What Is a Preliminary Notice? The Letter That Keeps Your Lien Right Alive
A notice sent near the start of a job telling the owner, and usually the general contractor and the lender, that you are furnishing work or material. In most states it is the precondition that makes your lien right exist at all.
Also called Prelim, 20 day notice, Notice to owner, Notice of furnishing.
Find the preliminary notice for your state State by state notice forms with the statutory wording where the legislature wrote it. Free, no signup, no watermark.It is not a lien and it is not a threat
This is the sentence that has to go first, because it is the reason so many contractors do not send one. A preliminary notice does not encumber the property, does not appear as a claim against the owner, and does not say anybody has failed to pay. It says you are on the job.
Owners and generals on commercial work receive them constantly and expect them. A sub who does not send one on a job where they are normal looks new, not polite.
What it does is preserve a right. In most states the lien statute simply does not extend to a claimant who did not give the required notice in the required window, no matter how good the underlying debt is.
The name changes from state to state
Preliminary notice is the California name and the one that travels. Florida calls the equivalent a notice to owner. Ohio, Michigan and Washington use notice of furnishing. Others say notice of right to lien, or pre lien notice.
They are not identical documents, and the required contents, recipients and deadlines are set state by state, but they occupy the same slot in the process: the early notice that keeps the door open.
Do not assume the form from one state works in another. The wording requirements are specific and several states include a mandated warning paragraph that has to appear as written.
The deadline is counted from first furnishing
Twenty days from first furnishing labor or material is the most common window, and it is where the phrase 20 day preliminary notice comes from. Some states allow longer, and some allow a late notice that protects only the work done in the period before it.
That partial protection rule is the one to understand, because it changes what a missed deadline means. A notice sent on day forty may still protect everything from day twenty onward while losing the first twenty days entirely. Late is usually better than never.
First furnishing means the first day you actually delivered material or performed labor to the site, not the day you signed the contract and not the day you were scheduled to start.
Who has to send one
As a rule the further you are from the owner, the more likely it is required. Subcontractors and material suppliers who have no contract with the owner are the core group the requirement exists for, because the owner has no other way to know they are there.
A general contractor with a direct contract with the owner is exempt in many states, on the reasoning that the owner obviously knows about them, though several states require a notice from everyone.
Send it to everyone the statute names, which usually means the owner, the general above you and the construction lender, and send it in the manner the statute requires. Certified mail with return receipt is the common requirement and the receipt is the proof.
La misma explicación, línea por línea, con las palabras en inglés que aparecen en el formulario. Aviso preliminar, en español.
What to do with it
Questions people ask
Is a preliminary notice the same as a lien?
No. A preliminary notice is an early notification that you are working on the property. A lien is a recorded claim against the property for money you are owed. The notice is what makes the lien available to you later, and sending one implies nothing about payment.
What happens if I miss the 20 day deadline?
It depends on the state. In some, the lien right for that project is gone. In many others, a late notice protects the work furnished in the window before it, which means sending it late still saves most of the claim. Send it the day you realize, not the day you finish deciding.
Do I have to send a preliminary notice on every job?
On every job in a state that requires one from someone in your position. Many contractors send on all jobs as a standing policy rather than assessing each one, because the cost of sending is postage and the cost of skipping is the whole lien right.
Will sending one upset the customer?
On commercial work, no. They are routine and expected and the owner's lender often asks for them. On residential work a short covering note explaining that it is a standard notice required to protect lien rights, not a complaint about payment, handles it.