Michigan Construction Lien Deadline Calculator, Where One Clock May Never Start
Michigan does something no other state in this group of calculators does. Your first deadline may not have started, and it may never start. Section 109 gives a subcontractor or supplier twenty days from first furnishing to serve a notice of furnishing, but it opens with the words Except as otherwise provided in sections 108 and 108a, and those sections say that where the owner fails to record a notice of commencement, or fails to furnish one on request, the twenty days run from the day that document appears instead. Read carefully, that is not extra time added to a clock that is running. It replaces the day the clock starts, and on a job where no notice of commencement was ever recorded there is no start date at all. Then section 111 does the opposite. It opens with the word Notwithstanding, gives you ninety days from your own last furnishing, and says the right to a lien shall cease to exist if you miss it, no matter what the owner did. So Michigan hands you one deadline nobody can make you miss and one deadline nobody can save you from. There is a third thing here that catches people who did everything right: the year you have to bring suit runs from the day you recorded, which is a day you picked yourself. Put your dates in and the page counts every clock that is genuinely running, says plainly which ones have not started, and shows you what recording early costs you at the other end.
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.
- What you are on this jobSubcontractor or supplier
- What was improvedAnything that is not a residential structure
- Your contract, if the owner hired you directlyIn writing, changes in writing too
- The notice of commencement for this jobNever recorded and never sent to me
- Days since it was recorded or reached you30 days
- Days since you FIRST furnished labor or material40 days
- Your own work on this jobLast furnishing is behind me
- Days since YOUR last furnishing under your contract12 days
- Your notice of furnishingNot served yet
- Your claim of lienNot recorded yet
- Days since you recorded the claim of lien6 days
- Laborers only, days since wages were due and went unpaid20 days
- Days of slack you want before the deadline7 days
Days left to record the claim of lien78 days
Your notice of furnishing clock has not started, and that is a real answer rather than a gap in this page. Section 109(1) opens 'Except as otherwise provided in sections 108 and 108a', and 108(10) says that failure of an owner, lessee or designee to record a notice of commencement extends the time within which a subcontractor or supplier may provide a notice of furnishing until 20 days after the notice of commencement has been recorded. On a residential structure 108a(9) says the same thing about a notice actually furnished on written request, because 108(18) says section 108 does not apply to a residential structure at all. Read carefully, those subsections do not hand you extra days, they move the day the count starts, and where the document never appears the count never begins. Do not treat that as safety. Serve a notice of furnishing now on whoever you can identify, because 570.1111(4) says a claim of lien by a subcontractor, supplier or laborer shall have attached to it a proof of service of a notice of furnishing, and on the day you record you will need something to attach.
Two things this page deliberately does not do. It does not decide what counts as your last furnishing where warranty or punch work followed, because 570.1111(1) says 'pursuant to the lien claimant's contract' and the fights over that phrase are decided on facts and case law rather than on a date. And it does not touch public work, which is a separate act with a bond rather than a lien. If either describes your job, the numbers above are the wrong tool.
| Your lien right, before any date | yours, with a notice570.1111(4) says a claim of lien by a subcontractor, supplier or laborer shall have attached to it a proof of service of a notice of furnishing, so the notice arrives a second time at the recording desk |
|---|---|
| Where your notice clock starts | it has not started570.1108(10) and 570.1108a(9) run your 20 days from the day the notice of commencement is recorded or actually furnished, and on your facts that day has not happened |
| Notice of furnishing, day 20 | still openno notice of commencement means no start under 570.1108(10), so this one is not running against you yet, but see the warning below about what that costs you at the recorder |
| Laborer's notice, unpaid wages | not yours to give570.1109(2) reaches a laborer who contracts to provide an improvement, and nobody else |
| Laborer's fringe and withholdings | not yours to give570.1109(3) is the fringe benefit and withholding notice, and it reaches laborers only |
| Record the claim of lien, day 90 | 78 days leftday 12 of 90 from your last furnishing 12 days ago, and the recorder has to have it, not the mail |
| Serve your copy, day 15 | not startedthe 15 days in 570.1111(5) run from the date of recording, so this one waits on an act you have not performed yet |
| Start the foreclosure, one year | not started570.1117(1) measures the year from the date the claim of lien was recorded, and there is no such date yet |
| What being late costs you | dollars, not days570.1109(6) keeps the lien for everything furnished after service and everything before it except what the owner already paid out against a sworn statement or a waiver, which is a figure only the owner's books hold |
What this calculator assumes
- Michigan hangs the subcontractor's and supplier's notice of furnishing on a document somebody else has to produce. Section 109(1) opens 'Except as otherwise provided in sections 108 and 108a', and those sections say that where the owner fails to record or fails to provide a notice of commencement, the time to give a notice of furnishing runs until 20 days after that notice is recorded or actually furnished. It is a replacement trigger, not extra days. On a job where no notice of commencement was ever recorded, this page says the notice clock has not started rather than inventing a day it started on.
- Section 111(1) opens with the opposite word. 'Notwithstanding section 109', the right to a lien 'shall cease to exist' unless a claim of lien is recorded within 90 days after the lien claimant's last furnishing pursuant to the lien claimant's contract. Nothing the owner does or fails to do touches that 90 days. It is the one Michigan deadline that behaves like the rest of this lane, and it is measured from your last day, not the job's.
- Every mailed act in the Act is complete on mailing. Sections 109(1), 109(3) and 111(5) say so for certified mail and 109(2) says so for first class mail with postage prepaid. So the dates on this page are the dates you put things in the mail, never the dates anybody signed for them. The one place the Act turns on receipt is 108(17), which is a contractor's remedy against the owner and moves no lien deadline.
- Section 117(1) measures the year to sue from the date the claim of lien was recorded, which is a day you chose. Record on day two of your 90 and the foreclosure year closes 88 days earlier than if you had recorded on day 90. That trade is real and this page prints both ends of it rather than pretending the date was handed to you.
- This calculator counts days. It does not price anything. Where the Act measures a loss in the owner's money rather than in days, as section 109(6) does, the page says so and stops.
The deadline that can fail to start, which is Michigan's whole shape
Every other calculator in this group starts its clocks at something that has already happened to you. You furnished, you finished, the job completed, you recorded. Michigan starts its first clock at something somebody else has to do, and if they never do it, the clock never runs.
Section 109(1) reads like a plain twenty day rule, and almost every summary of Michigan law prints it that way. It is not one, because of the six words it opens with. Except as otherwise provided in sections 108 and 108a. Section 108(10) then says that failure of an owner, lessee or designee to record a notice of commencement extends the time within which a subcontractor or supplier may provide a notice of furnishing until twenty days after the notice of commencement has been recorded. Section 108(11) says the same thing about a failure to provide one on written request, running the twenty days from the day it actually reaches you.
The word extends is doing something unusual there. It is not adding twenty days to an existing count, it is naming a new day zero. That is why this page will tell you that your notice of furnishing clock has not started rather than guessing a date it started on. Where a notice of commencement did appear, the count runs from the later of your first furnishing and the day that notice was recorded or reached you, which is often a later day than the plain reading of 109 would give you, and which can mean you are not late when a generic Michigan page has already told you that you are.
Do not read any of that as safety. Section 111(4) says a claim of lien by a subcontractor, supplier or laborer shall have attached to it a proof of service of a notice of furnishing. On the day you go to the register of deeds you will need something to attach, and a clock that never started has produced no document. Serve a notice of furnishing on whoever you can identify anyway. The extension protects you from being late. It does not produce the paper you will be asked for.
One more line decides which of the two sections you are in. Section 108(18) says that section does not apply to an improvement to a residential structure. On a house, section 108a governs instead, there is no notice of commencement to record at all, and the owner only has to provide one on written request within ten days of mailing. Section 108a(5) then puts a duty on you that exists nowhere else in this lane: the person making the request has to supply a blank notice of commencement form with a blank notice of furnishing attached to it. Ask for the document and send the form to ask it with.
MCL 570.1109(1)Except as otherwise provided in sections 108 and 108a, a subcontractor or supplier that contracts to provide an improvement to real property shall provide a notice of furnishing to the designee and the general contractor, if any, as named in the notice of commencement at the address shown in the notice of commencement, either personally or by certified mail, within 20 days after furnishing the first labor or material. If a designee has not been named in the notice of commencement, or if the designee has died, service must be made on the owner or lessee named in the notice of commencement. If service of the notice of furnishing is made by certified mail, service is complete on mailing. A contractor is not required to provide a notice of furnishing to preserve lien rights arising from his or her contract directly with an owner or lessee.
Two things to take from this. The first eight words are what sections 108 and 108a hook into, so this is not a plain twenty day rule. And the last sentence means a contractor with a direct contract owes no notice of furnishing at all.
Notwithstanding section 109, and the ninety days nothing can move
Section 111(1) opens with the opposite word to section 109, and the contrast is deliberate. Notwithstanding section 109, the right to a construction lien shall cease to exist unless a claim of lien is recorded within ninety days after the lien claimant's last furnishing of labor or material for the improvement, pursuant to the lien claimant's contract.
Nothing the owner did or failed to do touches that ninety days. No missing notice of commencement extends it. No late designee moves it. It is the one Michigan deadline that behaves like the rest of this group of calculators, and the words shall cease to exist are total. There is no reduced lien at the end of it and no partial recovery. The lien is gone.
It runs from your last furnishing, not the job's completion, and the two are routinely months apart. The page asks for your date rather than the job's for that reason. The phrase pursuant to the lien claimant's contract is the one people argue over, because it excludes work you went back and did as a favor, and it is why going back to fix something in month four does not quietly restart your ninety days. Whether a particular return visit was contract work or warranty work is decided on the facts, so this page will not decide it for you. If your last real day on site and your last day on site are different days, that gap is worth an hour with a Michigan construction attorney before you rely on the later one.
Recording is an act an office has to accept. Certified mail is complete on mailing three separate times in this Act, at sections 109(1), 109(3) and 111(5), but the register of deeds is given no mailbox rule anywhere. Day ninety means recorded on day ninety, in the county where the property sits, and section 111(1) adds that the claim is valid only as to real property described in it and located within that county. A job that straddles a county line is two recordings.
MCL 570.1111(1)Notwithstanding section 109, the right of a contractor, subcontractor, laborer, or supplier to a construction lien created by this act shall cease to exist unless, within 90 days after the lien claimant's last furnishing of labor or material for the improvement, pursuant to the lien claimant's contract, a claim of lien is recorded in the office of the register of deeds for each county where the real property to which the improvement was made is located. A claim of lien shall be valid only as to the real property described in the claim of lien and located within the county where the claim of lien has been recorded.
Notwithstanding section 109 is the hinge of this page. Everything section 108 can do to your notice deadline, it cannot do here.
Three claimants, three clocks, and only one of them is fatal
Section 109 gives three different people three different notice rules, and the difference between them is not the number of days, it is what happens when you are late.
A subcontractor or supplier has twenty days from first furnishing. A laborer has thirty days from the day wages were contractually due but were not paid. And a laborer has a second, separate notice for fringe benefits and withholdings, due by the fifth day of the second month following the month in which they were contractually due and unpaid. That last one is the only deadline in this whole group of calculators that is a calendar date rather than a span, and depending on which month you are standing in it lands anywhere from thirty three to sixty six days out. A day count cannot say it, so this page prints the rule and refuses to print a number.
Now the part that matters. Sections 109(5) and 109(6) say a late notice of furnishing does not defeat the lien for anything furnished after service, and does not defeat it for work done before service either, except to the extent the owner already paid the contractor against a sworn statement or a waiver of lien. That is a loss measured in the owner's money, not in days, and no calculator can compute it. Being late as a subcontractor in Michigan is expensive rather than fatal, and this page says so rather than telling you your lien is dead.
Section 109(6) then ends with one sentence that reverses all of it: this subsection does not apply to a laborer. Section 109(7) says failure to provide the notice to the designee as required by subsection (2) defeats the laborer's lien for the wages the notice covers, and 109(8) says the same for fringe benefits and withholdings under subsection (3). For a laborer, late is the end of it.
One mercy sits in section 109(9), and it is worth knowing which address is the important one. Failure to provide the notice to the general contractor does not defeat the lien. It makes you liable to the general contractor for any actual damages he sustained because of the failure. Failure to reach the designee is the one that kills it. If you can only be certain of one address, make it the designee named in the notice of commencement, or where no designee was named or the designee has died, the owner or lessee named in it.
MCL 570.1109(6)The failure of a lien claimant to provide a notice of furnishing within the time specified in this section does not defeat the lien claimant's right to a construction lien for work performed or materials furnished by the lien claimant before the service of the notice of furnishing except to the extent that payments were made by or on behalf of the owner or lessee to the contractor pursuant to either a contractor's sworn statement or a waiver of lien in accordance with this act for work performed or material delivered by the lien claimant. This subsection does not apply to a laborer.
The whole subsection is a partial loss priced in the owner's payments, and the last seven words take even that away from a laborer.
A handshake on a house, and the lien that never existed
Section 570.1114 is not a deadline. It is a gate, and it decides whether anything else on this page applies to you before a single day is counted.
A contractor does not have a right to a construction lien on the interest of an owner or lessee in a residential structure unless the contractor provided the improvement under a written contract between the owner or lessee and the contractor, and any amendments or additions to the contract are also in writing. Residential work, no written contract, no lien. Not a late lien, not a reduced lien. There was never one to preserve.
The half people lose is the second half of that sentence. A signed contract followed by a verbal change order is not a fully written contract, and the statute names amendments and additions specifically. On a remodel where the scope moved three times over a phone, this is a live risk rather than a technicality. Get every change in writing, even a text message confirming what was agreed, and keep it with the contract.
The section binds contractors only, by its own words, which is the exact mirror of the Illinois rule that binds subcontractors only. A subcontractor or supplier on a Michigan house is not caught by 570.1114. Section 570.1114 also requires the contract to carry a statement about licensing, naming the occupational code for residential builders and the skilled trades regulation act for electricians, plumbing contractors and mechanical contractors, together with the contractor's own license number where a license is required.
If this gate has closed on you, the dates on this page are the wrong tool, but the debt has not vanished. Section 570.1302(2) says in terms that the act does not prevent a lien claimant from maintaining a separate action on a contract. That is a different remedy on a different timetable, and it is the conversation to have.
MCL 570.1114, first sentenceA contractor does not have a right to a construction lien on the interest of an owner or lessee in a residential structure unless the contractor has provided an improvement to the residential structure under a written contract between the owner or lessee and the contractor and any amendments or additions to the contract are also in writing.
Read the last nine words twice. They are where a written contract with verbal change orders fails.
The year you started yourself, and the fifteen days inside it
Section 117(1) says proceedings for the enforcement of a construction lien and the foreclosure of any interests subject to it shall not be brought later than one year after the date the claim of lien was recorded. Read that again slowly, because the day it names is a day you chose.
Every other state in this group measures suit from something that happened to you: completion, last furnishing, filing, service. Michigan measures it from an act you performed, on a date you selected, anywhere inside your ninety days. Record on day two and your foreclosure year closes about three hundred and sixty seven days after your last work. Record on day ninety and it closes about four hundred and fifty five days after it. That is a swing of roughly eighty eight days, and it is entirely in your hands.
There is no way to have both. The ninety days is fatal and the year is not, so the safer trade is the one most claimants take without noticing: record early, accept a shorter runway to suit, and get a full year from wherever you land. What you must not do is record early and then forget that your own recording date, and not anything the job did, is the date the year runs from. Diary it from the receipt the register of deeds gives you.
Section 117(2) adds an act that is easy to leave out. At the time of commencing the foreclosure action, the plaintiff shall record a notice of lis pendens in the office of the register of deeds for the county where the property is located. That is two things inside one window, and the second one is a recording rather than a filing.
Inside all of that sits the fifteen days, and this page will be careful with you about it. Section 111(5) says a claimant recording a claim of lien shall, within fifteen days after the date of the recording, serve a copy of the claim of lien and any recorded proof of service on the designee, and it says proof of making the service shall be attached to any complaint, cross claim or counterclaim filed to enforce the lien. It does not say in terms that the lien dies if the fifteen days go. Pages telling you the lien becomes unenforceable are giving you the consequence courts have drawn, not the words of the subsection. Against that, section 570.1302(1) declares the act remedial and says substantial compliance with its provisions shall be sufficient for the validity of the liens. None of which is a reason to be relaxed. Serve inside fifteen days, keep the certified mail receipt, and understand that if you miss it you are arguing rather than winning.
MCL 570.1117(1)Proceedings for the enforcement of a construction lien and the foreclosure of any interests subject to the construction lien shall not be brought later than 1 year after the date the claim of lien was recorded.
The date the claim of lien was recorded. Not completion, not last furnishing. The one date on this page you set yourself.
What this page does not cover
This calculator counts days on private construction in Michigan. It does not touch public work. A lien cannot attach to public property, and a claim on a state or municipal job runs against a payment bond under a different act with its own notice and suit deadlines. If the owner is a public body, nothing here applies to you and the bond timetable is the one to find.
It does not decide what your last furnishing was where warranty work, punch list work or a return visit followed the job. Section 111(1) says pursuant to the lien claimant's contract, and the arguments about that phrase are decided on facts and on case law rather than on a calendar. This page takes the date you give it.
It does not price anything. Where the act measures a loss in the owner's money rather than in days, as section 109(6) does, the page says so and stops, because the figure lives in the owner's records and not in any formula.
And it is not legal advice. It is the deadlines in sections 108, 108a, 109, 111, 114 and 117 of the Michigan Construction Lien Act, counted honestly, with the statute quoted next to each one so you can check the page against the law rather than trusting it. Sections not named here, including the homeowner construction lien recovery fund provisions and the rules on sworn statements and waivers, have rules of their own and are left out deliberately rather than by oversight.
Questions people ask
No notice of commencement was ever recorded on my job. Am I late on the twenty days?
No, and more than that, your twenty days have not begun. Section 109(1) opens with Except as otherwise provided in sections 108 and 108a, and section 108(10) says that failure of an owner, lessee or designee to record a notice of commencement extends the time within which a subcontractor or supplier may provide a notice of furnishing until twenty days after the notice of commencement has been recorded. That replaces the day the count starts rather than adding days to a count already running. Serve a notice of furnishing anyway on whoever you can identify, because section 111(4) requires a proof of service of one to be attached to your claim of lien, and a clock that never started has produced no document for you to attach.
Can the owner's failure to record also buy me more time on the ninety days?
No. Section 111(1) opens with the word Notwithstanding section 109, which is there precisely to cut that argument off. The ninety days runs from your own last furnishing of labor or material pursuant to your contract, whatever the owner did or failed to do, and the statute says the right to a construction lien shall cease to exist if you miss it. It is the one deadline on this page that nobody else can move in either direction.
I served my notice of furnishing late. Have I lost my lien?
Almost certainly not, if you are a subcontractor or supplier. Section 109(5) preserves the lien in full for everything furnished after service, and section 109(6) preserves it for work done before service too, except to the extent the owner had already paid the contractor against a sworn statement or a waiver of lien covering your work. That is a loss measured in dollars the owner paid out, which only the owner's records can tell you. If you are a laborer the answer is different and worse, because 109(6) ends with the sentence that it does not apply to a laborer, and 109(7) and 109(8) say a late notice defeats the laborer's lien for the wages or fringe benefits it covers.
Should I record my claim of lien early or wait until day ninety?
Early, in almost every case, but know what it costs. Section 117(1) runs your year to bring suit from the date the claim of lien was recorded, so recording on day two rather than day ninety moves the foreclosure deadline about eighty eight days closer. The ninety days is fatal and the year is not, so trading some of the year for certainty on the ninety is the sensible trade. What you cannot do is record early and then measure the year from the job instead of from your own recording date.
I recorded and forgot to serve the copy within fifteen days. What now?
Serve it immediately and keep the proof, then get advice. Section 111(5) says you shall serve a copy of the claim of lien and any recorded proof of service on the designee within fifteen days of recording, and that proof of making the service shall be attached to any complaint, cross claim or counterclaim to enforce the lien. It does not itself say the lien dies if you are late. Commentary saying the lien becomes unenforceable is stating the consequence courts have drawn rather than the words of the subsection, and section 570.1302(1) declares the act remedial with substantial compliance sufficient for validity. That is an argument to have, not a result to count on, so the only sensible plan is to serve inside fifteen days.
I did a residential remodel on a written contract, but the change orders were verbal. Does section 114 catch me?
It might, and this is the commonest way the gate closes. Section 570.1114 requires the improvement to be provided under a written contract between the owner or lessee and the contractor and says any amendments or additions to the contract are also in writing. A signed original followed by three phone calls is not a fully written contract within that sentence. It binds contractors only, so a subcontractor or supplier on the same house is not affected. If you think you are caught, section 570.1302(2) preserves your separate action on the contract, which is a different remedy on a different timetable, and it is worth an hour with a Michigan construction attorney rather than a recording you may not be entitled to make.
Free Lien Waiver Forms for Contractors, free, no signup, PDF Word and Excel.
Nothing on this calculator counts it. Michigan lien waiver forms, all four, word for word from MCL 570.1115 sets out what a signature does to your claim in Michigan, with the statutory forms word for word.