How to file a mechanics lien in Illinois

Step by step

14 steps for a subcontractor in Illinois.

1. 1

   Step 1: Check whether the property is private or public before you count on a lien

   Before you start work, or the day you realize you have a payment problem.

   Illinois runs two completely different systems. On private property you record a lien against the land. On a government job there is no lien on the building or the land — your lien is on "the money, bonds, or warrants due or to become due the contractor," and the deadlines are shorter and triggered by different events. Find out which one you are on before you start counting days.

   Where it goes

   The contract, the notice to proceed, or the county property records will name the owner.

   How

   Ask who owns the land. If the owner is a city, village, county, township, school district, park district, the State of Illinois or any other unit of government, you are on the public track. If the owner is the United States, this Act does not apply at all — that is a federal Miller Act job and none of the deadlines below are yours.

   Proof to keep

   A copy of the prime contract or notice to proceed showing the owner, and a printout of the property record showing the titleholder.

   If you miss it: You spend your 4 months preparing a document that cannot be recorded against a public body, and you blow the public-funds notice, which has to land before the government pays the contractor.

   770 ILCS 60/23(opens the statute in a new tab)
2. 2

   Step 2: Serve the 60-day occupant notice on an existing owner-occupied home

   Within 60 days from your first day of furnishing labor or delivering materials.

   If you are working on an existing owner-occupied single-family residence and you did not contract with the homeowner directly, you must notify the occupant early, in writing, that you are on the job. This is separate from and in addition to the 90-day notice in the next step. You need both.

   Where it goes

   To the occupant of the residence.

   How

   Personally, or by certified mail, return receipt requested. Those are the only two methods this section allows — the tracked-carrier option added in 2025 applies to the 90-day notice, not this one.

   Proof to keep

   The certified mail receipt and the signed green card, or a signed acknowledgment of personal delivery. Keep a dated copy of the notice itself.

   What the document must contain

   • Your name and address
   • The date you started work or started delivering materials
   • The type of work done and to be done, or the type of labor, services, materials, fixtures, apparatus, machinery, forms or form work delivered and to be delivered
   • The name of the contractor who requested the work
   • The statutory NOTICE TO OWNER warning, in at least 10-point boldface type, stating that the subcontractor has performed work for or delivered material to the home improvement contractor and may file a lien against the residence if the contractor does not pay

   If you miss it: The statute says a notice given after 60 days "shall preserve the subcontractor's lien, but only to the extent that the owner has not been prejudiced by payments made prior to receipt of the notice." On a job where the homeowner already paid the contractor in full, that is zero. Do not treat a late notice as recoverable.

   770 ILCS 60/21(c)(opens the statute in a new tab)
3. 3

   Step 3: Serve the 90-day notice of claim on the owner and on the lender

   Within 90 days after you complete your subcontract. If you later do extra or additional work, or make a final delivery of extra or additional material, the 90 days runs from that completion or final delivery instead.

   This is the single most important step if you are not in privity with the owner. It is the notice that preserves a subcontractor's or supplier's lien in Illinois, and it applies on every private job — residential and commercial alike. It must go to the owner side AND to the construction lender if you know who the lender is. Serving only the owner is the most common way Illinois subs lose the money, because on a financed job the lender holds the funds.

   Where it goes

   To the owner of record, or the owner of record's agent or architect, or the superintendent having charge of the building or improvement — AND to the lending agency, if known. Both sides, not one.

   How

   Any one of three ways: (i) registered or certified mail, return receipt requested; (ii) a nationally recognized delivery company with tracking service; or (iii) personal service. The statute says notice "shall be considered served at the time the written notice is placed with the delivery service or in the mail" — so it is the send date that counts, not the receive date. The tracked-carrier and personal-service options were added by P.A. 103-827, effective 1-1-2025.

   Proof to keep

   The postmarked certified mail receipt or the carrier's tracking record showing the date you placed it with them — that date is your proof of service. Keep the green cards or delivery confirmations, a dated copy of the notice, and a note of how you identified the lender.

   What the document must contain

   • A written statement of your claim
   • The amount due or to become due under it

   If you miss it: The Act makes this a duty, not an option. Treat a missed 90-day notice as a lost lien and get a lawyer on it immediately. There is a narrow exception in the statute — the notice "shall not be necessary when the sworn statement of the contractor or subcontractor provided for herein shall serve to give the owner notice of the amount due and to whom due" — but you have no control over what the contractor wrote in that statement, so never plan around it.

   770 ILCS 60/24(a)(opens the statute in a new tab)
4. 4

   Step 4: If you cannot find the owner or the lender, record a Section 25 notice instead

   Optional

   Within 90 days after you complete your contract with the contractor — or within 90 days after completing extra or additional work or making final delivery of extra or additional material.

   Sometimes the owner of record, their agent, architect or superintendent, or the lending agency cannot be found in the county or does not live there. The Act gives you a substitute: record your notice in the county records instead of serving it. Done right, the same document can double as your recorded claim for lien.

   Where it goes

   The office of the recorder for the county where the property sits.

   How

   Record it with the recorder. Verify it by your own affidavit, or that of your agent or employee. It substitutes for service only as to a person who, upon reasonable diligence, cannot be found or does not reside in the county — so document the diligence you actually did.

   Proof to keep

   The date-stamped recorded copy, plus a written record of the searches and attempts you made to find the person — skip traces, returned mail, county records searched, dates.

   What the document must contain

   • A brief statement of your contract or demand
   • The balance due after allowing all credits
   • A sufficiently correct description of the lot, lots or tract of land to identify the same
   • Your verifying affidavit, or that of your agent or employee

   If you miss it: You have no proof of service on someone you could not reach, and your lien is exposed as to that party. This route also closes at 90 days, same as the notice it replaces.

   770 ILCS 60/25(opens the statute in a new tab)
5. 5

   Step 5: Answer a written demand for your list of lower-tier subs and suppliers within 5 days

   Within 5 days after the written demand.

   The owner or the contractor can demand, in writing, that you produce a statement of everyone furnishing labor, services, material, fixtures, apparatus, machinery, forms or form work under you. This is a lever the other side can pull on you, and the penalty for ignoring it is severe and immediate.

   Where it goes

   To whoever made the demand — the owner, the contractor, or the agent of either.

   How

   Make out the statement and give it to the owner, contractor or their agent. It must be made under oath if they require it.

   Proof to keep

   The demand letter with its received date, a dated copy of the statement you furnished, and proof of delivery.

   What the document must contain

   • The persons furnishing labor, services, material, fixtures, apparatus or machinery, forms or form work under you
   • Sworn under oath, if the demand requires it

   If you miss it: Three things happen at once: you forfeit $50 for every offense, recoverable in a civil action; you have no right of action against either the owner or the contractor until you furnish the statement; and your lien becomes subject to the liens of all other creditors.

   770 ILCS 60/22(opens the statute in a new tab)
6. 6

   Step 6: Record your claim for lien within 4 calendar months of your last day

   Within 4 months after completion of your work — or within 4 months after completion of your extra or additional work or the final delivery of your extra or additional material.

   This is the filing. Count 4 calendar months — not 120 days — from the day you finished. Calendar months are always a little longer than 120 days, so counting 120 days is safe but you are throwing away days you may need. If you did extra or additional work, the 4 months runs from the completion of that extra work or the final delivery of that extra material.

   Where it goes

   The office of the recorder of the county where the building, erection or other improvement is located. Cook County is the exception you have to know about: it no longer has a separate Recorder of Deeds, and mechanics liens are recorded with the Cook County Clerk's recordings division.

   How

   Record a written claim for lien, verified by the affidavit of you, your agent or your employee. Have the affidavit sworn before a notary before you take it in. Recording fees are set county by county — Cook County charges a flat $64 for a Mechanic's Lien, Satisfaction and Release; call your county before you go so you bring the right amount.

   Proof to keep

   The recorded copy bearing the recorder's certificate of the date of filing, the document number, and your fee receipt. The recorder is required to certify the filing date and index the claim under 770 ILCS 60/38.

   What the document must contain

   • A brief statement of your contract
   • The balance due after allowing all credits — the balance, not the gross
   • A sufficiently correct description of the lot, lots or tracts of land to identify the same
   • Verification by the affidavit of you, your agent or your employee

   If you miss it: After 4 months you cannot enforce the lien against or to the prejudice of any other creditor, encumbrancer or purchaser. The Act does let a claim be filed as to the owner alone at any time within 2 years of completion — but nearly every job has a construction lender or a later buyer, so in practice a lien recorded after 4 months is worth very little. Treat 4 months as the deadline.

   770 ILCS 60/7(a)(opens the statute in a new tab)
7. 7

   Step 7: Wait 10 days after your notice before you file suit

   After your notice is served, and before you file — the money must go unpaid for 10 days after service.

   If you are a subcontractor, laborer or materialman, the Act builds in a waiting period. You serve your notice, and the other side gets 10 days to pay before you can sue. Build this into your calendar — it eats into any short window you are working against.

   Where it goes

   The circuit court in the county where the improvement is located.

   How

   Do not file the complaint until the 10 days have run. Then you may file a claim for lien or a complaint and enforce the lien within the same limits as to time as the contractor under Sections 7 and 9 to 20.

   Proof to keep

   Your dated proof of service on the notice, so you can show the 10 days ran before you filed.

   If you miss it: You file early and hand the other side an argument to dismiss. Worse: if you are also inside a 30-day demand window under Section 34, this 10-day wait consumes a third of it — you have to move immediately.

   770 ILCS 60/28(opens the statute in a new tab)
8. 8

   Step 8: File suit within 2 years of finishing your contract — not 2 years from recording

   Within two years after the completion of the contract, or completion of the extra or additional work, or furnishing of extra or additional material under it.

   This is the deadline Illinois contractors get wrong most often. The 2 years runs from the completion of your contract, not from the day you recorded the lien. Recording late does not push the suit deadline out. If you finished in March and recorded in June, your suit clock still started in March.

   Where it goes

   The circuit court in the county where the improvement is located.

   How

   Commence a suit to enforce the lien, or file a counterclaim in a pending case. Other lien claimants can join or intervene in the same suit.

   Proof to keep

   Your records establishing the true date your contract was completed — final invoice, signed completion or acceptance document, last delivery ticket, daily reports. That date is the one the whole case turns on.

   If you miss it: The lien is gone. There is no cure and no extension for having recorded on time.

   770 ILCS 60/9(opens the statute in a new tab)
9. 9

   Step 9: If you get a written demand to commence suit, you have 30 days

   Within 30 days after the demand is served on you.

   This is the lever the other side can pull on you, and it can arrive at any time. The owner, another lienor, the recorder, or any person interested in the real estate — or their agent or attorney — can serve you with a written demand requiring you to sue or to answer in a pending suit. The moment it is served, your two years becomes thirty days. The demand must carry a warning in at least 10-point bold type reading that failure to respond within 30 days after receipt, as required by Section 34 of the Mechanics Lien Act, shall result in the forfeiture of the referenced lien. Contractors throw these away as junk mail.

   Where it goes

   The circuit court where the improvement is located.

   How

   Commence the suit, or file your answer in the pending suit. Do not negotiate through the 30 days. The demand itself may be served on you by registered or certified mail with return receipt requested, or by personal service.

   Proof to keep

   The demand and its envelope with the received date, and your file-stamped complaint or answer. Photograph the demand the day it arrives.

   If you miss it: The lien is forfeited. Not weakened, not reduced — forfeited, by the plain words of the statute.

   770 ILCS 60/34(opens the statute in a new tab)
10. 10

    Step 10: Release the lien within 10 days once you are paid or your time runs out

    Within 10 days after written demand.

    A lien you leave on record after it is satisfied, or after your time to sue has expired, is a liability, not a harmless leftover. The owner can demand a release in writing, and if you do not give one you owe money.

    Where it goes

    To the person who demanded it, and it should be filed with the same recorder where the claim for lien was filed.

    How

    Acknowledge satisfaction or release of the lien, in writing. The release must have imprinted on it, in bold letters at least 1/4 inch high: FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE OWNER, THIS RELEASE SHOULD BE FILED WITH THE RECORDER IN WHOSE OFFICE THE CLAIM FOR LIEN WAS FILED.

    Proof to keep

    The demand with its date, your dated release, and the recorded release with its document number.

    What the document must contain

    • A written acknowledgment of satisfaction or release
    • The 1/4-inch bold legend required by 770 ILCS 60/35(c)

    If you miss it: You are liable for $2,500 plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees.

    770 ILCS 60/35(a)(opens the statute in a new tab)
11. 11

    Step 11: Public job only: serve the sworn notice of claim before the government pays the contractor

    Before payment or delivery of the funds is made to the contractor. There is no day count. Sooner is the only safe answer.

    On a government job there is no lien on the building or the land. Instead you get a lien on the money, bonds or warrants due or to become due the contractor. There is no fixed number of days here — the notice has to land before the public body pays or delivers the funds to the contractor. Once that money goes out the door, there is nothing left for your lien to attach to. Serve it the moment you have a payment problem.

    Where it goes

    On a local government job: the clerk or secretary of the board, commission, board of trustees or other body awarding the contract. On a State contract: the Director or other official who awarded it.

    How

    A written notice of the claim for lien containing a sworn statement. Send a copy to the contractor at once.

    Proof to keep

    Your certified mail receipt or hand-delivery acknowledgment from the clerk, secretary or Director, date-stamped, plus proof you copied the contractor.

    What the document must contain

    • A sworn statement identifying the contract under which the claim arises
    • A description of the work or materials furnished
    • The amount due and unpaid

    If you miss it: The lien attaches only to funds against which no voucher has yet been issued. If the public body has already paid the contractor, there is nothing to claim against and this remedy is over.

    770 ILCS 60/23(b)(1), (c)(1)(opens the statute in a new tab)
12. 12

    Step 12: Public job only: if the contractor demands it, notify within 30 days

    Within 30 days after the contractor's written demand.

    A second lever, and it belongs to the prime contractor. If you have not yet served your fund-lien notice, the contractor can serve a written demand on you and file a copy with the public body. That starts a 30-day fuse on your claim.

    Where it goes

    The clerk or secretary of the awarding body, or the Director or other official on a State contract.

    How

    Notify the clerk or secretary — or, on a State contract, the Director — of your claim for a lien. The contractor's demand comes to you by certified mail, return receipt requested, with a copy filed with the clerk, secretary or Director.

    Proof to keep

    The demand with its received date, and your certified mail receipt showing you notified the clerk, secretary or Director inside the 30 days.

    If you miss it: The lien shall be forfeited.

    770 ILCS 60/23(b)(2), (c)(2)(opens the statute in a new tab)
13. 13

    Step 13: Public job only: sue for an accounting within 90 days of serving your notice

    Within 90 days after serving your notice of claim for lien. If money appropriated by the General Assembly is being used, suit must be commenced and a copy of the complaint delivered to the Director not less than 15 days before the date the appropriation lapses — which can fall much earlier than day 90. Find the lapse date before you plan around 90 days.

    On public work the clock after your notice is 90 days, not two years. You have to start a court case for an accounting, and you have to deliver a copy of the complaint back to the public body. On a State job paid from a legislative appropriation there is an earlier hard stop that can hit well before day 90.

    Where it goes

    The circuit court, with a copy of the complaint delivered back to the clerk or secretary of the awarding body, or to the Director on a State contract.

    How

    Commence proceedings by complaint for an accounting, naming both the prime contractor and the party you contracted with as defendants. Then deliver a copy of the complaint to the clerk, secretary or Director within 10 days after filing it.

    Proof to keep

    Your file-stamped complaint, your dated proof of service of the underlying notice, and the receipt showing you delivered the complaint copy to the clerk, secretary or Director within 10 days.

    If you miss it: Failure to commence proceedings by complaint for accounting within 90 days after serving notice of lien terminates the lien — and no later notice can be given for the same claim. If your suit is dismissed, the lien terminates 30 days after the dismissal order unless you file a motion or a notice of appeal inside those 30 days.

    770 ILCS 60/23(b)(4), (b)(5), (c)(4), (c)(5), (e)(opens the statute in a new tab)
14. 14

    Step 14: Public job only: file your payment bond claim too — 180 days to notice, 1 year to sue

    File the verified notice within 180 days after the date of the last item of work or the furnishing of the last item of materials, apparatus, fixtures and machinery. Furnish a copy to the contractor within 10 days of that filing. No action may be brought later than one year after the date you furnished your last item.

    The fund lien and the payment bond are two separate remedies with two separate clocks. Claimants who track only one lose the other. On a public job with a bond, run both.

    Where it goes

    With the officer, board, bureau or department awarding the contract. A copy goes to the contractor.

    How

    File a verified notice of the claim. Then furnish a copy to the contractor within 10 days.

    Proof to keep

    Your date-stamped verified notice as filed with the awarding authority, and your proof of furnishing the copy to the contractor inside 10 days.

    What the document must contain

    • Your name, address and business location
    • The name of the contractor
    • The name of the person who employed or engaged you
    • A brief description of the public improvement
    • A description of the work performed and the total amount due and unpaid as of the date of the verified notice

    If you miss it: No action on the bond. The 180-day notice is a condition of bringing the claim, and the one-year limit runs from your last item of work, not from the notice.

    30 ILCS 550/2(opens the statute in a new tab)

Who can claim a lien in Illinois

Where you file

Office

County Recorder of Deeds for the county where the improvement is situated. In counties that have consolidated the office into the County Clerk - notably Cook County, which abolished the separate Recorder of Deeds - mechanics liens are recorded with the County Clerk's Recordings division.

Recording fee

$64–$152

Notarization

Required

Sworn or verified

Affidavit

How it is served

Certified mail

Copies

1

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

What trips people up in Illinois

• Believing that recording the lien restarts the clock to sue. It does not. 770 ILCS 60/9 runs two years from completion of your own contract. Record at month three and assume two years from that date, and you are three months late with a dead lien.
• Throwing away a Section 34 demand. Any owner, lienor, the recorder, or any person interested in the property can mail you a written demand that cuts your remaining time to thirty days, and missing it forfeits the lien outright. The demand carries a 10-point boldface warning, but it looks like junk mail (770 ILCS 60/34).
• Serving the 90-day notice on the owner but not on the construction lender. 770 ILCS 60/24(a) requires the owner side AND the lending agency, if known. On a financed job the lender is holding the money.
• Counting 120 days instead of 4 calendar months to record. 770 ILCS 60/7(a) says months. Counting 120 days always lands on or before the true date, so it is safe — but it throws away days you may need, and anyone who mentally converts "about four months" into a rough day count can drift past the real date. Compute the calendar date.
• Counting the recording or notice deadline from a callback. The 4 months and the 90 days run from completion of your contract, or completion of your extra or additional work, or final delivery of extra or additional material (770 ILCS 60/7(a); 60/24(a)). A free warranty fix or punch-list visit is not obviously either one. Count from your last work of real value, and have a lawyer look at it before you rely on a later date.
• On a residential job, serving the 60-day occupant notice and stopping there. A residential subcontractor or supplier owes two independent notices on two different clocks: the 60-day occupant notice from your first day (770 ILCS 60/21(c)) and the 90-day notice to owner and lender from your last day (770 ILCS 60/24(a)). Serving only the first one does not preserve the lien.
• Treating a late 60-day notice as fixable. It preserves the lien "only to the extent that the owner has not been prejudiced by payments made prior to receipt of the notice" (770 ILCS 60/21(c)). If the homeowner already paid the contractor in full, what survives is worth nothing.
• Renting equipment to a house and assuming you have a lien. You do not. 770 ILCS 60/1.2 gives no rental-equipment lien on a single-family residence or a multi-family residence of fewer than 12 units in a single building.
• Recording a lien on an owner-occupied home and closing the file. If you contracted with that owner, you owe them written notice within 10 days after recording, or the lien is extinguished to the extent of the damages they suffer before notice (770 ILCS 60/7(d)).
• Sitting on a written demand for your list of lower-tier subs and suppliers. You have 5 days. Miss it and you forfeit $50 per offense, you have no right of action against the owner or contractor until you comply, and your lien drops behind every other creditor (770 ILCS 60/22).
• Padding the claim. 770 ILCS 60/7(a) requires "the balance due after allowing all credits." Errors and overcharges defeat the lien where made with intent to defraud — state the net balance and apply every credit.
• Putting a street address where the legal description belongs. The claim must carry "a sufficiently correct description of the lot, lots or tracts of land to identify the same" (770 ILCS 60/7(a)). A mailing address by itself generally is not that. Pull the legal description off the deed or title commitment.
• Walking into the wrong office in Cook County. Cook abolished its separate Recorder of Deeds — mechanics liens go to the Cook County Clerk's recordings division. Check the office before your deadline day, not on it.
• Running a public job on the private calendar. There is no lien on public property. The Section 23 notice has to land before the government pays the contractor, and then you have 90 days to sue for an accounting or the lien terminates and cannot be re-noticed (770 ILCS 60/23).
• Assuming a no-lien clause in your subcontract killed your rights. An agreement to waive lien rights made in anticipation of and in consideration for the award of a contract is against public policy and unenforceable (770 ILCS 60/1(d)). Neither is pay-if-paid a defense to your claim (770 ILCS 60/21(e)).
• Leaving a dead lien on record. Once you are paid or your time to sue has run, a written demand starts a 10-day clock, and ignoring it costs $2,500 plus costs and attorney's fees (770 ILCS 60/35(a)).
• On a very long job, forgetting 770 ILCS 60/6. The work has to be done or the material furnished within three years from commencement on residential property, or five years on other property, measured from when the work or the furnishing began.

After you file

• If you contracted with the owner of an owner-occupied single-family residence, your next deadline is 10 days out: written notice to that owner that you recorded (770 ILCS 60/7(d)). Calendar it the same hour you record.
• Your suit deadline is already running and it did not start when you recorded. It is two years from completion of your contract, or of your extra or additional work, or of your final delivery of extra or additional material (770 ILCS 60/9). Put the completion date, not the recording date, on the calendar.
• Watch your mail. A Section 34 written demand from the owner, another lienor, the recorder or anyone with an interest in the property collapses that window to 30 days, and missing it forfeits the lien. Open everything and date-stamp it.
• If you are a subcontractor, laborer or materialman, you cannot file suit until the money has gone unpaid for 10 days after your notice was served (770 ILCS 60/28). If a 30-day demand lands, that wait eats a third of your window — move immediately.
• The owner or anyone else with an interest can bond over your lien. They petition the court, post an eligible surety bond equal to 175% of your lien claim, and the court substitutes the bond for the property. Your claim then runs against the bond instead of the land. The petition can be filed before any enforcement action or at any time up to 5 months after a lien claimant files a complaint or counterclaim (770 ILCS 60/38.1). If your lien gets bonded over, get a lawyer — the shape of your case changes.
• If someone pays you in exchange for a lien waiver, that money is held in trust for the people who furnished the labor and materials under you. Knowingly retaining or using trust money for other purposes makes you personally liable for all damages (770 ILCS 60/21.02).
• Once you are paid, or once your time to sue has expired, release the lien within 10 days of a written demand, with the 1/4-inch bold legend on it, or you owe $2,500 plus costs and fees (770 ILCS 60/35).
• On a public job the post-notice sequence is tight: sue for an accounting within 90 days of serving your notice, deliver a copy of the complaint to the clerk, secretary or Director within 10 days of filing, and if the job is funded by a General Assembly appropriation, get it all done at least 15 days before that appropriation lapses. If the suit is dismissed, the lien terminates 30 days after the dismissal order unless you move to reinstate or file a notice of appeal inside those 30 days (770 ILCS 60/23).