Iowa owner notice, the paragraph 572.13 makes you hand the owner

Nothing to fill in, and one line that is not statute text

Subsection 1 says the general contractor shall provide the owner with the following owner notice, and then prints one paragraph. There is no rule on it, no caption, no name, no date and no signature line. That was measured rather than assumed: the legislature's PDF and FindLaw were compared character for character, 446 characters a side and identical, with zero blank runs on either publisher. A form with no blanks is not a builder job, so this page shows the words and offers to copy them.

The paragraph is written to the owner about people the owner has never met. It says persons or companies furnishing labor or materials may enforce a lien upon the improved property if they are not paid, even if the parties have no direct contractual relationship with the owner, and that the mechanics notice and lien registry lists everyone who has posted a lien or may post one. You are handing your customer a warning about your own subcontractors, which is exactly what the legislature intended.

Then subsection 2 adds a sentence that catches people out. The notice described in subsection 1 shall also contain the internet site address and toll-free telephone number of the mechanics notice and lien registry. It orders two items onto the notice, prescribes no wording for either, and the Iowa Code prints neither value, because they belong to a registry the Secretary of State runs under section 572.34. That is the one line on this sheet that is not lifted out of a statute. Both values come from the office that administers the registry and they are checked against that office's page every time the source file behind this form is rebuilt.

Who owes it, and the owner-builder trap that takes you out of it

The duty lands on a general contractor who has contracted or will contract with a subcontractor to provide labor or furnish material for the property. Two tenses again, so it is not answered by looking at what you have signed so far. If you expect to put anybody under you on the job, or buy material for it through a supplier contract, you are inside the words.

General contractor is defined in section 572.1, and the second half of the definition is the part to read. It includes every person who does work or furnishes materials by contract, express or implied, with an owner, and then says it does not include a person who does work or furnishes materials on contract with an owner-builder. The same section puts that person in the other box instead: subcontractor shall include those persons having contracts directly with an owner-builder.

So on a spec build the chain shifts down by one. An owner-builder is the titleholder who furnishes material or performs labor, or contracts with a subcontractor to, and who intends to sell the property without occupying it for more than a year after it is substantially completed. Contract directly with one of those and you are not a general contractor for this chapter at all, you are a subcontractor, 572.13 is not yours, and the document that is yours is the preliminary notice in 572.13B. Owner itself is narrow and useful: the legal or equitable titleholder of record.

Residential only, and Iowa means one or two dwellings by that

Subsection 4 is one line. This section applies only to residential construction properties. Section 572.1 then defines residential construction as construction on single-family or two-family dwellings occupied or used, or intended to be occupied or used, primarily for residential purposes, and includes real property under chapter 499B, which is the horizontal property regime, so a condominium unit is in.

Three dwellings up and this notice is not required, because the property is outside the definition. The Secretary of State says the same thing in plainer words on its own page: commercial construction projects file only a lien. There is no owner notice, no notice of commencement and no preliminary notice on the commercial side of chapter 572.

What there is instead is section 572.33, a one-time notice a subcontractor sends on a commercial job within thirty days of first furnishing, with a certified statement supporting the claim. Different party, different trigger, different document, and not this one.

Ten points and boldface, which the state's own page leaves out

Subsection 1 asks for the notice in writing in boldface type of a minimum size of ten points. Two rules in one clause, a size floor and a face, and both of them travel with the words.

The Secretary of State's mechanics liens page restates the same requirement as the language must be included in either the construction contract or a separate notice in a minimum font size of ten points. Boldface is gone. That office administers the registry under section 572.34 and it is still not the Iowa Code, so this site sets the sheet in 10 point bold, which is what subsection 1 asks for. The same logic that says do not publish from a search summary says do not publish from an agency restatement either.

If you paste the paragraph into a contract you already use, carry both halves across. Bold, and no smaller than 10 point. The version that lives inside a contract is the one most likely to end up in the same 9 point as the rest of the terms, which is how a compliant notice quietly stops being one.

There is no deadline in the section, and that is worse than one

Read subsection 1 again looking for a clock. There is not one. No days from commencement, no days from the agreement, no days from anything. Minnesota gives ten days from the day the work is agreed. Iowa gives you nothing to be late against, because the duty is triggered by having contracted or being about to contract with a subcontractor.

A duty with no deadline is not a duty you can miss by a week. It is one you either did or did not do by the time it matters, and the time it matters is the day you try to enforce a lien, which is the worst possible day to find out.

So take the front of the job as the answer. The Secretary of State describes the practice route plainly, and it is a route the statute itself does not print: general contractors must provide a written notice to the property owner in either the construction contract or a separate written notice. The Code only says provide the owner with the notice in writing. Putting it in the contract is the version with a date and a signature on it, which is the version you would rather be holding.

Two lien killers at the same end of the job, and this is one of them

Subsection 3 takes the lien for not giving this notice. Section 572.13A, subsection 4 prints the identical sentence for a completely different duty, and it is the one people miss because it is not a piece of paper at all. Either a general contractor, or an owner-builder who has contracted or will contract with a subcontractor, shall post a notice of commencement of work to the registry no later than ten days after the commencement of work on the property.

That posting carries the name and address of the owner, your name, address and telephone number, the address of the property or a description of its location, a legal description adequate to charge the property, the date work commenced and the tax parcel identification number. The Secretary of State prices it at 7 dollars posted electronically and 10 dollars on paper. A notice of commencement is effective only as to labor, service, equipment or material furnished after it goes up, so a late posting does not reach backwards.

It also gates everybody else. A notice of commencement must be posted before any preliminary notice can be, and if you do not post yours within the ten days, subsection 2 lets a subcontractor post it for you alongside their own preliminary notice. Then section 572.8 adds the sting in the tail: the counties identified on the registry at the time those notices were posted are the only counties in which the property may be charged with a lien.

Neither section has a good faith clause. Minnesota at least gives its subcontractor notice one. Iowa gives neither of these two anything.

The state mails this paragraph too, and that does not cover you

Here is the part that reads like a free pass and is not. Section 572.13A says that at the time a notice of commencement is posted, the administrator shall assign a registry number and send a copy of the owner notice described in section 572.13. Section 572.13B says it again from the other side: when a subcontractor posts a preliminary notice, the administrator shall send notification to the owner, including the owner notice described in section 572.13, subsection 1. Notices under that section are not sent to owner-builders.

So the owner does receive this paragraph from the state, usually twice, and it is tempting to read that as the job being done for you. It is not. Section 572.13 puts the duty on the general contractor and subsection 3 takes the lien from the general contractor who fails to provide it. Nothing in 572.13A or 572.13B says the administrator's mailing discharges that duty, and the mailing is triggered by a posting rather than by your contract, so on a job where nothing has been posted yet the owner has had nothing at all.

The state's version is also a longer document than yours. What 572.13A prints runs on past the paragraph here to tell the owner that if a person or company has posted its notice or lien, the owner may be required to pay them even after paying the general contractor the full amount due, so check the registry before paying, and obtain lien waivers when paying. That is the state speaking to the owner about you. It is not your notice, and it does not belong on your sheet.

Where this sits in the rest of chapter 572

Iowa perfects by posting rather than by recording. Section 572.8 says a person perfects a mechanics lien by posting a verified statement of account of the demand due, after allowing all credits, to the registry, with the first and last dates of labor or material, the legal description, the name and last known mailing address of the owner, the property address and the tax parcel identification number. The administrator then mails a copy of the lien to the owner.

Section 572.9 gives a long outside window, two years and ninety days after the last of the material was furnished or the last of the labor was performed. Section 572.10 is what makes the ninety days matter: perfecting beyond ninety days takes the posting plus written notice to the owner, served the way an original notice is served. Section 572.11 then caps that late lien at the balance due from the owner to the general contractor at the time of service. Post inside ninety days and you claim what you are owed. Post after it and you claim what the owner still happens to be holding.

The waiver side of the same chapter has its own page here, and it is the page to read next if you are collecting waivers on an Iowa job rather than sending notices on one.

Questions people ask

Once the job is running and you are getting paid on it, the paperwork that comes next is the waiver: see the Iowa statutory lien waiver forms, and conditional vs unconditional lien waiver for which of the two to sign.