Georgia Mechanics Lien Deadline Calculator, and the Notice Due on the Later Date
Georgia runs its first deadline the opposite way round from most states. Section 44-14-361.5(a) gives a claimant with no contract with the general contractor 30 days from the filing of the notice of commencement or 30 days after his own first delivery, whichever is later, so the event that starts your clock is the one that happened most recently, not the one that happened first. Three separate things can make that notice stop applying to you altogether, and two of them are worth knowing before you spend money on one. After that Georgia is a chain: 90 days from your last item to file the claim of lien, two business days to get a copy to the owner, 365 days to sue, and a 395 day date you have to print on the lien yourself in 12 point bold or the clerk will not accept the filing. Put your dates in and the page lays out every one of them, says which is leading, and tells you when the whole notice requirement does not apply.
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.
- Your contract on this jobNo contract with the contractor
- Days since you FIRST delivered labor, services or materials24 days
- Days since your LAST item, 0 if you are still on site3 days
- Notice of commencement for this projectFiled, I have a copy
- Days since that notice of commencement was filed19 days
- Your claim of lienNot filed yet
- Days since you filed the claim of lien30 days
- Notice of contest of lien against youNo
- Days since that notice of contest was filed12 days
- Days of slack you want before the deadline5 days
Days left to give the notice to contractor11 days
This is the trap in 44-14-361.5(a) and it runs the other way from most states. The section says 30 days from the filing of the notice of commencement or 30 days following the first delivery, whichever is LATER. The notice of commencement was filed 19 days ago and you first delivered 24 days ago, so the notice of commencement is the later event and the one that counts. Counting from your own first delivery would have you 5 days further along than you actually are. California's preliminary notice is the earlier of two dates, so a contractor who works both states has to hold two opposite rules in mind.
Two business days after you file, not two weeks. Section 44-14-361.1(a)(2) says no later than two business days after the date the claim of lien is filed of record the claimant sends a true and accurate copy by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery to the owner, or to the contractor as the agent of the owner if the owner's address cannot be found. On a job with a notice of commencement you send a second copy to the contractor at the address on that notice. Because it sits in the same subsection as the 90 days, it sits under the same opening line about the lien not being effective or enforceable.
One sentence has to be printed on the lien itself or the clerk will not take it. Section 44-14-367 requires, in at least 12 point bold font, the words: This claim of lien expires and is void 395 days from the date of filing of the claim of lien if no notice of commencement of lien action is filed in that time period. The statute then says failure to include such language shall invalidate the lien and prevent it from being filed. This is the only deadline on the page you have to publish on your own document, in a stated point size.
Georgia runs a second, unrelated 90 day clock and it has taken money off contractors who were well inside this one. Under 44-14-366(g)(2) a Georgia lien waiver becomes conclusively binding 90 days after you sign it, paid or not, unless an affidavit of nonpayment is filed in that county before the 90 days is up. It counts from the day you signed the waiver, not from any day on this page. So an interim waiver signed for a draw that never arrived can go final while your lien window is still wide open, and the lien you then file is on a debt you have already released.
| Your rule | 44-14-361.5 and 44-14-361.1no privity with the contractor and a notice of commencement is on file, so both clocks are yours |
|---|---|
| Notice to contractor, day 30 | 11 days leftday 19 of 30, counted from the notice of commencement, filed 19 days ago |
| Claim of lien, day 90 | 87 days leftday 3 of 90, counted from your last item on this job |
| Copy to the owner | starts the day you file44-14-361.1(a)(2), a true and accurate copy by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery |
| Commence the lien action | 365 days from the day you file44-14-361.1(a)(3), and a notice filed with the clerk within 30 days of suing sits on the end of it |
| The 395 day date on the lien | 395 days from the day you file44-14-367, and 395 is the 365 plus the 30 days the notice of commencement of lien action gets |
| If the owner contests it | 60 days, not 9044-14-368, and the ninety days in (c) is not ninety days to sue, it is the day the lien is extinguished |
| Aim to give the notice to contractor by | 6 days from nowkeeping 5 in hand for the clerk, off a window that closes in 11 |
| Georgia's other 90 days | 44-14-366, unrelateda signed waiver goes conclusive 90 days after you sign it unless an affidavit of nonpayment is filed first |
What this calculator assumes
- The notice to contractor is due on the LATER of two dates, not the earlier one. Section 44-14-361.5(a) gives you 30 days from the filing of the notice of commencement or 30 days following your first delivery, whichever is later, so the event that happened most recently is the one that governs. California's preliminary notice is the earlier of two, and reading one state off the other gets this backwards.
- That notice only exists on a job where a notice of commencement was actually filed. Subsection (d) says the failure to file one renders the Code section inapplicable, and subsection (b) says the same thing for you personally if you asked the contractor in writing for a copy and heard nothing for ten calendar days. A claimant in privity with the contractor was never inside the section at all.
- The claim of lien is 90 days from the completion of your work or your last furnishing of material, under 44-14-361.1(a)(2). Section 1-3-1(d)(3) says the first day shall not be counted but the last day shall be counted, so the day you finished is day zero and the ninetieth day after it is the last one.
- Georgia does move a deadline off a weekend. Section 1-3-1(d)(3) gives you through the following Monday when the last day is a Saturday or Sunday, and the next business day when it is a public and legal holiday listed in 1-4-1. This page is counted in days from a day you gave as how long ago, so it has no weekday to move off and it moves nothing. A move can only ever add time, never take it away, so every date here is the early, safe one.
- Filing means filing with the clerk of the superior court of the county where the property is located. Sending the document to the general contractor is not filing, and the copy you owe the owner afterwards is a separate obligation with its own deadline.
- Read the opening line of 44-14-361.1(a) before you read any single number out of it: these provisions are how a lien is created and declared, and on failure of any of them the lien shall not be effective or enforceable. Nothing on this list is a formality that can be caught up later.
Thirty days from whichever date is later, which is backwards from most states
California asks for the earlier of two clocks. Georgia asks for the later of two events, and the difference is not academic. If you first delivered material in March and the owner did not file the notice of commencement until May, your 30 days runs from May. If the notice of commencement went in first and you turned up three weeks later, your 30 days runs from your first delivery.
So the question is never how long ago did this job start. It is which of these two things happened most recently, and the answer is the one with fewer days behind it. That is what this calculator asks for, and it is why it wants both dates rather than one.
The notice itself is a written notice to contractor in the form set out in subsection (c), and it goes to two places: the owner or the owner's agent, and the contractor. Sending it to one of them is not compliance.
O.C.G.A. 44-14-361.5(a)any person having a right to a lien who does not have privity of contract with the contractor and is providing labor, services, or materials for the improvement of property shall, within 30 days from the filing of the notice of commencement or 30 days following the first delivery of labor, services, or materials to the property, whichever is later, give a written notice to contractor as set out in subsection (c) of this Code section to the owner or the agent of the owner and to the contractor
Whichever is later. Read the two dates, take the one nearer to today, and count 30 from that.
Three ways the notice to contractor stops applying to you
The first is the simplest and it catches most jobs. Subsection (d) says the failure to file a notice of commencement renders the provisions of this Code section inapplicable. No notice of commencement on file means no notice to contractor is owed. It is worth checking the superior court clerk's records rather than assuming, because the filing is the owner's or the contractor's job, not yours, and plenty of jobs never get one.
The second is a lever you can pull on purpose. The contractor has to give a copy of the notice of commencement to any subcontractor, materialman or person who asks for it in writing. If ten calendar days go by after that written request and nothing arrives, the whole Code section stops applying to the person who asked. Not to everybody on the job, to you. A written request early on is cheap and it either gets you the document you need or removes the deadline.
The third is simply not being in the section at all. Subsection (a) covers a person who does not have privity of contract with the contractor. A claimant whose contract is with the contractor, and the contractor himself, were never inside it.
O.C.G.A. 44-14-361.5(b), the ten day leverThe contractor shall be required to give a copy of the notice of commencement to any subcontractor, materialman, or person who makes a written request of the contractor. Failure to give a copy of the notice of commencement within ten calendar days of receipt of the written request from the subcontractor, materialman, or person shall render the provision of this Code section inapplicable to the subcontractor, materialman, or person making the request.
Ten calendar days, not business days, and the request has to be in writing for the clock to exist at all.
Ninety days from your last item, and the opening line that makes it fatal
The claim of lien is filed for record within 90 days after the completion of the work or after the material or machinery is furnished, in the office of the clerk of the superior court of the county where the property is located. That much is ordinary. The sentence above it in the statute is not.
Subsection (a) opens by saying these liens must be created and declared in accordance with the following provisions, and on failure of any of them the lien shall not be effective or enforceable. Every numbered item under it is a condition of the lien existing, not a procedural step you can catch up on. There is no late filing, no excuse, and no motion that fixes a claim of lien filed on day 91.
Counting is governed by section 1-3-1(d)(3), which says the first day shall not be counted but the last day shall be counted. The day you finished is day zero and the ninetieth day after it is your last one. The same paragraph does move a deadline that lands on a Saturday or Sunday through the following Monday, and one landing on a public and legal holiday listed in 1-4-1 to the next business day. That is a real Georgia feature and it is not universal: Florida's chapter 713 has nothing of the kind. This page counts in days from a date you give as how long ago, so it has no weekday to move off and it moves nothing. A move can only ever add time, so every date here is the early, safe one.
O.C.G.A. 44-14-361.1(a), the opening lineTo make good the liens specified in paragraphs (1) through (8) and (10) of subsection (a) of Code Section 44-14-361, they must be created and declared in accordance with the following provisions, and on failure of any of them the lien shall not be effective or enforceable:
Read this before reading any single deadline out of the list underneath it. Nothing on that list is a formality.
Two business days to get a copy to the owner, and it is not two weeks
This is the deadline Georgia claimants miss most often, because it does not feel like a deadline. You filed the lien, the hard part is over, and the copy feels like housekeeping. It is in the same subsection as the 90 days, under the same opening line, which means failing it goes to whether the lien is effective at all.
Two business days after the date the claim of lien is filed of record. Registered mail, certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, to the owner, or to the contractor as the agent of the owner if the owner's address cannot be found. If the owner is an entity on file with the Secretary of State's Corporations Division, sending it to the entity's address or the registered agent's address satisfies the requirement. And on any job where a notice of commencement was filed, a copy also goes to the contractor at the address shown on that notice.
Because business days are already business days, this page does not apply a computation rule to them. What it can tell you is the spread: a filing on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday gives you two calendar days, and a filing on a Thursday or Friday gives you four. So under three days since filing is still open on any weekday, and five or more is closed on every one of them.
O.C.G.A. 44-14-361.1(a)(2), the copy to the ownerNo later than two business days after the date the claim of lien is filed of record, the lien claimant shall send a true and accurate copy of the claim of lien by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery to the owner of the property or, if the owner's address cannot be found, the contractor, as the agent of the owner
Two business days, counted from the date of filing of record rather than from the day you got around to it.
The sentence you have to print on your own lien, in 12 point bold
Section 44-14-367 does two things. It sets the outer dates, 365 days from filing to commence the lien action and 395 days before the claim of lien may be disregarded, the 395 being the 365 plus the 30 days section 44-14-361.1(a)(3) gives for filing the notice of commencement of lien action. And it makes you publish the second one yourself.
Any lien filed after March 31, 2009 has to carry a stated sentence on its face in at least 12 point bold font, and failure to include that language shall invalidate the lien and prevent it from being filed. This is the only deadline in this lane that a claimant has to print on their own document in a specified point size. A form downloaded from anywhere that does not carry it will be handed back at the counter, and a form that carries it in 10 point is worse, because it may get filed.
The same section also says no release or voiding of such liens shall be required. Nothing arrives to tell you the lien is gone. It simply stops being one.
O.C.G.A. 44-14-367Any lien filed after March 31, 2009, shall include on the face of the lien the following statement in at least 12 point bold font: "This claim of lien expires and is void 395 days from the date of filing of the claim of lien if no notice of commencement of lien action is filed in that time period." Failure to include such language shall invalidate the lien and prevent it from being filed.
The quotation marks are in the statute. That is the wording, and 12 point bold is the size.
A notice of contest runs two clocks off two different days
An owner, an owner's agent or attorney, or the contractor, may elect to shorten the time prescribed in which to commence a lien action by recording a notice of contest of lien. Once that is filed the 365 days is no longer your deadline, and a page that keeps counting it down is telling you that you have a year you do not have.
The statutory form says the time within which you may commence a lien action is limited to 60 days from receipt of this notice. Subsection (b) then says a copy is sent within seven days of filing and service shall be deemed complete upon mailing. So the 60 days runs from a mailing that could have happened on the day of filing or a week later, and unless you kept the envelope you may not be able to prove which.
Subsection (c) adds a second number off a different event: the lien shall be extinguished by law 90 days after the filing of the notice of contest if no notice of commencement of lien action is filed in that period. The two do not line up, and the last sentence of (c) closes the obvious misreading before anyone makes it. This page gives you both, and it gives the 60 as a range whose safe end assumes the notice was mailed on the day it was filed.
O.C.G.A. 44-14-368(c)The lien shall be extinguished by law 90 days after the filing of the notice of contest of lien if no notice of commencement of lien action is filed in that time period. No release or voiding of such liens shall be required. This subsection shall not be construed to extend the time in which a lien action must begin.
Ninety days until the lien is extinguished is not ninety days to sue. The statute says so itself in the last sentence.
Georgia's other ninety days has nothing to do with this one
Georgia runs a second 90 day clock in a different part of the code, and it has taken money off contractors who were comfortably inside the one on this page. Under O.C.G.A. 44-14-366, a signed Georgia lien waiver becomes conclusively binding 90 days after it is signed, whether the money arrived or not, unless an affidavit of nonpayment is filed in that county first.
It runs from a different day, it is triggered by your own signature rather than by your last day on site, and nothing on this calculator touches it. You can be on day 40 of a perfectly healthy lien window and have already signed the claim away three months ago.
If you have signed anything on this job, read the Georgia waiver rule before you rely on the dates above. It is the harshest waiver statute in the country and almost nobody outside the state knows it exists.
Questions people ask
How long do I have to file a mechanics lien in Georgia?
Ninety days after the completion of your work, or after the material or machinery was furnished, under O.C.G.A. 44-14-361.1(a)(2). It is filed for record with the clerk of the superior court of the county where the property is located. Section 1-3-1(d)(3) says the first day is not counted and the last day is, so the day you finished is day zero. A deadline landing on a Saturday or Sunday runs through the following Monday.
When is the Georgia notice to contractor due?
Within 30 days from the filing of the notice of commencement or 30 days following your first delivery of labor, services or materials, whichever is later. Later means the event nearer to today, so if the notice of commencement was filed after you started, your 30 days runs from the filing, not from your first delivery. It applies only to a claimant who does not have privity of contract with the contractor.
Do I have to give a notice to contractor if no notice of commencement was filed?
No. Section 44-14-361.5(d) says the failure to file a notice of commencement renders the provisions of that Code section inapplicable. Check the superior court clerk's records rather than assuming one exists, because filing it is the owner's or the contractor's job and many jobs never get one.
What happens if the contractor will not give me the notice of commencement?
Ask in writing and start counting. Section 44-14-361.5(b) says failure to give a copy within ten calendar days of receiving your written request renders the Code section inapplicable to the person who asked. It removes the notice requirement for you specifically, not for everyone on the job, so keep proof of the request and the date.
What is the two business day rule on a Georgia lien?
No later than two business days after the claim of lien is filed of record, you have to send a true and accurate copy to the owner by registered mail, certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, and on a job with a notice of commencement also to the contractor at the address on it. It sits under the same opening line as the 90 days, which says that on failure of any of these provisions the lien shall not be effective or enforceable.
What is the 395 day statement on a Georgia claim of lien?
Section 44-14-367 requires any lien filed after March 31, 2009 to carry a statement on its face in at least 12 point bold font saying the claim of lien expires and is void 395 days from the date of filing if no notice of commencement of lien action is filed in that period. Failure to include the language invalidates the lien and prevents it from being filed.
How long do I have to sue after filing a Georgia lien?
Three hundred and sixty five days from the date of filing for record, under 44-14-361.1(a)(3), and within 30 days after commencing the action you also file a notice of commencement of lien action with the same clerk. If the owner or the contractor records a notice of contest of lien, that drops to 60 days from receipt of the notice under 44-14-368(a), and service is deemed complete on mailing.
Is the ninety days in a Georgia waiver the same ninety days as the lien deadline?
No, and confusing them is expensive. The lien filing deadline in 44-14-361.1 runs from your last item of work. The waiver rule in 44-14-366 runs from the day you signed a waiver, and after 90 days that waiver is conclusively binding whether you were paid or not unless an affidavit of nonpayment was filed first. They are unrelated clocks off unrelated events.
Free Lien Waiver Forms for Contractors, free, no signup, PDF Word and Excel.
Nothing on this calculator counts it. Georgia lien waiver forms and the affidavit of nonpayment, free sets out what a signature does to your claim in Georgia, with the statutory forms word for word.