How to file a mechanics lien in Connecticut

Step by step

9 steps for a subcontractor in Connecticut.

1. 1

   Step 1: Serve the Notice of Intent to Claim a Mechanic's Lien

   Any time after you start work, and no later than 90 days after you stop. Count the 90 days from the day your own work was substantially complete — not from the punch list, not from a warranty callback, and not from the day the whole job finished.

   Start with one question: do you have a direct contract with the property owner? If yes, you are the 'original contractor' and you do not need this notice. If no, you need it, whatever your job title says. A first-tier sub who calls itself the GC, a CM-at-risk trade, and a trade contractor on a multi-prime job all need this notice. There is a second exemption for a subcontractor whose subcontract is in writing AND was assented to in writing by the owner — do not rely on it unless you are holding that written assent. Serve this early, not on day 89: until the owner has notice, payments the owner makes in good faith to the contractor above you come off the top of what your lien can reach.

   Where it goes

   The owner of the building, lot or plot of land, AND the original contractor. If there are two or more owners, serve each one. If there are two or more original contractors, serve each one. Check the land records first to see whether the original contractor recorded a 15-day commencement affidavit — that is what entitles them to the notice. Serving both regardless is the safe course.

   How

   Follow the statute's order, do not skip to mail. (1) If the owner or original contractor lives in the same town as the job, serve a true and attested copy in hand or at their usual place of abode, using a state marshal, other proper officer, or an 'indifferent person.' (2) If they do not live in that town but have a known agent there, serve the agent the same way. (3) Only if neither applies, have a marshal, proper officer or indifferent person mail a true and attested copy by registered or certified mail to where they live. (4) If that copy comes back unclaimed, notice goes by publication under § 1-2. An 'indifferent person' means impartial and unbiased — an employee of the claimant does not qualify (141 C. 193), so your office manager dropping it off is not service.

   Proof to keep

   The marshal's or officer's return of service endorsed on the notice itself. If you went the mail route, the registered or certified mail receipt and the return card. Keep a dated copy of the notice.

   What the document must contain

   • That you have furnished or begun to furnish materials, or rendered or begun to render services
   • That you intend to claim a lien on the building, lot or plot of land
   • Served as a true and attested copy

   If you miss it: You are not entitled to claim a mechanic's lien at all. § 49-35(a) says no person other than the original contractor (or a sub with the owner's written assent) 'is entitled to claim any such mechanic's lien' without this notice.

   Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-35(a)(opens the statute in a new tab)
2. 2

   Step 2: Record your Certificate of Mechanic's Lien with the town clerk

   Within 90 days after you ceased to furnish materials or render services. Same warning as the notice: the clock starts at substantial completion of your own work. Trivial work after that does not extend it, and if you let an unreasonable delay pass and then come back to finish, the later work does not count.

   This is the lien itself. Lodging it with the town clerk is what puts the claim on the land records, ahead of any encumbrance that started after your work began. It is also the step where Connecticut liens most often die on a technicality: the certificate must be sworn, not just signed.

   Where it goes

   Town Clerk of the TOWN where the building, lot or plot of land sits. Connecticut abolished county government — there is no county recorder and no register of deeds. There are 169 town clerks and only the right one counts.

   How

   Lodge the certificate with the town clerk, who records it with deeds of land. Sign it at the end AND take an oath in front of a notary public or a commissioner of the Superior Court, with a jurat on the face of the document showing the oath was administered. An acknowledgment block is NOT enough — the annotation to § 49-34 says a certificate that merely recites that the claimant 'acknowledges' execution is insufficient (23 CS 298), and 280 C. 672 requires an actual oath ceremony plus jurat evidence. You do not need a separate affidavit; the jurat is what matters. Recording fees come from Conn. Gen. Stat. § 7-34a: $10 for the first page plus $5 per additional page, plus a $10 historic documents fee and a $40 community investment fee on every land-record document — so $60 for a one-page lien, $65 for two pages, $70 for three. Add $1 if the names of the signers, witnesses and the notary are not legibly typed or stamped under the signatures. See https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_092.htm#sec_7-34a

   Proof to keep

   The recorded certificate showing volume, page and recording date. Your recording receipt. A true and attested copy ready to serve — you have 30 days and the next step depends on it.

   What the document must contain

   • A description of the premises (it must be substantially accurate — an honest mistake about quantity of land will not void it)
   • The amount claimed as a lien
   • The name or names of the person against whom the lien is being filed
   • The DATE OF COMMENCEMENT of your performance of services or furnishing of materials (the statute asks for the start date, not the last-work date)
   • A statement that the amount claimed is justly due, as nearly as the same can be ascertained
   • Subscribed and sworn to by the claimant — signed at the end, plus a jurat showing a notary public or commissioner of the Superior Court administered the oath

   If you miss it: There is no valid lien. § 49-34 says flatly that 'A mechanic's lien is not valid unless' you do this within 90 days. The window does not reopen and the lien cannot be re-filed late.

   Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-34(1)(A)-(C); recording fees § 7-34a(a)(1), (d), (e)(opens the statute in a new tab)
3. 3

   Step 3: Serve a copy of the recorded lien on every owner

   Not later than 30 days after you lodge the certificate with the town clerk.

   This is a second, separate condition of your lien being valid, and it is the one Connecticut contractors most often never hear about. Recording on day 89 and doing nothing else means you have no lien. There is no cure.

   Where it goes

   Every owner of the building, lot or plot of land as of the date you filed the lien — not just the person who hired you. The annotation to § 49-34 is explicit: the certificate 'must be served on all owners as of date of filing lien, not just on developer with whom work was contracted' (177 C. 295). Married co-owners and multi-member LLCs are where this goes wrong.

   How

   Serve a true and attested copy of the recorded certificate, using the same method as the Notice of Intent: in-hand or abode service by a state marshal, other proper officer or indifferent person if the owner lives in the project town; a known in-town agent next; registered or certified mail only if the owner lives elsewhere; publication if the mailing comes back unclaimed. The copy must actually be attested — the annotation to § 49-35 records liens held invalid 'Because copies not "attested"' (115 C. 494).

   Proof to keep

   The marshal's or officer's return of service, one per owner. Certified mail receipts and return cards if that route applied. A current title search showing who the owners of record were on your filing date.

   What the document must contain

   • A true and attested copy of the certificate exactly as recorded

   If you miss it: The lien is invalid. § 49-34 conditions validity on doing both things — recording within 90 days AND serving within 30 days of recording.

   Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-34(2)(opens the statute in a new tab)
4. 4

   Step 4: Get the served Notice of Intent, with the server's return on it, back into your file

   Not later than 30 days after you file the certificate of lien.

   A small housekeeping step the statute actually spells out. The person who served your Notice of Intent endorses their return on the notice, and that document comes back to whoever made the notice — you.

   Where it goes

   Back to you, the maker of the notice.

   How

   Ask your marshal or server to endorse the return directly on the notice and send you the original.

   Proof to keep

   The original notice with the endorsed return on it.

   If you miss it: The statute states this as a requirement. Be straight about the uncertainty: the CGA's annotation to § 49-35 notes that the 'return need not be alleged in foreclosure' (73 C. 519), so courts have not treated pleading it as essential, and no authority we checked holds a lien void on this ground alone. Treat it as a required step anyway — the endorsed return is also the cleanest proof that you served the notice at all.

   Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-35(a), final sentence(opens the statute in a new tab)
5. 5

   Step 5: Be ready for the owner to drag you into court on four days' notice

   Any time after you record, as long as no foreclosure action is already pending. You get at least four days' notice of the hearing.

   This is the lever the other side pulls, and most contractors never see it coming. The owner can apply to the Superior Court to have your lien discharged or reduced before you have filed anything. At that hearing YOU go first: the lienor has to establish probable cause to sustain the validity of the lien. Then the owner can try to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the lien should not stand or that the amount is excessive. If you recorded a number you cannot back up with records, you can be in front of a judge within a week of the application.

   Where it goes

   Superior Court. You will be served with the application.

   How

   The owner files an application, proposed order and summons with the Superior Court. The court orders notice to you and sets a hearing date.

   Proof to keep

   Everything that substantiates the amount: the contract and change orders, signed daily reports and timesheets, delivery tickets, invoices, payment application history, photos, and proof you served the Notice of Intent and the lien copy on time.

   If you miss it: If you do not appear or cannot show probable cause, the court can discharge your lien or reduce the amount. One piece of good news: if the owner does file such an application, your enforcement deadline becomes the LATER of one year from recording or 60 days after final disposition of that application, including any appeal — so this lever extends your window rather than shortening it.

   Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 49-35a(a), 49-35b(a); extension under § 49-39(opens the statute in a new tab)
6. 6

   Step 6: Answer a written demand to discharge within 30 days

   Within 30 days of receiving a written demand to discharge the lien.

   Anyone with an interest in the property can send you a written demand to discharge a lien they say is invalid. This one has teeth pointed at you. If the court later decides the lien was filed without just cause and you sat on the demand, it can award damages of $100 per week after those 30 days, capped at $5,000 or the amount the other side actually lost — including a reasonable attorney's fee — whichever is greater.

   Where it goes

   Your response goes to the person who demanded the discharge. A court discharge, once recorded on the land records, wipes the lien.

   How

   The demand comes to your last known address by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested. If the lien is in fact invalid, send a release by first class mail to whoever asked. If you believe the lien is valid, this is the point to get counsel involved rather than ignore it.

   Proof to keep

   The demand letter and envelope, the date you received it, and a copy of anything you sent back with proof of mailing.

   If you miss it: After 30 days the other side can apply to Superior Court to have the lien discharged and to collect damages against you.

   Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-51(a)(opens the statute in a new tab)
7. 7

   Step 7: Foreclose AND record a lis pendens within one year of recording

   Within one year from the DATE YOU RECORDED THE LIEN — not one year from your last day of work. Record on day 20 and your enforcement deadline is genuinely earlier than if you had recorded on day 89. The only extension: if the owner filed a discharge or reduction application, you get the later of that one year or 60 days after final disposition of the application including any appeal.

   Two acts, both inside the same year. Suing is not enough on its own. A contractor who files the foreclosure complaint on day 360 and never records the lis pendens loses the lien anyway, and the statute kills it automatically without anybody asking.

   Where it goes

   The foreclosure goes to Superior Court. The lis pendens goes on the land records of the town where the lien is recorded — the same town clerk.

   How

   Commence an action to foreclose by complaint, cross-complaint or counterclaim, and separately record a notice of lis pendens as evidence of it. A mechanic's lien is foreclosed in the same manner as a mortgage, and a foreclosure action is privileged for trial assignment. If the owner has already dissolved your lien by substituting a bond under § 49-37, the clock does not reset: an action on that bond must still be brought within one year from the date the certificate of lien was recorded, or the bond is void.

   Proof to keep

   The stamped complaint with its return date, and the recorded lis pendens showing volume, page and recording date. Diary the one-year date from the recording date the moment the clerk hands the lien back.

   If you miss it: After the year runs without both the action commenced and the notice recorded, the lien 'shall be invalid and discharged as a matter of law' under § 49-39, and § 49-40a says it is automatically extinguished. Nobody has to move to discharge it. It is simply gone.

   Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 49-39, 49-40a; bond substitution § 49-37(a); foreclosed as a mortgage § 49-33(i)(opens the statute in a new tab)
8. 8

   Step 8: On a public job, serve a notice of claim on the surety and the general contractor

   Not later than 180 days after the last date you supplied materials or performed work. If you are claiming retainage only, the 180 days run from the applicable payment date under § 49-41a(a) instead.

   Do not file a mechanic's lien on a public job — no lien attaches to public property in Connecticut. The remedy is a claim on the contractor's payment bond. Confirm two things before you rely on the 180 days: that the land is actually publicly owned in fee, and that a bond exists. A payment bond is only required on contracts EXCEEDING $100,000, and it is not required on a general bid or sub-bid where the estimated labor and materials cost is under $100,000. If the job is a state- or town-leased fit-out or other work on privately owned land, it may be an ordinary lien job on the normal 90-day clock against the leasehold under § 49-33(h) — and showing up on day 180 there forfeits everything.

   Where it goes

   The surety that issued the bond, plus a copy to the contractor named as principal on the bond.

   How

   Serve the notice by registered or certified mail, postage prepaid, addressed to any office where the surety, principal or claimant does business — or in any manner in which civil process may be served. To get a copy of the bond and the contract, apply to the state or municipal agency in charge of the work with an affidavit that you supplied labor or materials and were not paid; § 49-43 requires them to furnish a certified copy. Once you serve, the surety has 90 days to pay or to serve a notice denying liability.

   Proof to keep

   Certified mail receipts and return cards for both the surety and the principal, dated. A copy of the bond. Your delivery tickets and invoices establishing your true last date of work or supply.

   What the document must contain

   • The amount claimed, stated with substantial accuracy
   • The name of the party for whom the work was performed or to whom the materials were supplied
   • A detailed description of the bonded project

   If you miss it: You lose the right to enforce payment under the bond. On a public job that is generally the only security there is — there is no lien to fall back on, and § 49-41(d) gives a direct action only against a political subdivision that failed to obtain a required bond, never against the state.

   Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-42(a)(1); bond threshold § 49-41(a); copy of bond § 49-43(opens the statute in a new tab)
9. 9

   Step 9: On a public job, sue on the bond within one year of your LAST WORK

   Within one year after the last date you supplied materials or performed work. Not one year after you served the notice of claim. If the suit is solely for retainage, it is one year after the date that retainage payment was due under § 49-41a(a).

   This is the trap inside the trap. The notice deadline and the suit deadline run from the same event — your last work — so they overlap. Serve the notice on day 180 and you have 185 days left to sue, not a year. Serve it early and you keep your options.

   Where it goes

   Superior Court for the judicial district where the contract was to be performed, regardless of the amount in controversy.

   How

   Bring the suit in your own name. An action on a payment bond is privileged for trial assignment. If the surety failed to meet its own 90-day obligation to pay or deny, it must indemnify you for the reasonable attorney's fees and costs you incur afterward to recover what you are owed. The court awards the prevailing party costs and interest running from the date you served the notice of claim.

   Proof to keep

   Records that fix your true last date of work or supply — that single date controls both deadlines. The served notice of claim and its proof of service. Any denial letter from the surety.

   If you miss it: No suit may be commenced after the year expires. The bond claim is over.

   Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-42(b)(opens the statute in a new tab)

Who can claim a lien in Connecticut

Where you file

Office

Town Clerk of the town in which the building, lot or plot of land is situated

Recording fee

$70–$85

Notarization

Required

Sworn or verified

Subscribed and sworn

How it is served

Personal service

Copies

2

Fees and office procedures change; confirm them with the recording office before you file.

What trips people up in Connecticut

• Counting the 90 days from a punch-list, warranty or callback visit. The CGA's own annotations to § 49-34 say the time 'begins to run when work substantially completed' (90 C. 651), that 'Trivial work after substantial completion will not extend time for filing lien' (47 CA 265), and that where there is an unreasonable delay after the work is substantially done, work performed after that delay is not counted (41 C. 510). Two things DO extend it: work done at the owner's request (247 C. 234), and inspection, removal and replacement of materials in response to the owner's complaints of deficient work, which counts as 'services' (126 CA 18). The dividing line is who asked for it — get that in writing.
• Recording the lien on time and never serving it. § 49-34 has two numbered conditions, and most people only know about the first. Record within 90 days, serve a true and attested copy on the owner within 30 days after that. Miss the second and you have no lien.
• Signing the certificate instead of swearing it. Connecticut requires the lien to be 'subscribed and sworn to.' Per 280 C. 672 that means signing at the end plus an actual oath ceremony, with a jurat on the face of the document showing a notary public or commissioner of the Superior Court administered the oath. A form that prints an ACKNOWLEDGMENT block instead of a JURAT produces a void lien — 23 CS 298 holds that a certificate reciting the claimant merely 'acknowledges' execution is insufficient. You find out when the owner moves to discharge, by which point the 90 days are gone.
• Putting it in the mail when the law required a marshal. Under § 49-35(a), if the owner or original contractor lives in the town where the job is, service is in-hand or at their usual place of abode by a state marshal, other proper officer, or an 'indifferent person.' Certified mail is a fallback for an out-of-town owner with no known agent in town, not the default. And 'indifferent person' means impartial — an employee of the claimant does not qualify (141 C. 193).
• Serving only the person who hired you. The lien copy has to reach every owner of record as of the date you filed (177 C. 295), and § 49-35(a) requires service on each owner and each original contractor where there are several. Co-owning spouses and multi-member LLCs are the usual failure.
• Assuming that because you call yourself the GC, you do not need the Notice of Intent. The exemption in § 49-35(a) keys on being 'the original contractor' — the party in privity with the owner — not on job title. A first-tier sub calling itself the GC, a CM-at-risk trade contractor, or a trade on a multi-prime job all need the notice.
• Relying on the written-assent exemption without the assent. A subcontractor is excused from the notice only if the subcontract is in writing AND the owner assented in writing. The assent need not be in any particular form (71 C. 95), but it has to exist. A signed subcontract by itself is not enough, and by the time that gets litigated your 90 days are long gone.
• Suing inside the year but never recording the lis pendens. § 49-39 requires BOTH — commencing the foreclosure and recording the notice of lis pendens on the land records of the town — within the year. Filing the complaint alone does not preserve the lien, and § 49-40a extinguishes it automatically with nobody having to ask.
• Thinking the one-year enforcement clock runs from your last day of work. It runs from the date the lien was RECORDED. Record early and your enforcement deadline is genuinely earlier. Diary it off the recording stamp, not off your last delivery ticket.
• Waiting until day 89 to serve the Notice of Intent. Legally timely, commercially worthless. A subcontractor's lien can never exceed what the owner still owes the party you claim through (§ 49-33(e)), and the owner gets credit for every good-faith payment made to the original contractor before receiving notice of the lien (§ 49-36(c)). The annotation to § 49-36 puts it plainly: when the general contractor is not in default and there were no bad-faith payments, the lienable fund is what the owner still owed the GC when the owner received notice (196 CA 430). If the GC was paid out before your notice landed, a perfectly timed lien can attach to nothing. Advance payments do not count as good faith unless the owner gave written notice of intention to pay to each known claimant at least five days beforehand.
• Filing a mechanic's lien on a public job. No lien attaches to public property (81 C. 632; 90 C. 13). You make a § 49-41 payment-bond claim instead — and on a contract of $100,000 or less there is no required bond at all, so there may be no remedy in that direction. Verify the bond exists before you plan around it.
• Assuming the public-works suit deadline runs from your notice of claim. § 49-42(b) runs it from your last work. Serve the notice on day 180 and you have 185 days left, not a year.
• Residential: a defective home improvement or new-home contract undercuts the whole claim. § 20-429(a)(1)(A) makes a noncompliant home improvement contract 'not valid or enforceable against an owner' and § 20-417k(a)(1) does the same for new-home contracts. Missing registration number, missing cancellation notice, missing completion date, or an unsigned change order are the usual gaps. Note also that a subcontractor's lien is derivative — the annotation to § 49-35 states 'Subcontractor has no right of lien unless original contractor had' (96 C. 225) — so problems in the contract above you can reach down to you.
• Forgetting the owner can move first. § 49-35a lets the owner apply to discharge or reduce your lien before any foreclosure exists, on as little as four days' notice, and § 49-35b(a) makes YOU go first to establish probable cause. Separately, § 49-51 lets anyone with an interest demand discharge in writing, with $100-a-week damages up to $5,000 or actual loss including attorney's fees if the lien was filed without just cause and you ignore the demand for 30 days.
• Assuming a bond substitution buys time. If the owner bonds your lien off under § 49-37, the action on the bond is still due within one year from the date the certificate of lien was recorded, or the bond is void. Nothing resets.
• Filing in the wrong office. Connecticut has no county recorder and no register of deeds — 169 town clerks, and it has to be the town where the land actually sits. One exception worth knowing: a lien for work on a railroad under § 49-38 is filed with the Secretary of the State, not a town clerk.

After you file

• Diary two dates the moment the clerk hands your recorded lien back: 30 days out for serving a true and attested copy on every owner of record (§ 49-34(2)), and one year out from the recording date for the foreclosure plus lis pendens (§ 49-39). The 30-day one is the one people miss.
• Pull a fresh title search as of your filing date so you know exactly who every owner was. That list, not your contract, determines who has to be served.
• If you served a Notice of Intent, get it back from your server with the return endorsed on it within 30 days of filing the certificate (§ 49-35(a)).
• Expect the owner may push back early. A § 49-35a application to discharge or reduce can be filed any time before a foreclosure is pending and gives you as little as four days' notice, with you carrying the initial burden of probable cause (§ 49-35b(a)). Have your backup assembled before you ever record.
• Watch for a written demand to discharge under § 49-51. Thirty days of silence exposes you to $100-per-week damages up to $5,000 or actual loss including attorney's fees if the court finds the lien was filed without just cause.
• If the owner substitutes a bond under § 49-37, your lien comes off the land but your deadline does not move — suit on the bond within one year of the ORIGINAL recording date.
• Understand what your lien is actually worth before you spend money enforcing it. Under §§ 49-33(e)-(f) and 49-36, no lien can exceed the price the owner agreed to pay, a sub's lien is capped by what is owed to the party above it, and the owner gets credit for good-faith payments made before receiving notice. Where several claimants exceed the fund, § 49-36(b) pays claimants other than the original contractor first, pro rata if there is not enough.
• On a public job, the surety has 90 days after you serve the notice of claim to pay or serve a denial. If it fails to meet that obligation, § 49-42(a)(1) makes it indemnify you for reasonable attorney's fees and costs you incur afterward to recover. Keep the clock and keep the receipts.
• If your lien expires, it is gone as a matter of law under § 49-40a and the unreleased record entry does not affect the owner's title. There is no revival mechanism and no re-filing after the 90 days.