How to file a mechanics lien in Indiana

Step by step

11 steps for a subcontractor in Indiana.

1. 1

   Step 1: Search the county recorder for a no-lien contract before you start

   Optional

   Before you start work and before you deliver anything. The contract only binds you if it was recorded within 5 days of being signed, so check again shortly after you start.

   On houses, duplexes, townhouses, garages, barns, family pools, farm shelters, improvements that serve them, utility-company property, and contracts to prepare land for that kind of residential construction, the owner and the principal contractor are allowed to agree that no lien shall attach. If they recorded that agreement, it binds you too — even though you never signed it and never saw it. On other commercial buildings the same clause is void, so this search is a residential and utility-work habit.

   Where it goes

   The recorder's office for the county where the property sits.

   How

   Search the county recorder's index (online or at the counter) under the owner's name and the property. You are looking for a recorded no-lien contract or 'no lien' provision.

   Proof to keep

   A dated printout or screenshot of your index search, so you can show what was and was not on record when you started.

   What the document must contain

   • To bind you, the contract must be in writing
   • It must refer to the property specifically by legal description
   • It must be acknowledged the way a deed is acknowledged
   • It must be recorded in that county's recorder's office not more than 5 days after the date it was signed

   If you miss it: If a valid no-lien contract is on record, you have no lien rights on that job no matter how perfectly you do everything else. You would be left with a breach of contract claim against whoever hired you.

   Ind. Code § 32-28-3-1(e), (f)(opens the statute in a new tab)
2. 2

   Step 2: Count the dwelling units before you calculate a single date

   At the start of the job, before you set any reminder.

   Indiana gives you either 60 days or 90 days to record your lien, and the only thing that decides which is the building itself. A 'Class 2 structure' gets 60 days: a building intended to contain only one or two dwelling units, a qualifying townhouse, an outbuilding for one of those such as a garage, barn or family swimming pool, or a farm shelter. Any improvement on the same real estate that is auxiliary to a Class 2 structure gets 60 days too. Everything else — commercial, industrial, institutional, and buildings with three or more dwelling units — gets 90 days. Your role on the job changes nothing. A qualifying townhouse is a single-family unit in a group of three or more attached units, each running foundation to roof, no more than three stories, with fire-resistance rated separation walls and open space on at least two sides.

   Where it goes

   Nothing gets filed. This is your own determination, but write the answer down and put the date on it.

   How

   Use the building permit, the plan sheet or the assessor's record to confirm the unit count. Do not go by whether the job feels 'residential' — a 30-unit apartment building feels residential and is not a Class 2 structure.

   Proof to keep

   The permit or plan sheet showing the unit count, plus your dated note recording which window you calculated and why.

   What the document must contain

   • The number of dwelling units the building is intended to contain
   • Whether the thing you are working on is an outbuilding for, or an improvement auxiliary to, a Class 2 structure

   If you miss it: Guess 90 days on a house and you record 30 days late, which means no lien. The error is not symmetrical: filing early is never a defect. When the building's class is unclear, work to 60 days.

   Ind. Code § 22-12-1-5 (definition of Class 2 structure), applied by Ind. Code § 32-28-3-3(a), (b)(opens the statute in a new tab)
3. 3

   Step 3: Send the 30-day pre-lien notice on an owner-occupied remodel or repair

   Not later than 30 days after the date of your first delivery or your first labor performed.

   If the job is alteration or repair of a single or double family dwelling that the owner lives in, and you sell or furnish on credit to a contractor, a subcontractor, a mechanic, or to anyone other than the occupying owner or the owner's legal representative, you must furnish the occupying owner a written notice of the delivery or work and of the existence of lien rights. The statute calls furnishing this notice a condition precedent to the right of acquiring a lien. That means it is a gate, not paperwork. A contractor dealing directly with the occupying owner is not selling 'to anyone other than the owner' and so is outside this subsection. Design professionals are listed here because Ind. Code § 32-28-11-1 gives them the same lien under IC 32-28-3; no Indiana case was found settling whether that carries this notice duty with it, so the cautious course is to send it.

   Where it goes

   To the occupying owner of the parcel of land where the material, labor or machinery is delivered.

   How

   The statute says 'furnish' and prescribes no method. You carry the burden of proving the owner got it, so certified mail with return receipt requested, or hand delivery against a signed receipt, is how it gets proved.

   Proof to keep

   A copy of the notice, the certified mail receipt and return receipt or tracking record, and your own dated record of the first delivery or first day of labor — that date is what the 30 days runs from.

   What the document must contain

   • Written notice of the delivery or the work you performed
   • Written notice that lien rights exist
   • The statute names no other required element. Include enough about your company, the property and the work that the owner can tell what it refers to.

   If you miss it: You have no lien on that job at all. Recording a perfect lien on time afterward does not cure it, because the notice is a condition precedent to acquiring the lien in the first place.

   Ind. Code § 32-28-3-1(h)(opens the statute in a new tab)
4. 4

   Step 4: Send AND record the 60-day pre-lien notice on a new 1-2 family home built for the owner to live in

   Both halves not later than 60 days after the date of your first delivery or first labor performed. Same 60 days for each.

   Original construction of a single or double family dwelling for the intended occupancy of the owner has its own notice, and it has two halves. You furnish the written notice to the owner, and you file a copy of that same notice with the county recorder. The statute makes the furnishing and the filing together the condition precedent. Doing one and skipping the other is the same as doing neither. Like the 30-day notice, this applies to a person selling or furnishing on credit to a contractor, subcontractor, mechanic, or anyone other than the owner.

   Where it goes

   To the owner of the real estate as named in the latest entry in the transfer books of the county auditor (or the township or county assessor's transfer books where that applies), and to the recorder's office of the county where the property sits.

   How

   Furnish the owner's copy in a way you can prove — certified mail, return receipt requested, is the usual method, since the statute prescribes none. Then take or send a copy of the same notice to the county recorder and pay to have it filed.

   Proof to keep

   Delivery proof for the owner's copy, plus the recorder's file-stamped copy showing the instrument number and filing date. You need both, because both are conditions precedent.

   What the document must contain

   • Written notice of the delivery or the labor performed
   • Written notice that lien rights exist
   • A copy of that same notice filed in the county recorder's office within the same 60 days

   If you miss it: No lien at all. The recorder filing is the half people forget — they serve the owner, mark it done, and find out at foreclosure that the lien never attached.

   Ind. Code § 32-28-3-1(i)(1), (2)(opens the statute in a new tab)
5. 5

   Step 5: Send the owner a Personal Liability Notice when payment stops

   Optional

   There is no deadline in the statute. It can be given before the labor is performed or the materials are furnished, or after.

   This is not a lien, it is not recorded, and it does not replace the lien. You give the owner a written notice setting out particularly what you are owed, and the owner becomes personally liable to you — but only up to whatever the owner still owes the contractor or lessee who hired you. It is Indiana's nearest thing to a stop notice. If the owner has already paid the contractor in full, it yields nothing. The statute names subcontractors, lessors of equipment, journeymen and laborers; it does not say 'material supplier' by name.

   Where it goes

   To the property owner, or the owner's authorized agent.

   How

   In writing, given to the property owner or the owner's agent. Send it so you can prove it was received and when.

   Proof to keep

   A copy of the notice with delivery proof and the date. If several claimants give notice and the owner's remaining funds are short, the money is divided proportionally among those who gave notice, so the record that you gave one matters.

   What the document must contain

   • In writing
   • The amount of your claim, set forth particularly
   • The labor performed or materials or machinery furnished that your employer or lessee is indebted to you for

   If you miss it: Nothing is forfeited and no lien right is lost. You simply do not have the owner personally on the hook, and you are left relying on the lien alone.

   Ind. Code § 32-28-3-9(a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g)(opens the statute in a new tab)
6. 6

   Step 6: Record the Sworn Statement and Notice of Intention to Hold a Lien

   Within 60 days after your last labor or last materials or machinery on a Class 2 structure or an improvement auxiliary to one; within 90 days on everything else. The clock runs from YOUR OWN last work under your original contract — not from when the building was finished and not from when someone else left the site.

   This is the lien. It is a sworn document, signed under oath in front of a notary, and it is filed in duplicate with the county recorder. Recording it creates the lien.

   Where it goes

   The recorder's office of the county where the property sits.

   How

   File it in duplicate at the recorder's office. It must be sworn — a notary jurat, where you swear to the contents, not just an acknowledgment of your signature. You or an attorney in good standing in Indiana may file it. Budget the $25 statutory recording fee for a non-mortgage instrument, plus $2 for each owner the recorder has to mail a copy to; individual counties add their own technology and e-recording charges on top of that, which the statute does not set.

   Proof to keep

   The recorder's file-stamped copy with the instrument number and recording date, your fee receipt, and your own dated records of first and last furnishing.

   What the document must contain

   • The amount claimed
   • Your name and address as claimant
   • The owner's name
   • The owner's latest address as shown on the property tax records of the county — not the address on your contract and not the one on the deed
   • The legal description of the lot or land
   • The street and number of the property, if it has one
   • A statement of your intention to hold a lien (this is what the instrument is)
   • Your signature, sworn before a notary
   • Your name legibly printed, typewritten or stamped immediately beneath your signature, spelled identically in the body of the document, in the acknowledgment or jurat, in your signature and beneath it — and the same for the notary
   • 'This instrument was prepared by (name).'
   • 'I affirm, under the penalties for perjury, that I have taken reasonable care to redact each Social Security number in this document, unless required by law. (name)'
   • Safe harbor: the owner's name and the legal description are sufficient if they are substantially as set forth in the latest entry in the county auditor's transfer books under IC 6-1.1-5-4 (or the assessor's transfer books where IC 6-1.1-5-9 applies) at the time of filing.
   • Not required by the statute but worth including: the work you did, and your first and last dates on the job. Those dates are what prove the filing was timely if someone attacks it.

   If you miss it: You have no lien. And a lien is lost the same way if it gets refused at the counter — Indiana recorders may decline an instrument that lacks legibly printed names beneath the signatures, the preparer line or the Social Security redaction affirmation. A rejection on day 58 that you cannot fix until day 61 is a dead lien, not a re-file. Leave room.

   Ind. Code § 32-28-3-3(a), (b), (c); recordability Ind. Code §§ 36-2-11-15, 36-2-11-16; fee Ind. Code § 36-2-7-10(c)(1)(opens the statute in a new tab)
7. 7

   Step 7: On a brand-new house, record before the buyer's deed is recorded

   Before the closing — whenever that is. It can land well inside your 60 days, and nobody will tell you it is coming.

   A lien for material or labor in original construction of a single or double family dwelling does not attach to the real estate against an innocent purchaser for value without notice who is buying it for their own occupancy, unless your notice of intention to hold a lien was recorded before the deed to that purchaser was recorded. On a spec house the builder controls the closing date. Your real deadline is that closing, not the 60-day maximum.

   Where it goes

   The recorder's office of the county where the property sits.

   How

   Record the lien as soon as you know you are not being paid. Do not spend the rest of the 60 days negotiating on a house that is listed for sale.

   Proof to keep

   Your recording date and instrument number, so they can be compared against the recording date of the deed.

   If you miss it: The lien does not attach to that house. You still have your contract claim against whoever hired you, but the property is out of reach.

   Ind. Code § 32-28-3-1(j)(opens the statute in a new tab)
8. 8

   Step 8: Open every certified letter — a demand to foreclose gives you 30 days

   Not later than 30 days after you RECEIVE the written demand. The clock starts on receipt, not on the postmark.

   This is the single most dangerous rule in Indiana. The owner, or any person or corporation having an interest in the property — including a mortgagee or another lienholder — can send you written notice demanding that you file an action to foreclose. If you do not file that lawsuit within 30 days of receiving the notice, your lien is void. The other side can then file an affidavit with the recorder stating that notice was given, that more than 30 days passed, and that no foreclosure is pending and no judgment is unsatisfied; the recorder records it and the property is released from your lien. This overrides your one year. Lenders and title companies use it routinely to clear a closing.

   Where it goes

   The complaint is filed in the county where the property is located.

   How

   They serve it by registered or certified mail to the address shown on your recorded lien — which is exactly why the address you put on the lien must be one you actually check. You respond by filing a foreclosure complaint in court.

   Proof to keep

   The envelope, the postmark and the date you actually received it. That receipt date is the only thing that fixes your 30 days, and you may have to prove it.

   If you miss it: Your lien is void and the property gets released of record. Your underlying debt claim against whoever hired you survives — the statute says it does not prevent the claim from being collected by other legal means — but the lien is gone.

   Ind. Code § 32-28-3-10(a), (b), (c)(opens the statute in a new tab)
9. 9

   Step 9: Record a written credit agreement if you agree to wait for payment

   Optional

   Recorded not later than one year after the date your lien was recorded.

   If you give credit, your year to sue can run from when that credit expires instead of from the recording date. But only if it is done formally. A handshake, an email, a verbal promise or an informal payment plan does not move the deadline by one day.

   Where it goes

   The recorder's office of the county where the property sits.

   How

   Put the credit terms in writing, have them executed by you and by every owner of record, and record them with the county recorder in the same manner as the lien itself.

   Proof to keep

   The recorded credit agreement with its instrument number and recording date.

   What the document must contain

   • The terms of the credit, in writing
   • Executed by the lienholder
   • Executed by all owners of record
   • Recorded in the same manner as the original statement and notice of intention to hold a lien
   • Recorded not later than one year after the date the lien was recorded

   If you miss it: Nothing is forfeited, but your one year still runs from the recording date. The danger is being talked past the deadline by a payment promise that never got recorded.

   Ind. Code § 32-28-3-6(a)(2), (c)(opens the statute in a new tab)
10. 10

    Step 10: File the foreclosure lawsuit within one year

    Not later than one year after the date your statement and notice of intention to hold a lien was recorded — or, if a written credit was properly executed and recorded, one year after that credit expires. The same one year applies to a general contractor, a subcontractor, a supplier, an equipment lessor and a laborer. Indiana does not shorten it for anyone.

    Recording the lien does not collect money. The lawsuit does. You enforce the lien by filing a complaint to foreclose it.

    Where it goes

    The circuit or superior court of the county where the real estate or property subject to the lien is situated.

    How

    File a complaint to foreclose the lien. On foreclosure the court orders the property sold under IC 34-55-6.

    Proof to keep

    The file-stamped complaint and the cause number, with the filing date.

    If you miss it: The lien is void. The statute says so in plain terms, and there is no grace period and no extension other than the recorded written credit.

    Ind. Code § 32-28-3-6(a), (b), (d)(opens the statute in a new tab)
11. 11

    Step 11: Release the lien once you are paid

    Within 15 days after you receive a written demand for release sent to you by certified mail, once the debt has been fully paid, lawfully tendered or discharged.

    When the debt and the interest the lien secures have been fully paid, lawfully tendered and discharged, you are required to release, discharge and satisfy the lien of record. If you are only releasing part of it, the document has to say on its face that it is a partial release, partial discharge or partial satisfaction, and describe which portion of the lien it covers.

    Where it goes

    The recorder's office of the county where the property sits.

    How

    Record a release with the county recorder.

    Proof to keep

    The recorded release with its instrument number, and the certified demand letter with the date you received it.

    If you miss it: You can be made to forfeit and pay a sum of up to $500, plus the owner's costs and reasonable attorney's fees incurred in enforcing the release. The court can also appoint a commissioner to release and satisfy the lien at your expense.

    Ind. Code § 32-28-1-1; Ind. Code § 32-28-1-2(opens the statute in a new tab)

Who can claim a lien in Indiana

Where you file

Office

County Recorder

Recording fee

$25–$50

Notarization

Required

Sworn or verified

Sworn statement

How it is served

Certified mail

Copies

2

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

What trips people up in Indiana

• Using 90 days on a house. Houses, duplexes, qualifying townhouses, detached garages, barns, family swimming pools, farm shelters and improvements auxiliary to them get 60 days under Ind. Code § 32-28-3-3(b). Serving a 90-day date on a Class 2 structure overstates the deadline by a month and the lien is simply gone.
• Using the 60-day pre-lien notice date on a remodel. Alteration or repair of an owner-occupied single or double family dwelling is 30 days under Ind. Code § 32-28-3-1(h). Sixty days is only for original construction under § 32-28-3-1(i). Remodel and repair work is most of residential subcontractor volume, so this is the most common way the notice gets blown — and the notice is a condition precedent, so blowing it means there is no lien to file.
• Serving the original-construction pre-lien notice on the owner and stopping there. Ind. Code § 32-28-3-1(i) requires furnishing it to the owner AND filing a copy with the county recorder, each within the same 60 days. Both are conditions precedent. The recorder filing is the step people skip.
• Assuming 'residential' means 60 days. A building with three or more dwelling units is not a Class 2 structure under Ind. Code § 22-12-1-5, even though everyone on site calls the job residential. Ask how many dwelling units the building contains, not whether the job is residential or commercial.
• Treating the one year as safe. Any owner, mortgagee, title company or other interested party can collapse it to 30 days from receipt with a registered or certified letter under Ind. Code § 32-28-3-10, and then record an affidavit releasing the property.
• Putting a job-site trailer, an old office or an unmonitored address on the recorded lien. The § 32-28-3-10 demand is served at the address shown on your lien. An address you do not check is how a lien dies without anyone telling you.
• Starting residential work without searching the recorder's index. On Class 2 structures, improvements auxiliary to them, regulated utility property and contracts to prepare property for Class 2 residential construction, a recorded no-lien contract between the owner and the principal contractor binds subs and suppliers who never signed it (Ind. Code § 32-28-3-1(e), (f)). The identical clause would be void on a commercial project (Ind. Code § 32-28-3-16).
• Filing a single copy. Ind. Code § 32-28-3-3(a) and (b) require the sworn statement and notice to be filed in duplicate. A counter rejection on day 58 becomes a lost lien on day 61.
• Pulling the owner's name and address off the contract or the deed. Ind. Code § 32-28-3-3(c) requires the owner's latest address as shown on the county's property tax records, and both the legal description and the street and number. The name and legal description are safe if they substantially match the latest entry in the county auditor's transfer books under IC 6-1.1-5-4. A wrong owner address also breaks the recorder's statutory mailing under § 32-28-3-3(d).
• Leaving off the recordability boilerplate. Missing printed names beneath the signatures, mismatched spellings between the body and the signature block, no preparer line, or no Social Security redaction affirmation can all get the instrument refused (Ind. Code §§ 36-2-11-15, 36-2-11-16). A refusal after the deadline is a lost lien.
• Using a plain acknowledgment instead of a sworn jurat. Ind. Code § 32-28-3-3(a) and (b) call for a SWORN statement. Swearing to the contents under oath is not the same notarial act as acknowledging a signature.
• Letting a warranty call reset the clock. The 60 or 90 days runs from your own last labor or materials furnished under the original contract. Punch-list corrections, warranty returns and going back to fix your own defective work generally do not restart it, and relying on a late service call to create a fresh deadline is how contractors file 20 days late.
• Working the full 60 days on a spec house. Under Ind. Code § 32-28-3-1(j) a lien for original construction of a 1-2 family dwelling does not attach against an innocent purchaser for value who records the deed before your lien is recorded. The closing date is the real deadline and you cannot see it.
• Running the private lien workflow on a public job. No mechanic's lien attaches to public property in Indiana. The remedy is a payment-bond or retainage claim under an entirely separate set of statutes with entirely different deadlines — for example, Ind. Code § 5-16-5-2 requires duplicate verified statements filed with the public body within 60 days of the work, a copy delivered to the contractor, a 30-day wait before suing the surety, and suit against the surety within 60 days of final completion and acceptance. Do not apply the 60/90-day lien dates to a public project.
• Counting on attorney's fees. Ind. Code § 32-28-3-14(b) bars fees against an owner who has already paid the contract consideration — the exact unpaid-sub fact pattern — even though § 32-28-3-14(a) grants them generally.
• Signing an advance lien waiver and assuming it holds. On commercial work that is not a Class 2 structure or utility property, a contract term requiring you to waive lien or payment-bond rights before you are paid is void, and so is an agreement not to file a notice of intention to hold a lien (Ind. Code § 32-28-3-16(b), (c)). A clause choosing another state's law or another state's forum is also void (Ind. Code § 32-28-3-17). But on Class 2 and utility work, the recorded no-lien contract under § 32-28-3-1(e), (f) is fully enforceable against you.

After you file

• You do NOT serve the recorded lien yourself. The recorder mails one of your two duplicates first class to the owner named in the statement within 3 business days of recording, and collects $2 from you for each statement mailed (Ind. Code § 32-28-3-3(d)). This is why the owner's name and tax-record address on the lien have to be right — a wrong address means the statutory notice misfires and you have no idea it did.
• Your lien is created when it is recorded, but it relates back to the date you began performing labor or furnishing materials or machinery (Ind. Code § 32-28-3-5(b)). That relation-back is often worth more than the recording date.
• Mechanic's liens rank equally among themselves. Yours does not outrank another mechanic's lien just because you recorded first (Ind. Code § 32-28-3-5(c)).
• A lender's earlier-recorded construction mortgage generally primes mechanic's liens recorded after it — but that exception does NOT apply to Class 2 structures, improvements auxiliary to them, or regulated utility property (Ind. Code § 32-28-3-5(d)). On a house, your lien can outrank the construction mortgage.
• Watch the mail from the day you record. The 30-day demand to foreclose under Ind. Code § 32-28-3-10 can arrive at any point during your year, and receipt starts that clock.
• The other side can bond around your lien. In the foreclosure action, the defendant, the owner, or any person with an interest in the property including a mortgagee or other lienholder may file a written undertaking with surety approved by the court, which discharges the property from the lien (Ind. Code § 32-28-3-11). Your claim then runs against that undertaking instead of the real estate. This is not a loss — but it changes what you are collecting against.
• A pay-if-paid or pay-when-paid clause cannot be used to block you. An obligor's receipt of payment from a third person may not be a condition precedent to, a limit on, or a defense to your right to record or foreclose the lien (Ind. Code § 32-28-3-18). Read the exception: that section does not apply to contracts for Class 2 structures, improvements auxiliary to them, or the listed utility property.
• Attorney's fees cut both ways. A plaintiff or lienholder who recovers a judgment in any sum is entitled to reasonable attorney's fees (Ind. Code § 32-28-3-14(a)) — but not against a property owner who has already paid the contract consideration for the labor, material or machinery (Ind. Code § 32-28-3-14(b)). That is precisely the owner-paid-the-GC-who-didn't-pay-you case, and it changes the economics of whether foreclosing is worth it.
• When the debt is paid, release the lien. A certified-mail demand starts a 15-day clock, and ignoring it exposes you to up to $500 plus the owner's costs and attorney's fees (Ind. Code §§ 32-28-1-1, 32-28-1-2).