Missouri notice to owner, the one page that decides whether you have a lien
Missouri does not treat this as a formality. RSMo 429.012(1) says the original contractor shall provide this notice prior to receiving payment in any form of any kind, and subsection 2 says compliance is a condition precedent to the creation, existence or validity of any mechanic's lien in favor of that contractor. Skip it and there is nothing to file, nothing to foreclose and nothing to negotiate with.
Compliance with subsection 1 of this section shall be a condition precedent to the creation, existence or validity of any mechanic's lien in favor of such original contractor. That is the whole of subsection 2. A condition precedent is not a deadline you can miss and cure; the lien never comes into existence in the first place.
Read the law: RSMo 429.012, the notice, RSMo 429.013, the consent of owner, RSMo 429.016, residential notice of rights and RSMo 429.032, partial release of liencodes.findlaw.com
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Word for word from the disclosure language in RSMo 429.012, subsection 1, set in 10 point bold because the subsection asks for it. Give it before you take money of any kind on the job. Subsection 2 makes that a condition precedent to your lien existing at all.
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Who owes it, and when it has to be in the owner's hands
Subsection 1 addresses every original contractor who shall do or perform any work or labor upon, or furnish any material, fixtures, engine, boiler or machinery for any building, erection or improvements upon land, or for repairing the same, under or by virtue of any contract. Original contractor means the one in contract with the owner. If you are working under somebody else you are not the one this subsection is talking to.
The timing is written twice over, once as an outer limit and once as a list. The outer limit is prior to receiving payment in any form of any kind from such person. The list is the four moments the notice may be given: (a) either at the time of the execution of the contract, (b) when the materials are delivered, (c) when the work is commenced, or (d) delivered with first invoice. The safe reading is the earliest of them, because the outer limit bites first on a job that takes a deposit.
Payment in any form of any kind includes the deposit. A contractor who collects money at signing and sends the notice with the first invoice has taken payment before giving the notice, and that is the sentence subsection 2 is measuring.
It is not only a residential rule
This is the section most often confused with 429.013, and they have different reach. 429.013 is limited by its own first sentence to the repair or remodeling of or addition to owner-occupied residential property of four units or less. 429.012 carries no such limit. It says any building, erection or improvements upon land, or repairing the same, under or by virtue of any contract.
Subsection 1 also reaches one job with no contract at all: work done without a contract if ordered by a city, town, village or county having a charter form of government to abate the conditions that caused a structure on that property to be deemed a dangerous building under local ordinances pursuant to section 67.410. In that case the notice goes to the owner, because there is no person with whom the contract is made.
There is one carve out, in subsection 4. The provisions of subsections 1 and 2 shall not apply to new residences for which the buyer has been furnished mechanics' and suppliers' lien protection through a title insurance company registered in the state of Missouri. New residences, and only where that title protection was actually furnished.
What the notice actually tells the owner to do
Read the prescribed paragraph as an owner would. It says the failure of this contractor to pay those persons supplying material or services to complete this contract can result in the filing of a mechanic's lien on the property. Then it says, to avoid this result you may ask this contractor for lien waivers from all persons supplying material or services for the work described in this contract. Then it closes with the consequence: failure to secure lien waivers may result in your paying for labor and material twice.
So the document you are legally required to hand over is a document that instructs your customer to start asking you for lien waivers. That is not an accident and it is not a trap. It is the legislature routing the owner toward the one thing that actually protects both of you, and a contractor who already collects waivers from his subs and suppliers can hand this over and look organized rather than exposed.
The other reason to give it willingly is that subsection 3 puts a criminal edge on the fraud version of this. Any original contractor who fails to provide the written notice set out in subsection 1 of this section, with intent to defraud, shall be guilty of a class B misdemeanor, and any contractor who knowingly issues a fraudulent lien waiver or a false affidavit shall be guilty of a class D felony.
Keep the copy, because somebody is entitled to ask for it
This duty lives in the next section. RSMo 429.013(3) says that in addition to complying with the provisions of section 429.012, every original contractor shall retain a copy of the notice required by that section and any consent signed by an owner and shall furnish a copy to any person performing work or labor or furnishing material, fixtures, engines, boilers or machinery upon his request for such copy of the notice or consent.
That is why this sheet carries four rules above the prescribed wording. They are not part of the notice and the page says so plainly, but a folder full of identical unmarked notices is not a record of anything. Contractor, owner, property, date given. Four lines of pen work when you print it, and the copy in the folder is evidence afterwards.
If a sub or supplier does ask, the request is about the notice and the consent, not about your contract. Handing over a copy of each is a complete answer to it.
The consent of owner is a separate sheet, and 429.013 says so
On a repair, remodel or addition to an owner-occupied home of four units or less there is a second prescribed document, the consent of owner in RSMo 429.013(2). It is not an optional extra to this notice and it is not printed on the same page. Subsection 2 says such consent shall be printed in ten point bold type and signed separately from the notice required by section 429.012.
Signed separately is why this site prints the two as two sheets. A combined page would be one signature covering both, which is exactly what that clause was written to prevent.
The consent matters to everyone under you rather than to you. 429.013(2) says no person other than an original contractor has a lien on the building or structure unless an owner has agreed in a written contract to be liable, in the prescribed words. Without it your subs and your suppliers have no lien on that job at all.
How this sits against the other Missouri paperwork
Missouri prescribes wording in several places in chapter 429 and they are for different jobs. This one, 429.012, is the original contractor's notice on almost any job. 429.013 is the owner's consent on small owner-occupied residential repair work. 429.016 is a separate residential notice of rights regime for mechanic's liens asserted against residential real property other than the 429.013 work, and it carries its own forms and its own recording steps.
429.016 is not on this site yet. Its wording could not be keyed against a second publisher, because the only second Missouri publisher this machine can reach carries an edition of the code that predates the section. A form that cannot be keyed does not get published here, and that rule does not bend for a section that would be useful.
The waiver side of Missouri is one form, the unconditional final lien waiver for residential real property, and it is the most dangerous document on this site. It is a complete and absolute waiver, including rights that would otherwise arise from later remedial or additional work. That page is linked from the Missouri lien waiver page.
What the sheet fills in and what it leaves alone
The prescribed paragraph has no blanks in it. Nothing is inserted into it, nothing is reworded, and the sheet does not add the job details into the middle of the legislature's sentences.
The four fields sit above the wording, captioned and ruled. Contractor is your business name. Owner is the person the notice is being handed to, which subsection 1 describes as the person with whom the contract is made or the owner if there is no contract. Property is the job address. Date given is the day you handed it over, and on a job with a deposit that date wants to be on or before the day the money moved.
The wording is set in 10 point bold on the sheet because subsection 1 asks for ten-point bold type. That is not a style choice and changing it would put the document outside what the statute described.
Where the words came from
The prescribed paragraph on this sheet was sliced out of the statute text byte for byte. Nothing on it was retyped, because retyping is how a wrong word gets into a form and stays there.
The build source is codes.findlaw.com's Missouri Revised Statutes 429.012, current as of 1 January 2025. The key is www.laws9.com, which carries an older edition of the same code and is visibly not a copy of findlaw: its text is missing the spaces where the Revisor's own fixed-width lines were joined, which is the fingerprint of a different lineage. Across the prescribed block the two agree on 392 letters and digits with no differences at all.
Missouri publishes the code itself at revisor.mo.gov, and that host does not answer this machine at all, so the double key was built from two private publishers rather than from the state. Both copies are parked in the repository beside the build source, so anyone can check the comparison rather than take it on trust.
Questions people ask
Who has to give this notice?
The original contractor, meaning the one in contract with the owner. RSMo 429.012(1) addresses every original contractor who does work or furnishes material for any building, erection or improvements upon land, or for repairing the same, under or by virtue of any contract. A subcontractor or supplier is not the one this subsection is talking to.
When do I have to give it?
Before you take any money. The outer limit in subsection 1 is prior to receiving payment in any form of any kind, and within that the notice may be given at the execution of the contract, when the materials are delivered, when the work is commenced, or delivered with the first invoice. If you take a deposit at signing, the notice has to be given at signing.
What happens if I never give it?
You have no mechanic's lien. Subsection 2 says compliance with subsection 1 is a condition precedent to the creation, existence or validity of any mechanic's lien in favor of the original contractor. It is not a deadline you can miss and cure later; the lien never exists.
Is this only for residential work?
No. 429.012 covers any building, erection or improvements upon land, or repairing the same, under or by virtue of any contract. The residential limit belongs to the next section, 429.013, which applies only to repair, remodeling or addition to owner-occupied residential property of four units or less.
Is there any job it does not apply to?
Subsection 4 is the carve out. Subsections 1 and 2 do not apply to new residences for which the buyer has been furnished mechanics' and suppliers' lien protection through a title insurance company registered in Missouri. That is narrow: new residences, and the title protection has to have actually been furnished.
Can I be prosecuted for skipping it?
Only in the fraud case. Subsection 3 makes an original contractor who fails to provide the notice with intent to defraud guilty of a class B misdemeanor, and makes a contractor who knowingly issues a fraudulent lien waiver or a false affidavit guilty of a class D felony. Simple forgetfulness costs you the lien rather than a charge.
Does it have to be in bold?
Yes. Subsection 1 asks for the disclosure language in ten-point bold type, so the sheet sets it in 10 point bold. That is a requirement written into the sentence that commands the notice, not a formatting preference.
Am I supposed to keep a copy?
Yes, and the duty is in the next section. RSMo 429.013(3) says every original contractor shall retain a copy of the notice required by 429.012 and any consent signed by an owner, and shall furnish a copy to any person performing work or furnishing material on request. That is why this sheet has rules for the contractor, the owner, the property and the date.
Is the consent of owner the same document?
No, and it may not be put on the same page. 429.013(2) requires the consent to be printed in ten point bold type and signed separately from the notice required by section 429.012. They are two sheets. The consent is what gives your subs and suppliers a lien right on small owner-occupied residential work.
Does this notice do anything for my subcontractors?
Not by itself. It protects your own lien. What protects theirs on owner-occupied residential repair work of four units or less is the signed consent of owner under 429.013, and without it full payment by the owner to you is a complete defense to all of their liens.
Do I fill anything into the wording?
Nothing. The prescribed paragraph has no blanks. The four fields on the sheet sit above it and are captioned, and the page says outright that they are not part of the statutory wording.
Where does the wording come from?
RSMo 429.012(1), sliced out of the statute text rather than retyped. It was keyed against www.laws9.com's older edition of the same code, a different lineage from the build source: 392 letters and digits a side, in order, with no differences. Both copies are parked in the repository next to the source.
Once the job is running and you are getting paid on it, the paperwork that comes next is the waiver: see the Missouri statutory lien waiver forms, and conditional vs unconditional lien waiver for which of the two to sign.