What Is a Notice of Intent to Lien? The Cheapest Collection Tool in Construction

The written warning you send before recording a mechanics lien, saying what is owed and that a lien will follow if it is not paid. It is free to send, it arrives with real weight behind it, and a large share of stuck invoices are paid within a fortnight of one landing.

What it does

A notice of intent to lien is a letter. It states the property, the work, the amount outstanding, the date it became due, and that a mechanics lien will be recorded against the property if payment is not made by a stated date.

It works because of what it implies rather than what it says. A recorded lien clouds the title. It can stop a sale, hold up a refinance, breach the owner's loan covenants and put the general in default under the prime contract. Everybody who receives one of these letters knows that.

The result is that the letter moves money that months of invoices and phone calls did not, and it does so before anybody has paid a filing fee or spoken to a lawyer.

Required in some states, worth sending everywhere

A number of states make a notice of intent a mandatory step before a lien can be recorded, with its own deadline and its own service requirements. In those states skipping it is fatal to the lien in the same way as missing a preliminary notice.

In the rest it is optional. Send it anyway. The cost is a stamp and twenty minutes, and the alternative is going straight to a recorded lien, which is a heavier, more expensive and more relationship destroying act than a letter.

Check the rule for the state the property sits in before relying on the letter as a step rather than a courtesy, because whether it is required, and how long before the lien it must be served, both vary.

How to write one that works

Facts, not feelings. The property address, the description of the work, the contract or purchase order reference, the invoice numbers, the amount, the due dates. A letter that reads like a ledger is more frightening than a letter that reads like an argument.

Give a specific deadline and a specific payment method. Ten to fourteen days is the usual window. Vagueness here invites a phone call about the letter rather than a payment.

Send it to everyone with something to lose, not only to the party who owes you. On a job with a general and an owner, both should receive it, because the owner is the one whose property is at stake and the one most likely to pick up the phone.

Send it by a method that produces proof, keep the proof, and stay factual. Do not assert facts you cannot evidence and do not describe the other side's conduct. State what is owed and what happens next.

What comes after it

If it is paid, which is the usual outcome, nothing. Note the job and tighten the payment terms next time.

If it is not, the next step is the lien itself, and that is the point at which the deadlines stop being flexible. Lien filing periods are measured from events like last furnishing or completion, they are short, and they are not extended by negotiations that were going well.

So set the deadline in the letter with the lien deadline in mind rather than in isolation. A fourteen day letter sent a week before the filing period closes has left you nowhere to go.

What belongs in the letter

A notice of intent that is short on detail invites a dispute about the debt instead of a payment.

Property address and legal description: What the lien would attach to. The legal description matters more than the street address in the document that follows.
Who hired you: The chain from the owner down to you. It is what shows the reader why you have a right against their property.
Description of the work: What was furnished, in a sentence. Enough for someone in the owner's office to match it to the job.
Amount outstanding: The principal owed, with invoice numbers and dates. Keep interest or late fees as a separate line if you are claiming them.
Deadline for payment: A specific date, set against the lien filing deadline rather than picked at random.
Statement of intent: One clear sentence that a mechanics lien will be recorded if payment is not received by that date.

What it looks like

This is the blank form as this site actually prints it, drawn from the same file the download button gives you. It is not a picture of somebody else's document.

What to do with it

Construction notice formsThe earlier notices, the ones that make the lien available at all.Contractor invoice templateThe invoices the letter refers to.Late fee calculatorWork out the interest before you state a figure.

Questions people ask

Is a notice of intent to lien the same as a lien?

No. It is a letter you send. A mechanics lien is a document recorded against the property in the county records. The notice is the warning that the lien is coming, and in most cases the warning is where the matter ends because the invoice gets paid.

Do I have to send a notice of intent before filing a lien?

In some states yes, with its own deadline and service rules, and in those states skipping it can defeat the lien. In the rest it is optional. Check the rule for the state the property is in, and send one either way, because it is free and it usually works.

How long should I give them to pay?

Ten to fourteen days is normal, but the real constraint is your lien filing deadline. Work backwards from that date so that if the letter is ignored you still have time to record the lien properly rather than in a rush.

Will sending one damage the relationship?

Less than not being paid does. Sent as a factual, dated letter rather than an accusation, it is a routine step that everyone in construction recognizes. The customers who take genuine offense at a factual demand for an overdue invoice are rarely the customers worth protecting.