How to file a mechanics lien in Michigan

Step by step

12 steps for a subcontractor in Michigan.

1. 1

   Step 1: Get the Notice of Commencement

   As soon as you are on the job. You need it before you can serve anything or record anything.

   The Notice of Commencement is the job's address book. It names the owner or tenant, gives the legal description of the property, and names the "designee" - the one person every notice in Michigan goes to. Your Claim of Lien has to copy the owner's name and the legal description straight off this document.

   Where it goes

   Commercial: the register of deeds for the county where the property is, and posted on the job site. Residential: from the owner or lessee directly, on your written request.

   How

   On a commercial job the owner must record it with the register of deeds before work starts and post it on site, so look in both places first. If you still do not have it, send a written request by certified mail to the owner, lessee or designee, or to whoever hired you; they have 10 days from the postmark on your request to send you a copy with a blank Notice of Furnishing attached. On a house the owner lives in, nothing is recorded at all - you have to request it in writing by certified mail, and you must enclose a blank Notice of Commencement form with a blank Notice of Furnishing attached to it.

   Proof to keep

   The certified mail receipt for your request and its postmark date, plus the copy you get back.

   What the document must contain

   • What you should be able to read off it: the legal description of the property
   • The name, address and capacity of the owner or lessee who contracted for the improvement
   • The name and address of the fee owner, if the person who contracted is a land contract vendee or a lessee
   • The name and address of the designee
   • The name and address of the general contractor, if any
   • If you are requesting one on a residential job, you must enclose a blank Notice of Commencement form with a blank, easily detachable Notice of Furnishing attached

   If you miss it: Not getting it does not start or stop your clock, and it does not excuse you. If the owner fails to record it, or fails to send it on your written request, your 20-day window is extended to 20 days after it is actually recorded or furnished - 30 days for a laborer. That is an extension only, and it never runs earlier. Never wait on it: serve your Notice of Furnishing within 20 days of your first day regardless.

   Mich. Comp. Laws § 570.1108 (commercial; § 570.1108(18) switches this section off entirely for residential structures); § 570.1108a (residential); extensions at § 570.1108(10)-(13) and § 570.1108a(9)-(10)(opens the statute in a new tab)
2. 2

   Step 2: Serve the Notice of Furnishing within 20 days of your first day

   Within 20 days after you first furnish labor or material on the job.

   This is the notice that puts you on the owner's radar. Until you serve it, the owner is allowed to pay the general contractor on the GC's sworn statement and treat your money as covered. If you contract directly with the owner or lessee, you do not need this - the statute says a contractor is not required to provide one to preserve lien rights arising from a contract directly with an owner or lessee. If you are a specialty trade working under a GC or another sub, you do need it. (Whether a design professional working under another design professional's contract owes this notice is not settled in Michigan - serving it costs nothing and is the safe side.)

   Where it goes

   The designee and the general contractor named in the Notice of Commencement.

   How

   Serve it on the designee AND on the general contractor, both as named in the Notice of Commencement, at the addresses shown there. Personally or by certified mail. Certified mail counts as served the day you mail it. If no designee is named, or the designee has died, serve the owner or lessee named in the notice instead.

   Proof to keep

   The certified mail receipt with its postmark date, or a signed proof of personal service. Keep the original: you have to attach this proof to your Claim of Lien later.

   What the document must contain

   • Addressed to the name of the designee (or owner or lessee) from the Notice of Commencement, at the address from that notice
   • The name and address of the party who contracted with you
   • A description of the type of work or material you are furnishing
   • The liber and page where the Notice of Commencement is recorded, and the county - or attach a copy of it to your notice
   • The statutory WARNING TO OWNER paragraph
   • Your name and address as lien claimant
   • The name and capacity of whoever signs for you, and that person's address
   • The date

   If you miss it: You do not automatically lose everything, but do not let that comfort you. You keep your lien for whatever you furnish after the day you serve. For what you furnished before, you lose it to the extent the owner had already paid the contractor on a sworn statement or a lien waiver. And until you serve, the owner is entitled to rely on the contractor's sworn statement to wipe your claim out completely. Late service is damage control, not a cure.

   Mich. Comp. Laws § 570.1109(1); form at § 570.1109(4); effect of late service at § 570.1109(5)-(6); owner's reliance defense at § 570.1110(8)(opens the statute in a new tab)
3. 3

   Step 3: Hand over a Sworn Statement when you ask to be paid

   Whenever payment comes due or you request payment, and whenever the owner or tenant demands one. Do this long before your enforcement deadline - not in month 11.

   The Sworn Statement is a completely different document from your Claim of Lien. Do not confuse the two because both get notarized. It is a notarized list of everyone you hired on this job and what they are owed. If you contract directly with the owner, you owe them one when payment is due or when you ask for money, and any time they demand it. If you are a subcontractor, you owe one to the owner when the owner demands it, and one to the contractor when you ask the contractor for money.

   Where it goes

   The owner or lessee. Plus the contractor above you, if you are a subcontractor requesting payment from them.

   How

   On the statutory form, sworn before a notary, delivered to the owner or lessee. Subcontractors also give one to the contractor above them when requesting payment.

   Proof to keep

   A dated copy and proof you delivered it. You will have to show the court you provided it.

   What the document must contain

   • The legal description of the property
   • Every subcontractor and supplier you contracted with on this improvement
   • Every laborer you contracted with whose wages or fringe benefits and withholdings are due but unpaid, with the itemized amounts
   • For each person listed: name, address, telephone number, type of improvement furnished, total contract price, amount already paid, amount currently owing
   • The statement that you have not used anyone else and owe no other money for the improvement
   • The statutory WARNING TO OWNER OR LESSEE paragraph
   • The statutory WARNING TO DEPONENT paragraph - a false sworn statement given with intent to defraud is a crime
   • A notary jurat

   If you miss it: Your lien stays valid - but you cannot file the complaint to enforce it until you have handed the Sworn Statement over. A contractor is also not entitled to any payment until then. Discovering this at month 11 can run you out of the 1-year window while you are curing it. And your complaint itself has to show the owner was provided one, where one was requested or required.

   Mich. Comp. Laws § 570.1110(1)-(4); bar on filing suit at § 570.1110(9)-(10); pleading requirement at § 570.1117(7)(opens the statute in a new tab)
4. 4

   Step 4: Answer a written demand for your statement within 10 days

   Within 10 days after you receive a written demand from the owner, lessee, designee or contractor.

   Any of them can demand a written statement of what you have furnished and what you are owed. This is a lever the other side can pull to stall your money, and it works if you ignore it.

   Where it goes

   To whoever made the demand.

   How

   Send a written statement back inside 10 days of receiving the demand.

   Proof to keep

   The demand you received with the date you got it, and dated proof you sent your statement back.

   What the document must contain

   • The amount of labor and material you have furnished on the improvement as of the date of the statement
   • Any amount still due for that labor and material
   • The contract amount of any work you still have left to perform

   If you miss it: Once the 10 days pass with no statement, the owner, lessee or contractor does not have to honor any payment request from you until your statement arrives. You are also liable for whatever actual damages your silence caused them.

   Mich. Comp. Laws § 570.1113(2)(opens the statute in a new tab)
5. 5

   Step 5: Demand the owner's contract and unpaid balance

   Optional

   Any time you are a lien claimant. Best done before you spend money recording a lien.

   You can make the owner or tenant show you their contract with their contractor and tell you what is still unpaid on it. This tells you whether your lien is worth anything. Every lien on one property added together cannot exceed what the owner agreed to pay their own contractor, less what they already paid out on sworn statements or waivers. A remote sub on a job the owner has already paid out in full can hold a flawless lien worth nothing.

   Where it goes

   The owner or lessee who contracted for the improvement.

   How

   Send a written demand. They have 10 days after receiving it to make the contract available for inspection and copying, along with a written statement of the amount due and unpaid.

   Proof to keep

   Your dated written demand and whatever came back.

   If you miss it: Nothing happens to your lien - you just go in blind. If the owner ignores a demand you did send, they are liable to you for all actual damages caused by the failure.

   Mich. Comp. Laws § 570.1113(1); the caps that make this worth asking: § 570.1107(1) and § 570.1107(6)(opens the statute in a new tab)
6. 6

   Step 6: Record the Claim of Lien within 90 days of your last day

   Within 90 days after the last day you furnished labor or material under your own contract. Your last day, not the project's completion. Day one is the day after; if day 90 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday it rolls to the next business day - but never plan around that.

   This is the lien itself. A notarized form, recorded at the county. Recording it is the single act that keeps your right alive.

   Where it goes

   The register of deeds for every county the improved property sits in. If the property crosses a county line, record in each one, all inside the same 90 days. Your lien is only valid as to property described in it and located in the county where you recorded it.

   How

   Get it notarized - the form ends with "Subscribed and sworn to before me." Then record it. Mailing it to the owner is not recording it. The fee is $30 per document no matter how many pages; a charter county may set a different schedule, and an e-recording service adds its own charge on top.

   Proof to keep

   The recorded copy carrying the register of deeds' endorsement of the recording date. That date - not your last work date - is what your enforcement deadline counts from.

   What the document must contain

   • The date you first provided labor or material
   • Your name and address
   • The legal description of the real property, copied from the Notice of Commencement
   • The name of the owner or lessee, copied from the Notice of Commencement
   • The date you last provided labor or material
   • If you are a contractor, subcontractor or supplier: your contract amount including extras, the total you have been paid on it, and the amount of lien you claim
   • If you are a laborer: your hourly rate including fringe benefits and withholdings, and the sum due to you or on your behalf
   • Signature of the lien claimant, agent or attorney, plus the address of whoever signs
   • The date of the claim
   • A notary jurat - subscribed and sworn to, with the notary's name printed legibly on the same page near their signature
   • "Prepared by" - the name and business address of whoever drafted the document
   • If the lien has been assigned: the sentence stating the claim of lien is made by the named assignee
   • Subcontractors, suppliers and laborers only: proof of service of your Notice of Furnishing, attached to the claim of lien
   • Recording format: 2.5 inch unprinted top margin on page one and 0.5 inch on all other sides of every page, a single statement on the first line of print identifying what the document is, 10 point type, black ink on white paper of at least 20 pound weight, and each signer's name printed beneath their signature

   If you miss it: Your lien right ceases to exist. The statute says it in exactly those words. There is no extension, no cure, and no substantial-compliance argument that gets the date back.

   Mich. Comp. Laws § 570.1111(1); form at § 570.1111(2); assignment recital at § 570.1111(3); attached proof of service at § 570.1111(4); recording and fee at § 570.1112; fee amount and charter-county option at § 600.2567(1)(a) and (3); document format at § 565.201(1); day counting at § 8.6(opens the statute in a new tab)
7. 7

   Step 7: Serve a copy of the recorded lien within 15 days

   Within 15 days after the date it was recorded. A lien recorded on day 90 has to be served by day 105.

   Recording is only half the job. The claim of lien has to be put in the owner's hands too, and the proof that you did it is what you will attach to your lawsuit. This is the step people skip.

   Where it goes

   The designee, at the address shown on the Notice of Commencement. If no designee was named there, or the designee has died, serve the owner or lessee named in the notice.

   How

   Personally, or by certified mail, return receipt requested. Certified mail counts as served the day you mail it. Send a copy of the claim of lien plus a copy of any proof of service you recorded along with it.

   Proof to keep

   The certified mail receipt showing the mailing date, and the return receipt. Proof of making this service must be attached to any complaint, cross-claim or counterclaim you file to enforce the lien.

   If you miss it: You are left holding a lien you may not be able to sue on. The statute requires proof of this service to be attached to your enforcement pleading. If you never served it, there is nothing to attach, and you should expect the owner to move to throw the case out on exactly that ground.

   Mich. Comp. Laws § 570.1111(5)(opens the statute in a new tab)
8. 8

   Step 8: File the foreclosure suit within 1 year of the recording date

   No later than 1 year after the date your claim of lien was recorded. Not 1 year from your last day of work - 1 year from the recording date stamped by the register of deeds.

   A recorded lien does nothing by itself. You have to sue to foreclose it. The action is equitable in nature, and the court may award reasonable attorney fees to a lien claimant who is the prevailing party.

   Where it goes

   The circuit court for the county where the property described in your claim of lien is located. If it sits in more than one county or judicial circuit, any of them.

   How

   File a complaint to enforce the construction lien through foreclosure. You may also sue on the underlying contract in the same action. If somebody else already sued to foreclose and named you, you enforce your own lien by cross-claim or counterclaim in that case.

   Proof to keep

   The filed complaint with its filing date, and the recorded lien showing the recording date you counted from.

   What the document must contain

   • Every person who has an interest in the property that would be divested or impaired by the foreclosure has to be made a party
   • Attached: proof of your 15-day service of the claim of lien
   • If you are a contractor or subcontractor: a showing that the owner or lessee was provided a Sworn Statement, where one was requested or required

   If you miss it: Your lien is finished. Once the year lapses with no proceedings commenced, anyone with an interest in the property can give the county clerk an affidavit, get a certificate that no enforcement proceedings were started, record that certificate, and after that your claim of lien has no effect. A court may also award attorney fees against you if it finds your enforcement action was vexatious.

   Mich. Comp. Laws § 570.1117(1); court, nature of the action and attorney fees at § 570.1118; parties at § 570.1117(4); sworn statement showing at § 570.1117(7); clearing a lapsed lien at § 570.1128(opens the statute in a new tab)
9. 9

   Step 9: Record a lis pendens the same day you file suit

   At the time you commence the foreclosure action. Same day.

   A lis pendens is a recorded notice that the property is tied up in a lawsuit. The statute makes recording it part of commencing the action, so it is not something to handle later in the week.

   Where it goes

   The register of deeds for the county where the real property involved in the action is located.

   How

   Record the notice of lis pendens with the register of deeds.

   Proof to keep

   The recorded lis pendens with its date endorsement, filed next to your complaint.

   If you miss it: You are out of step with what the statute requires of a plaintiff commencing the action, and until it is on record a buyer or lender who takes an interest in the property has no recorded warning that your suit exists.

   Mich. Comp. Laws § 570.1117(2)(opens the statute in a new tab)
10. 10

    Step 10: Public projects only: serve the 30-day bond notice on the principal contractor

    Within 30 days after you first furnish material or first perform labor on the public job.

    You cannot lien a public job in Michigan. Payment runs through the principal contractor's payment bond, which is required on public contracts over $50,000. This notice is your entry ticket if you do not have a direct contract with the principal contractor. If you do contract directly with them, you do not need it.

    Where it goes

    The principal contractor on the public contract.

    How

    Written notice, served by mailing it certified mail, postage prepaid, in an envelope addressed to the principal contractor at any place where they maintain a business or residence.

    Proof to keep

    The certified mail receipt with its mailing date.

    What the document must contain

    • The nature of the materials being furnished or to be furnished, or the labor being performed or to be performed
    • Identification of the party who contracted with you for that labor or material
    • The site where the labor is being performed or the materials are being delivered

    If you miss it: You have no right of action on the payment bond at all. And there is no lien to fall back on, because the property is public.

    Mich. Comp. Laws § 129.207(a); bond requirement and the $50,000 threshold at § 129.201(opens the statute in a new tab)
11. 11

    Step 11: Public projects only: serve the 90-day notice of claim

    Within 90 days from the date you performed the last of the labor or furnished the last of the material the claim is for.

    This is the notice that states what you are owed. It goes to two recipients, not one - miss either and you are outside the statute. Like the 30-day notice, it is required of claimants who do not have a direct contract with the principal contractor.

    Where it goes

    The principal contractor AND the governmental unit involved. Both.

    How

    Written notice, served by certified mail, postage prepaid, addressed to each recipient at any place where they maintain a business or residence.

    Proof to keep

    Two certified mail receipts, one per recipient, each with its mailing date.

    What the document must contain

    • The amount claimed, stated with substantial accuracy
    • The name of the party to whom the material was furnished or supplied, or for whom the labor was done or performed

    If you miss it: You have no right of action on the payment bond.

    Mich. Comp. Laws § 129.207(b)(opens the statute in a new tab)
12. 12

    Step 12: Public projects only: sue on the payment bond

    You cannot sue until 90 days have passed since your last day of labor or material. The statute's outer limit is 1 year from the date final payment was made to the principal contractor - a date you usually cannot see from where you sit. Treat 1 year from your own last day as your practical deadline and get advice before relying on anything later than that.

    The suit is against the payment bond, not against the property. Nothing attaches to public land.

    Where it goes

    The appropriate court in the political subdivision in which the contract was to be performed.

    How

    File a civil action on the payment bond for the amount, or the balance, unpaid at the time you file.

    Proof to keep

    Both notices with proof of service, your invoices and delivery records, and anything showing when final payment went to the principal contractor.

    If you miss it: The action is barred. No action may be commenced after the expiration of 1 year from the date final payment was made to the principal contractor.

    Mich. Comp. Laws § 129.207 (90-day waiting period before suit); § 129.209 (venue and 1-year limitation)(opens the statute in a new tab)

Who can claim a lien in Michigan

Where you file

Office

County Register of Deeds

Recording fee

$30

Notarization

Required

Sworn or verified

Subscribed and sworn

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 Michigan

• Counting the 1-year enforcement deadline from your last day of work. It runs 1 year from the date the claim of lien was RECORDED (§ 570.1117(1)). A widely-used commercial lien site states this as 1 year from last furnishing. That is not what the statute says, and a contractor who trusts it either throws away three months of real runway or - if the error goes the other way - files too late.
• Recording the lien and stopping there. The 15-day service under § 570.1111(5) is a separate act with its own deadline and its own proof. A lien recorded on day 90 and never served on day 105 is a lien you may not be able to sue on.
• Confusing the Sworn Statement with the notarization on your lien. They are different documents. Without the § 570.1110 Sworn Statement you cannot file the complaint to enforce your lien (§ 570.1110(9)-(10)), and the complaint has to show it was provided (§ 570.1117(7)). People discover this in month 11 and run out of time curing it.
• Thinking a warranty callback, punch-list fix or small corrective visit restarts the 90 days. The clock runs from your own last furnishing under your own contract (§ 570.1111(1)). Going back to fix a defect is the most common way Michigan claimants talk themselves into believing they still have time.
• Laborers treating the fringe-benefit notice as one-and-done. § 570.1109(3) is a monthly obligation - by the 5th of the second month after each month that goes unpaid. Skipping a month defeats the lien for that month's benefits (§ 570.1109(8)).
• Laborers assuming a late notice is survivable because they read that late notices are not fatal. That salvage rule is for subcontractors and suppliers - § 570.1109(6) says in terms that it does not apply to a laborer. For laborers, § 570.1109(7) and (8) defeat the lien outright.
• Waiting for a Notice of Commencement before serving your Notice of Furnishing. The extensions in § 570.1108(10)-(13) and § 570.1108a(9)-(10) only ever push your date later, never earlier. Serve at 20 days from your first day regardless, or you will sail past it on every job where the owner did comply and the notice simply was not passed down to you.
• Doing residential work on a handshake, or slipping in an oral change order on an otherwise written contract. § 570.1114 wipes out the contractor's lien entirely - and § 570.1118a(2) then flips a presumption of payment onto the owner's side that you can only beat with clear and convincing evidence.
• Calling a job "residential" because it is a house. § 570.1106(4) is narrow: a condo unit, or a building with no more than 2 homes, where the owner or tenant who hired you lives or will live on completion. A spec house built for sale, a landlord's rental, a triplex, or an owner who never actually moves in is NOT residential - the recorded Notice of Commencement regime under § 570.1108 applies instead, and the whole notice workflow changes. Ask who will be living there when the work is done, not just whether it looks like a house.
• Letting a residential builder's license lapse partway through the job. § 339.2412(3) requires licensure DURING performance, not on the day you file. § 570.1114a then lets the owner sue to discharge your lien and collect damages, actual costs and attorney fees from you.
• Selling to another supply house. "Supplier" means someone contracting with a contractor or a subcontractor (§ 570.1106(6)). A material house that sold to another material house has no Michigan construction lien at any deadline. There is no date to calculate.
• Recording in one county when the property crosses two. § 570.1111(1) requires recording in the register of deeds for each county the improved property is in, and the lien is valid only as to property in the county where it was recorded. Pipeline, road and split-parcel jobs need multiple recordings, all inside the same 90 days.
• Filing a lien on a public project. Public property is not liened in Michigan. The remedy is the payment bond under §§ 129.201 to 129.211, with its own 30-day and 90-day notices - and there is no lien to fall back on when you realize it.
• Relying on the Homeowner Construction Lien Recovery Fund. §§ 570.1201 to 570.1207 were repealed by 2010 PA 147. Older Michigan lien forms, checklists and notices still recite Fund language. A subcontractor knocked out by a homeowner's payment defense has no fund to recover from.
• Ignoring a written demand for your statement of labor and material. After 10 days of silence under § 570.1113(2), nobody has to honor your payment request until the statement arrives, and you owe their actual damages. It is a quiet, cheap lever for the other side.
• Assuming a perfect lien is worth its face amount. § 570.1107(1) caps it at your contract less payments made on it. § 570.1107(6) caps every lien on the property added together at what the owner agreed to pay their own contractor, less payments they made under sworn statements or waivers. Ask for the owner's numbers under § 570.1113(1) before you spend money.
• Treating "substantial compliance" as covering a blown date. § 570.1302(1) does make the Act remedial and rescues form defects. It does not rescue the 90 days - § 570.1111(1) says the right itself "shall cease to exist."
• Misreading the waiver rules. A waiver of lien rights required in the contract in advance of the work is void (§ 570.1115(1)). But the partial conditional and unconditional waivers you sign for progress payments during the job are fully effective (§ 570.1115(4), (6)) and bind you.
• Design professionals assuming the § 570.1107a notice is permanent. It is valid for only 1 year and has to be re-recorded, and it can never be recorded more than 90 days after your last professional services. Without it on record and current, your planning and survey work is not "actual physical improvement" (§ 570.1103(1)) and has nothing fixing its priority (§ 570.1119(6)).
• On a condominium, assuming the lien reaches the whole project. § 570.1126 scopes it hard: work on a unit or limited common element attaches only to that unit; developer-authorized common-element work attaches only to units the developer still owned when you recorded; association-authorized common-element work attaches to each unit only in the co-owner's proportional share; and common-element work contracted by neither the developer nor the association creates no lien at all.
• Putting a street address on the lien instead of a legal description. The statutory form calls for the legal description of the real property from the Notice of Commencement (§ 570.1111(2)). An address is not a legal description. The form also does not ask for the general contractor's name or a narrative of your work - those live on the Notice of Commencement and Notice of Furnishing.

After you file

• Serve within 15 days. This is the first thing that happens after recording and the most commonly forgotten: a copy of the claim of lien and a copy of any proof of service recorded with it, to the designee (or the owner or lessee if no designee was named or the designee has died), personally or by certified mail return receipt requested, at the address shown on the Notice of Commencement. Keep the receipt - you attach proof of it to your complaint (§ 570.1111(5)).
• Make sure your Sworn Statement is already in the owner's hands. A contractor who has not given one is not entitled to any payment and cannot file the enforcement complaint; a subcontractor who was demanded one and did not provide it cannot file either. Both liens stay valid, but the courthouse door stays shut until you cure. Do not leave this to month 11 (§ 570.1110(9)-(10), § 570.1117(7)).
• Expect the owner to pull one of their levers. They can demand a Sworn Statement from you and stall your suit until you produce it (§ 570.1110(2), (10)). They can demand your written statement of labor and material and stop honoring payment requests after 10 days of silence (§ 570.1113(2)). On a residential structure they can file an affidavit with the court, with the contract, change orders and proof of payment attached - and your lien does not attach to the extent they paid; with no written contract, that affidavit becomes a presumption of payment you can only beat with clear and convincing evidence (§ 570.1118a).
• Your lien can be bonded off at any time. Anyone can file a bond with the county clerk for the county where the property is, naming you as obligee, in a penal sum of twice what you claim. The clerk notifies you and you get 10 days to object to the surety's sufficiency, after which the surety can be questioned under oath. Once the clerk's certificate is recorded, your claim of lien - and any lis pendens - is discharged, and you pursue the bond instead (§ 570.1116).
• You still owe waivers as you get paid. Full payment on your contract means you must give the owner, lessee or designee a full unconditional waiver. Partial payment means a partial unconditional waiver for what you received, if they ask for it (§ 570.1115(2)-(3)).
• File suit within 1 year of the RECORDING date, in the circuit court for a county where the property is, and record a notice of lis pendens with the register of deeds at the time you commence the action. Name every person whose interest would be divested or impaired (§ 570.1117(1), (2), (4); § 570.1118(1)).
• Attorney fees run both ways. The court may award reasonable attorney fees to a lien claimant who prevails - and to a prevailing defendant if it finds your enforcement action was vexatious (§ 570.1118(2)).
• If the year lapses without suit, it is over and it can be cleaned off the record against you. Any person with an interest in the property can give the county clerk an affidavit showing when the lien was recorded and who the parties are; the clerk checks the records and issues a certificate that no enforcement proceedings were commenced in time. Once that certificate is recorded, your claim of lien has no effect (§ 570.1128).
• When you are paid in full, you must deliver a certificate of discharge to whoever paid, witnessed and acknowledged the same way a discharge of mortgage is. If a foreclosure action is pending, you also have to furnish, on request, whatever documents are needed to discontinue or dismiss it and discharge the lis pendens (§ 570.1127).