Washington claim of lien, free and word for word from RCW 60.04.091

The ninety days run from your last day, not the job's

The deadline in RCW 60.04.091 is measured from the moment the claimant ceased to furnish labor, professional services, materials, or equipment, or from the last date on which employee benefit contributions were due. It is personal to you. Two subcontractors on the same building can have deadlines four months apart, and neither of them is the general contractor's deadline.

What counts as furnishing is defined rather than left to argument. RCW 60.04.011(4) says furnishing labor, professional services, materials, or equipment means the performance of any labor or professional services, the contribution owed to any employee benefit plan on account of any labor, the provision of any supplies or materials, and the renting, leasing, or otherwise supplying of equipment for the improvement of real property. Subsection (7) narrows labor itself: exertion of the powers of body or mind performed at the site for compensation, and it includes amounts due and owed to any employee benefit plan on account of such labor.

So a delivery counts, a rental that is still on site counts, and office time spent chasing the invoice does not, because labor is performed at the site. Professional services are their own category under subsection (13): surveying, establishing or marking boundaries, preparing maps, plans or specifications, inspecting, testing, or otherwise performing any other architectural or engineering services for the improvement of real property.

The form asks for both ends of that range because subsection (1)(b) requires both: the first and last date on which the labor, professional services, materials, or equipment was furnished or employee benefit contributions were due. Item 2 is the first date and item 6 is the last. Every other form on this site asks only when you started, because a notice deadline runs from the start. A recorded lien runs off the other end, and the claim has to carry both.

Signed under penalty of perjury, then acknowledged

Subsection (2) is the part people miss, because the form itself does not say it in so many words. The notice of claim of lien shall be signed by the claimant or some person authorized to act on his or her behalf who shall affirmatively state they have read the notice of claim of lien and believe the notice of claim of lien to be true and correct under penalty of perjury, and shall be acknowledged pursuant to chapter 64.08 RCW.

That is two separate things stacked on one sheet. The affirmation is already printed in the form, in the jurat at the bottom: being sworn, says: I am the claimant, or attorney of the claimant, or administrator, representative, or agent of the trustees of an employee benefit plan, above named; I have read or heard the foregoing claim, read and know the contents thereof, and believe the same to be true and correct and that the claim of lien is not frivolous and is made with reasonable cause, and is not clearly excessive under penalty of perjury. The acknowledgment is the notary's, and it is what chapter 64.08 governs.

RCW 64.08.010 lists who may take an acknowledgment in Washington: a justice of the supreme court or its clerk or deputy, a judge of the court of appeals or its clerk, a judge or qualified court commissioner of the superior court or its clerk or deputy, a county auditor or deputy, a qualified notary public, or a qualified United States commissioner appointed by a district court of the United States for this state. In practice that means a notary, and it means the sheet is not finished when the blanks are filled.

The list of people who may swear to it comes straight out of the printed form, and it is wider than the claimant: the claimant, an attorney of the claimant, or an administrator, representative, or agent of the trustees of an employee benefit plan. A trust fund chasing unpaid contributions signs in its own right rather than borrowing the contractor's signature.

Fourteen days to give the owner a copy, and what missing it costs

The paragraph under the form carries a second deadline that is easy to read past. The lien claimant shall give a copy of the claim of lien to the owner or reputed owner by mailing it by certified or registered mail or by personal service within fourteen days of the time the claim of lien is filed for recording.

The penalty is specific and it is not the loss of the lien. Failure to do so results in a forfeiture of any right the claimant may have to attorneys' fees and costs against the owner under RCW 60.04.181. The lien survives. What dies is the money you would otherwise be arguing for on top of it.

Look at what is in that pot before deciding it is a small thing. RCW 60.04.181(3) lets the court allow the prevailing party, whether plaintiff or defendant, as part of the costs of the action, the moneys paid for recording the claim of lien, costs of title report, bond costs, and attorneys' fees and necessary expenses incurred by the attorney in the superior court, court of appeals, supreme court, or arbitration, as the court or arbitrator deems reasonable. On a small lien those costs can be larger than the lien.

Certified or registered mail is what produces a receipt, and a receipt is what survives fourteen months of nobody remembering. Personal service works too, and the statute treats them as equals here, but keep the proof either way.

Eight months to sue, ninety more days to serve

Recording starts a second clock. RCW 60.04.141 says no lien created by this chapter binds the property subject to the lien for a longer period than eight calendar months after the claim of lien has been recorded, unless an action is filed by the lien claimant within that time in the superior court in the county where the subject property is located to enforce the lien, and service is made upon the owner of the subject property within ninety days of the date of filing the action.

Both halves are required. Filing inside eight months and then sitting on service for four months is the same as not filing, because the section joins them with an and. The county is the same county the property is in, which is also the county the lien was recorded in.

There is one extension in the section and it has to be earned before you record, not after. Or, if credit is given and the terms thereof are stated in the claim of lien, then eight calendar months after the expiration of such credit. If you agreed to payment terms and you want those eight months measured from the end of them, the terms have to be stated in the claim of lien itself. A claim already recorded without them cannot borrow them later.

Two more sentences in the same section. If the action is not prosecuted to judgment within two years after commencement, the court in its discretion may dismiss for want of prosecution, and a dismissal or a judgment that no lien exists cancels the lien. And the eight months are a period of limitation which shall be tolled by the filing of any petition seeking protection under Title Eleven, United States Code by an owner of any property subject to the lien.

RCW 60.04.171 describes the action itself: the lien may be foreclosed and enforced by a civil action in the court having jurisdiction in the manner prescribed for the judicial foreclosure of a mortgage, the court may order the property sold, the owner shall be joined as a party, and any person with a recorded interest in the property before the action started is not affected unless joined.

Frivolous or clearly excessive, and the hearing that happens fast

The oath printed on the form says the claim of lien is not frivolous and is made with reasonable cause, and is not clearly excessive. Those are not decorative words. They are the exact test in RCW 60.04.081, the section an owner reaches for when a lien lands on a title.

Any owner of real property subject to a recorded claim of lien, or contractor, subcontractor, lender, or lien claimant who believes the claim of lien to be frivolous and made without reasonable cause, or clearly excessive, may apply by motion to the superior court for an order directing the lien claimant to appear and show cause. The hearing is set no earlier than six nor later than fifteen days following service of the application and order. That is a fortnight, not a lawsuit's worth of time.

The order itself has to warn you what happens if you ignore it: the order shall clearly state that if the lien claimant fails to appear at the time and place noted the lien shall be released, with prejudice, and that the lien claimant shall be ordered to pay the costs requested by the applicant including reasonable attorneys' fees.

The outcome cuts both ways, which is the part worth knowing before you inflate a number. If the court determines the lien is frivolous and made without reasonable cause, or clearly excessive, it releases the lien or reduces it, and awards costs and reasonable attorneys' fees to the applicant, paid by the lien claimant. If the court determines the lien is not frivolous, was made with reasonable cause, and is not clearly excessive, it issues an order saying so and awards costs and reasonable attorneys' fees to the lien claimant, paid by the applicant.

So the honest number is also the profitable one. RCW 60.04.021 gives the lien for the contract price of the labor, professional services, materials, or equipment furnished, and RCW 60.04.011(2) defines contract price as the amount agreed upon by the contracting parties, or if no amount is agreed upon, then the customary and reasonable charge. Attorneys' fees are handled separately by RCW 60.04.181(3) as costs of the action, so they are not part of the principal amount item 7 asks for.

Where the lien sits against the bank and against the other trades

Recording the claim of lien does not by itself put you at the front of the queue, and RCW 60.04.061 explains what it does do. The claim of lien created by this chapter upon any lot or parcel of land shall be prior to any lien, mortgage, deed of trust, or other encumbrance which attached to the land after or was unrecorded at the time of commencement of labor or professional services or first delivery of materials or equipment by the lien claimant.

The date that matters for priority is therefore your first date, not your recording date. That is item 2 on the form, and it is why the statute asks for it.

Among lien claimants the order is fixed by RCW 60.04.181(1), and the court declares the rank: liens for the performance of labor first; then liens for contributions owed to employee benefit plans; then liens for furnishing material, supplies, or equipment; then liens for subcontractors, including but not limited to their labor and materials; and last, liens for prime contractors, or for professional services.

Subsection (2) then applies the proceeds of a sale to each lien or class of liens in order of rank and, in a foreclosure action, pro rata among each claimant in each separate priority class. Inside a class nobody outruns anybody else by recording first. Between classes the labor claims are paid before the prime contractor sees anything.

How the lien comes off the title before the case is over

Owners in the middle of a sale or a refinance usually cannot wait eight months, and RCW 60.04.161 is the section that answers them. Any owner of real property subject to a recorded claim of lien, or contractor, subcontractor, lender, or lien claimant who disputes the correctness or validity of the claim of lien may record a bond issued by a surety company authorized to issue surety bonds in the state, either before or after an action to enforce the lien has started, in the same county office where the claim of lien was recorded.

The amount is set by a formula rather than by negotiation: an amount equal to the greater of five thousand dollars or two times the amount of the lien claimed if it is ten thousand dollars or less, and an amount equal to or greater than one and one-half times the amount of the lien if it is in excess of ten thousand dollars. A separate bond is required for each claim of lien made by separate claimants.

The effect is exactly what an owner wants and does not end the claim. The effect of recording a bond shall be to release the real property described in the notice of claim of lien from the lien and any action brought to recover the amount claimed, and the bond's condition is to guarantee payment of any judgment upon the lien in favor of the lien claimant. The property is clear; the money is still in play.

The deadline does not move because of it. If no action is commenced to recover on a lien within the time specified in RCW 60.04.141, the surety is discharged. The eight months keep running whether the lien is on the title or on a bond.

Three things in the printed form that need explaining

First, the cross reference. The second line of the form as the statute prints it reads: Notice is hereby given that the person named below claims a lien pursuant to chapter 64.04 RCW. Chapter 64.04 is conveyances, not liens. The code reviser saw it too, and the note published with the section says the reference to chapter 64.04 RCW appears to be erroneous, and reference to chapter 60.04 RCW was apparently intended. The published text carries an asterisk pointing at that note. This sheet prints the cross reference exactly as enacted and leaves the asterisk off, because a footnote marker with no footnote next to it is noise on a document that gets recorded. The note is here instead.

Second, item 3 looks different from the other seven and it is meant to. The statute prints seven of the eight items with the blank beside the heading, and prints item 3, the name of the person indebted to the claimant, with its heading on one line and the blank on the next. This sheet draws it the way the statute draws it. For the same reason items 4, 6 and 8 carry extra blank lines under them: the statute prints a continuation rule for an answer that will not fit on one line, which is most legal descriptions.

Third, the caption line at the top names the same two parties that items 1 and 3 name again underneath. That is the statute's own duplication, in the style of a case caption, and nothing here tidies it away. The two names are typed once in the builder and land in both places.

One field is blank on almost every claim and the statute still prints a rule for it. Item 8, if the claimant is the assignee of this claim so state here, exists because subsection (2) says that if the lien has been assigned, the name of the assignee shall be stated. If your claim has not been assigned, leave it empty and the rule prints blank, the way the statute prints it.

What the form asks for, and what it does not

Eight numbered items and a jurat. Your name, phone number and address; the first date you furnished; the name of the person indebted to you; the description of the property; the name of the owner or reputed owner; the last date you furnished; the principal amount; and the assignee if there is one. Those map one to one onto the six requirements in subsection (1), which is why they are numbered the way they are.

The property description has three acceptable shapes and the statute names all three. Subsection (1)(d) asks for the street address, legal description, or other description reasonably calculated to identify, for a person familiar with the area, the location of the real property to be charged with the lien, and the caption on item 4 repeats it: street address, legal description or other information that will reasonably describe the property. Put in the street address and the legal description both if you have them. The blank lines under item 4 are there for the legal description.

Item 5 tells you what to do when you cannot answer it: if not known state unknown. That is the statute's instruction, printed in its own caption, and subsection (1)(e) says the same thing in the requirement itself. Guessing an owner's name is worse than writing unknown.

There is no date line, no witness line and no attorney block, because the statute prints none. What the statute does print at the foot is three rules for the claimant's signature, phone number and address, captioned in its own words, and then the jurat. Statutory forms on this site are reproduced as printed, so nothing has been added and nothing has been moved.

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 Washington statutory lien waiver forms, and conditional vs unconditional lien waiver for which of the two to sign.