?
Yes, and that is the single most expensive thing to learn late. Recording a notice of completion starts the shorter window, section 8182(a) lets the owner do it on or within fifteen days after the date of completion, and nothing in the statute requires anybody to inform a subcontractor that it has happened. Checking the county recorder is part of the job.
What happens if I missed the twenty day preliminary notice in California?
Serve it today anyway. Section 8204(a) says a claimant who did not give preliminary notice is not precluded from giving one later, but the lien then reaches only work performed within twenty days prior to service of the notice and anything after it. The earlier work falls outside the lien, so every day you wait costs another day of it.
What counts as completion of the work of improvement in California?
Section 8180 gives four events: actual completion, occupation or use by the owner accompanied by cessation of labor, cessation of labor for a continuous period of sixty days, or recordation of a notice of cessation after thirty days of stopped labor. On a public job subject to acceptance, completion happens on acceptance instead.
Is recording the claim of lien the last thing I have to do?
No. Civil Code 8460(a) requires you to commence an action to enforce the lien within ninety days after recordation, and says that otherwise the claim of lien expires and is unenforceable. It lapses on its own, so a recorded lien left sitting while payment is discussed is a lien on a timer.
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