How to file a mechanics lien in Minnesota

Step by step

12 steps for a subcontractor in Minnesota.

1. 1

   Step 1: Find out whether the property is publicly owned before you do anything else

   Before you start work, or the moment you realize payment is a problem.

   A mechanics lien attaches to the owner's interest in the improved real estate. On a state, county, city or school district project, that is not the remedy available to you — the legislature gave public-work claimants a claim against the general contractor's payment bond instead. The two paths use completely different paperwork and different recipients. Get this wrong and you burn the whole window.

   Where it goes

   The owner, the general contractor, or the public body that let the contract.

   How

   Ask who holds title to the land, and ask the general contractor for a copy of the payment bond. On a public job the bond is required to state both the contractor's address and the surety's address.

   Proof to keep

   A copy of the payment bond, and the bid or contract documents showing who owns the land.

   If you miss it: You spend your 120 days recording a lien against property that cannot be sold to satisfy it, and the bond claim deadline runs out at the same moment. Serving lien paperwork on a public body accomplishes nothing.

   Minn. Stat. § 574.31, subd. 2(opens the statute in a new tab)
2. 2

   Step 2: On a public job: serve a written notice of claim on the contractor AND the surety within 120 days

   Within 120 days after you last furnished labor and materials for the public work. Skip this step entirely if the project is privately owned.

   This is the public-job substitute for a mechanics lien. Without it, no action can be maintained on the payment bond. Both recipients are required — the surety alone is not enough, and the contractor alone is not enough.

   Where it goes

   The surety and the contractor. Not the city, county, school district or state agency.

   How

   Served personally or by certified mail on the surety that issued the bond and on the contractor, at the addresses stated in the bond.

   Proof to keep

   Certified mail receipts and return cards for both the contractor and the surety, plus a signed copy of the notice exactly as sent.

   What the document must contain

   • The nature and amount of your claim.
   • The date you last furnished your last item of labor and materials for the public work.
   • The statute supplies a form headed NOTICE OF CLAIM ON PAYMENT BOND FOR PUBLIC WORK, which includes identification of the surety and contractor, a description of the public work, your name and address, your signature, and a sworn affidavit section with a notary acknowledgment.

   If you miss it: No action can be maintained on the payment bond. One narrow exception: if the contractor failed to state both its own address and the surety's address as § 574.28 requires, you do not have to give this notice at all.

   Minn. Stat. § 574.31, subd. 2(a), (b)(opens the statute in a new tab)
3. 3

   Step 3: On a public job: start the action against the surety within one year of your last item

   Within one year from the date you last furnished your last item of labor and materials for the public work. Not one year from the notice, and not one year from when the job finished.

   The bond claim dies on the same anniversary date that the notice clock ran from. There is a way to buy more time, but only before the year expires.

   Where it goes

   A court action against the surety on the payment bond.

   How

   Commence a court action against the surety on the bond. The deadline can be extended two ways: a written stipulation between you and the surety, signed by both before the year runs out; or a certified-mail notice you send at least 90 days before the deadline, which works unless the surety objects within 30 days of receiving it.

   Proof to keep

   The filed, date-stamped complaint. If you use the extension route, keep the signed stipulation or the certified-mail receipt plus proof no objection came back inside 30 days.

   If you miss it: The bond claim is time-barred. Nothing else in the Minnesota lien chapter helps you on a public job.

   Minn. Stat. § 574.31, subd. 2(c), (d)(opens the statute in a new tab)
4. 4

   Step 4: Serve the pre-lien notice on the owner within 45 days of your first day

   Not later than 45 days after you first furnished labor, skill or materials for the improvement. For a supplier that clock starts at your first delivery to the job — not the purchase order date, not the credit application, not the contract date.

   This is the notice for everyone who is not in direct contract with the owner. The statute calls it a necessary prerequisite to the validity of any claim or lien. It runs from your own first furnishing, so every claimant on a job has a different 45-day date.

   Where it goes

   The owner, or the owner's authorized agent. Sending it to the general contractor who hired you does not satisfy the statute.

   How

   Personal delivery or certified mail.

   Proof to keep

   Certified mail receipt and return card, or a signed delivery receipt, plus a copy of the notice exactly as sent — including proof of the type size and boldface.

   What the document must contain

   • At least 10-point bold type if printed, or capital letters if typewritten.
   • Your name and address as the subcontractor or supplier.
   • The name of the contractor who hired you.
   • A description of the service or material you are providing.
   • The estimated amount, or the amount, of your charges.
   • The warning that any person or company supplying labor or materials for this improvement may file a lien against the property if not paid, and that if you are not paid by the contractor you can file a claim against the property.
   • The owner's right to pay you directly and deduct that from the contract price, or to withhold the amount due you from the contractor until 120 days after completion of the improvement unless the contractor gives the owner a lien waiver signed by you.
   • The line that you may not file a lien if the owner paid the contractor in full before receiving this notice.

   If you miss it: No valid lien. Minnesota does soften this one notice: you do not lose the lien for failing to strictly comply with subdivision 2 if you made a good faith effort to comply, unless the owner or another lien claimant proves damage as a direct result. That protects imperfect compliance. It does not protect sending nothing.

   Minn. Stat. § 514.011, subd. 2(opens the statute in a new tab)
5. 5

   Step 5: Ask the contractor in writing for the owner's name and address

   Optional

   On your first day, so the answer lands well inside your 45 days. The contractor has ten days from your initial request.

   You cannot serve a 45-day notice on an owner you cannot identify — a common problem on tenant fit-outs and on jobs where you were hired two tiers down. The statute makes the contractor tell you.

   Where it goes

   The contractor who hired you.

   How

   A written request to the contractor who hired you.

   Proof to keep

   A dated copy of the written request and whatever came back.

   If you miss it: Your lien rights are not affected by skipping the request itself, but you lose the leverage. A contractor who does not provide the owner's name and address within ten days of the initial request is liable for the actual damages you sustain or expenses you incur, plus reasonable attorney fees and costs.

   Minn. Stat. § 514.011, subd. 3(opens the statute in a new tab)
6. 6

   Step 6: Record a short statement of your contract to protect your priority

   Optional

   Before or right at the start of the improvement, and before a buyer or lender records without notice of you.

   Your lien attaches from the time the first item of material or labor is furnished on the premises for the beginning of the improvement. But against a buyer or mortgage lender who had no actual or record notice, it cannot reach back before the actual and visible beginning of the improvement on the ground. Recording a brief statement of your contract puts that notice on the record. This matters most to the parties who arrive early: visible staking, engineering, land surveying and soil testing do not count as the visible beginning, so a survey crew has nothing on the ground to point to.

   Where it goes

   The county recorder for the county where the premises are. For a claim under § 514.04 (railway, telegraph or similar line work), the Secretary of State.

   How

   File for record a brief statement of the nature of your contract. It is notice of your lien only.

   Proof to keep

   The recorded copy showing the recording date and document number.

   What the document must contain

   • A brief statement of the nature of the contract.

   If you miss it: Your lien still exists. But a later buyer or mortgage lender without notice can take priority over you for everything before work was visibly underway on the ground.

   Minn. Stat. § 514.05, subds. 1, 2(opens the statute in a new tab)
7. 7

   Step 7: Write down your true first and last furnishing dates as you go

   Throughout the job. The last date is the one that starts every clock that follows.

   Two deadlines hang off your last furnishing date: 120 days to record and serve the lien, and one year to sue. Once the lien is recorded, those dates stop being a record of what happened and become a legal commitment — as against everyone except the owner, you are concluded by the first-item and last-item dates you wrote in.

   Where it goes

   Your own job file.

   How

   Keep dated delivery tickets, signed daily reports, time records and invoices tied to the specific job address.

   Proof to keep

   Delivery tickets and signed field reports showing the date and the property address.

   If you miss it: Padding the last-item date to buy time does not work: you are bound by the date you wrote, and writing a later date does not make a late recording timely. Understating it quietly shortens your own year to sue. A separate caution: the 120 days runs from doing the last of the work or furnishing the last item of skill, material or machinery — dating from your last site visit when that visit was a punch-list or warranty callback is how contractors compute a date that is later than the law allows.

   Minn. Stat. §§ 514.08, subd. 1; 514.74(opens the statute in a new tab)
8. 8

   Step 8: Record your lien statement within 120 days of your last furnishing

   Within 120 days after doing the last of your work, or furnishing your last item of skill, material or machinery. Counted from YOUR last item — not from completion or abandonment of the whole project.

   The lien ceases at the end of the 120 days unless this step AND the next one are both finished inside that same window. Treat them as one deadline, not two.

   Where it goes

   The county recorder for the county where the improved premises are, if the land is abstract. The registrar of titles for that same county if the land is registered (Torrens). The Secretary of State if the claim is made under § 514.04. Find out which one the parcel is before you file — abstract and Torrens look identical from the street.

   How

   Sign the statement in front of a notary. It must be verified by the oath of a person shown by the verification to have knowledge of the facts stated. The recording fee is $46 with the county recorder (Minn. Stat. § 357.18, subd. 1(1)) and $46 for the entry of the memorial on a Torrens certificate (Minn. Stat. § 508.82, subd. 1(4)); some counties add charges for nonconforming documents or extra tracts, so check the county's own fee schedule.

   Proof to keep

   The recorded copy showing the recording date and the document number.

   What the document must contain

   • A notice of intention to claim and hold a lien, and the amount of it.
   • That the amount is due and owing to you for labor performed, or for skill, material or machinery furnished, and for what improvement it was done or supplied.
   • The names of the claimant and of the person for or to whom the work was performed or the materials furnished.
   • The dates when the first and last items of your contribution to the improvement were made.
   • A description of the premises to be charged, identifying it with reasonable certainty.
   • The name of the owner at the time of making the statement, according to the best information you then have.
   • Your post office address. Leaving this out does not invalidate the statement, but every other item matters.
   • Your acknowledgment that a copy of the statement must be served personally or by certified mail within the 120-day period on the owner, the owner's authorized agent, or the person who entered into the contract with the contractor.
   • That the notice required by § 514.011, subdivision 2 was given, if any was required.

   If you miss it: The lien ceases. There is no extension mechanism and no late filing.

   Minn. Stat. § 514.08, subds. 1(1), 2(opens the statute in a new tab)
9. 9

   Step 9: Serve a copy of the lien statement on the owner inside the same 120 days

   Within the same 120 days from your last furnishing. Not 120 days from the day you recorded.

   Recording alone does not perfect a Minnesota lien. The statute requires both the recording and the service inside one 120-day window. A lien that was recorded on day 119 and served on day 125 is unenforceable — and it looks perfect on the county's website, which is why nobody catches it until it is far too late.

   Where it goes

   The owner, or the owner's authorized agent, or the person who entered into the contract with the contractor.

   How

   Served personally or by certified mail.

   Proof to keep

   Certified mail receipt and return card showing a date inside the 120 days, or an affidavit of personal service. This is the single piece of paper most likely to decide whether your lien survives.

   What the document must contain

   • A copy of the statement of claim you recorded.
   • The statement itself has to contain your acknowledgment that this service must happen within the 120-day period.

   If you miss it: The lien ceases, exactly as if you had never recorded it.

   Minn. Stat. § 514.08, subd. 1(2)(opens the statute in a new tab)
10. 10

    Step 10: Answer the owner's written demand for an itemized, verified account

    Only if the owner asks. The owner may make the written request within 15 days after the completion of the contract.

    The owner can require you to furnish an itemized and verified account of your lien claim, the amount of it, and your name and address. This is a lever the owner controls: no action to enforce the lien may be commenced until ten days after the statement is furnished, and your one-year clock keeps running the whole time.

    Where it goes

    The owner who made the request.

    How

    A written, itemized account, verified (sworn).

    Proof to keep

    A dated copy of the account you furnished, and proof of the date you sent it — that date sets when the ten-day bar lifts.

    What the document must contain

    • An itemized account of your lien claim.
    • The amount of it.
    • Your name and address.
    • Verification (a sworn statement).

    If you miss it: You cannot start the lawsuit until ten days after you furnish it. Sitting on the request late in the year can push your filing past the one-year deadline in the next step, and that deadline does not move.

    Minn. Stat. § 514.07(opens the statute in a new tab)
11. 11

    Step 11: File the lawsuit within one year of your last-item date

    Within one year after the date of the last item of your claim as set forth in the recorded lien statement. This is the trap that costs Minnesota contractors the most liens: the year runs from your last-item date, NOT from the day you recorded. Record on day 119 and you have roughly eight months left, not twelve.

    You assert the lien by filing a complaint or an answer with the court administrator inside that year. If another lienholder already started an action on the same improvement, you do not file your own — you intervene in that action by answer.

    Where it goes

    The district court for the county where the improved premises, or some part of them, are located. For a § 514.04 claim, any county the line runs through or into.

    How

    A complaint or answer filed with the court administrator. The action is begun and conducted in the same manner as a mortgage foreclosure. Every other lienholder on the improvement is made a defendant, and the summons requires each defendant to answer within 20 days after service.

    Proof to keep

    The filed, date-stamped complaint or answer.

    What the document must contain

    • A summons stating that the complaint has been filed with the court administrator, that the action is to foreclose a lien, the amount, and a brief description of the premises and of the improvement the lien arose from.

    If you miss it: The lien can no longer be asserted. It is over.

    Minn. Stat. §§ 514.12, subd. 3; 514.10; 514.11(opens the statute in a new tab)
12. 12

    Step 12: Record the notice of lis pendens inside that same one year

    At the beginning of the action, and in every case inside the same one year from your last-item date.

    A separate document with the same deadline, and the easiest thing in Minnesota to forget. Filing the suit on day 360 and recording the lis pendens on day 370 is not good enough.

    Where it goes

    The county recorder for the county where the action is brought, or the registrar of titles if the land is registered (Torrens).

    How

    Filed for record at the beginning of the action.

    Proof to keep

    The recorded lis pendens showing its recording date and document number.

    What the document must contain

    • A notice of the pendency of the action.

    If you miss it: As to a bona fide purchaser, mortgagee or encumbrancer without notice, the absence from the record of a notice of lis pendens after the year expires is conclusive evidence that the lien may no longer be enforced. On registered land, the registrar of titles stops carrying the lien memorial forward onto new certificates of title. You can win your lawsuit and still lose the property you were suing over.

    Minn. Stat. § 514.12, subds. 1, 3(opens the statute in a new tab)

Who can claim a lien in Minnesota

Where you file

Office

County Recorder (abstract property) or Registrar of Titles (registered/Torrens property) in the county where the improved premises are situated; Secretary of State for claims arising under Minn. Stat. § 514.04 (railway, telegraph and similar line projects)

Recording fee

$46

Notarization

Required

Sworn or verified

Sworn oath of a person shown by the verification to have knowledge of the facts stated (Minn. Stat. § 514.08, subd. 2)

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 Minnesota

• Counting the year to sue from the recording date. It runs from the last-item date written in the recorded lien (§ 514.12, subd. 3). Recording late does not buy you a fresh year — it eats the year you already had.
• A general contractor assuming pre-lien notices are a subcontractor problem. In Minnesota the party in direct contract with the owner has to give its own notice, and on a written contract it has to be inside the contract. Leave it out and there is no lien and no remedy under the chapter (§ 514.011, subd. 1). Nothing cures it later.
• Recording the lien and stopping there. The copy must be served on the owner inside the same 120 days (§ 514.08, subd. 1(2)). A recorded-but-unserved lien is worthless and looks fine online.
• Filing the lawsuit on time and never recording the lis pendens. Its absence after the year is conclusive against a bona fide purchaser, mortgagee or encumbrancer, and on Torrens land the registrar drops the lien memorial (§ 514.12, subd. 3).
• Assuming a timely lien is a collectible lien. Where a § 514.011, subd. 2 notice was required, all liens together are capped at the contract price plus extras, less payments the owner already made to the contractor before receiving that notice (§ 514.03, subd. 2). A subcontractor can hit every deadline perfectly and recover nothing because the owner had already paid the GC in full. The statutory notice form says so out loud.
• Padding the number. If it is made to appear that you knowingly demanded more than is justly due, no lien exists for ANY amount — not just the excess (§ 514.74). Anticipated change orders, unearned retainage, interest and attorney fees rolled into the lien amount are all live risk.
• Printing the pre-lien notice in ordinary body text. Both notices must be in at least 10-point bold type if printed, or in capital letters if typewritten (§ 514.011, subds. 1, 2). A good-looking PDF in regular type is a defective notice.
• Filing with the county recorder when the land is registered (Torrens). Torrens parcels go to the registrar of titles (§ 514.08, subd. 1(1)). Ask before you file — you cannot tell from the street.
• Skipping the notice because you decided an exemption applies. Three exemptions kill the notice requirement: contractor and owner managed or controlled by substantially the same persons; an improvement consisting of or providing more than four family units when it is wholly residential in character; and nonagricultural, wholly or partly nonresidential property over the 5,000-usable-square-foot thresholds (§ 514.011, subds. 4a, 4b, 4c). Guess wrong about square footage or unit count and the lien is gone. Sending an unnecessary notice costs a stamp.
• A supplier counting the 45 days from the purchase order or the credit application. It runs from when you first furnished materials for the improvement (§ 514.011, subd. 2) — often your first delivery, weeks before the paperwork caught up.
• Serving the 45-day notice on the general contractor who hired you. It goes to the owner or the owner's authorized agent (§ 514.011, subd. 2).
• Dating the clock from the last time you were on site. The 120 days runs from doing the last of the work or furnishing the last item of skill, material or machinery (§ 514.08, subd. 1). A punch-list trip or a warranty callback is the classic way people compute a date later than the statute allows. (The case-law line on corrective work was not verified here.)
• Tenant-improvement and lessee-ordered work, where your customer is not the owner of the land. An owner who did not authorize the improvement can defeat the lien by serving written notice on the person doing the work — personally or by certified mail, effective when mailed — or by posting and keeping posted a like notice conspicuously on the premises, within five days after knowledge of the improvement (§ 514.06). Watch the job trailer and the site fence for a posted notice.
• Not expecting the owner's counter-moves. Two are common: a written demand within 15 days after completion for an itemized, verified account, which bars you from suing until ten days after you furnish it (§ 514.07); and an application to the district court to release the property from the lien by depositing money or a surety bond, on as little as ten days' notice, or shorter if the court orders it (§ 514.10).
• Treating a public job like a private one. No lien paperwork helps you there. Notice of claim to the contractor AND the surety within 120 days, suit on the bond within one year, both measured from your own last item (§ 574.31, subd. 2).

After you file

• Service is not optional and it is not later. Get the copy of the recorded statement to the owner, the owner's authorized agent, or the person who contracted with the contractor, personally or by certified mail, inside the same 120 days (§ 514.08, subd. 1(2)). Until that is done the lien is not perfected.
• Watch the mail for an owner demand. Within 15 days after the contract is completed the owner may require you in writing to furnish an itemized and verified account of your lien claim, the amount, and your name and address. No enforcement action may be commenced until ten days after you furnish it (§ 514.07). Answer it promptly and date-stamp your copy — the clock to sue does not pause.
• Expect the owner to try to clear title. Once an action has been started — by you to enforce, or by the owner or any interested party to remove the lien as an action to determine adverse claims — anyone with an interest can apply to the district court on ten days' notice (or shorter, if the court orders) to release the property from the lien by depositing money or a surety bond. The court sets the amount at not less than your lien claim, plus $18 per $100 for interest, plus probable disbursements, plus not less than double the attorney fees allowed on a foreclosure under § 582.01. Your lien then attaches to that deposit instead of the property, and the court can discharge the lis pendens (§ 514.10).
• The owner is not required to pay the general contractor until 120 days after completion of the improvement unless the contractor produces lien waivers signed by the laborers and material suppliers — and the owner may retain enough of the contract price to meet lienholder demands, or pay and discharge the liens directly and deduct the cost from the contract price (§ 514.07). That is the pressure that often settles these before anyone files.
• Calendar the one-year date off your last-item date the day you record, not off the recording date, and calendar the lis pendens for the same day (§ 514.12, subds. 1, 3).
• There is only one lawsuit per improvement. Once a lienholder has filed, no other action may be commenced to enforce a lien arising from the same improvement — every other lienholder intervenes in the original action by answer (§ 514.12, subd. 2). If you are served as a defendant in someone else's foreclosure, that answer is how you assert your own lien, and it has to be filed inside your own one year.
• The foreclosure is conducted in the same manner as a mortgage foreclosure in the district court for the county where the premises are (§ 514.10), and every other lienholder is made a defendant with 20 days after service to answer (§ 514.11).