How to file a mechanics lien in Northern Mariana Islands

Step by step

13 steps for a subcontractor in Northern Mariana Islands.

1. 1

   Step 1: Confirm you hold a CNMI business license before you turn a shovel

   Before you start work. This is not a deadline — it is a gate. If you are not licensed while you work, no later step can save you.

   The CNMI lien belongs to two groups and no one else: a "licensed construction contractor" and a "supplier of construction material." A licensed construction contractor means someone the CNMI government has issued a business license to carry out construction or other improvements of real property. No license, no lien — however good your claim is and however clearly the money is owed. (If you only supply materials, you claim under the supplier limb instead and this step is not your gate.)

   Where it goes

   CNMI business licensing (Department of Commerce / Division of Revenue and Taxation).

   How

   Obtain and keep current a CNMI business license covering construction or improvement of real property, before you begin work and for the whole time you are on the job.

   Proof to keep

   A copy of your CNMI business license showing the issue and expiry dates, filed next to your contract. You will need to put it in front of the judge at the probable-cause hearing.

   What the document must contain

   • A CNMI business license issued to you
   • Scope covering construction or other improvements of real property
   • Valid across the dates you actually performed work

   If you miss it: You have no lien at all. This is the single most common way off-island contractors lose the remedy in the CNMI — they do the work, they are owed the money, and they have no standing to claim. It is decided at the hearing, after you have spent the 60 days and the filing fee.

   4 CMC §§ 5801(i), 5802(opens the statute in a new tab)
2. 2

   Step 2: Check whether it is a Commonwealth government job — if it is, you have no lien

   Before you bid, and again before you sign. Not after you are stiffed.

   4 CMC § 5809 is flat: "No mechanics' liens shall be permitted upon public works or improvements owned or operated by the Commonwealth government." There is no stop notice and no bond-claim substitute anywhere inside the lien chapter. Your remedy on a Commonwealth job lives somewhere else entirely — in the procurement regulations. On CNMI executive-branch construction contracts awarded in excess of $25,000, the prime contractor must deliver a payment bond for 100% of the contract price, for the protection of everyone supplying labor and material to the prime or its subcontractors.

   Where it goes

   The contracting agency's procurement office; the prime contractor; the solicitation or invitation-for-bids documents.

   How

   Before you start, ask the contracting agency's procurement office and the prime contractor for a copy of the payment bond. Get it in writing. Caution: the Title 70 procurement regulations do not apply to a public corporation or autonomous agency of the Commonwealth that runs its own procurement under its own enabling law (ports, utilities, housing, schools, health, and similar), so check the bond terms in your actual solicitation and contract rather than assuming.

   Proof to keep

   A copy of the payment bond, the prime's contract or the invitation for bids, and your own dated labor and delivery records from day one.

   What the document must contain

   • Surety name and the surety's authority to do business in the Commonwealth
   • Bond number and penal sum
   • The contract and agency the bond covers
   • Whether your own contract chain runs to the prime or through a subcontractor

   If you miss it: You burn 60 days chasing a lien that cannot legally exist, and while you do it you may blow the 90-day bond notice deadline in the next step — which is the only real protection you had.

   4 CMC § 5809; NMIAC § 70-30.3-301(c)(opens the statute in a new tab)
3. 3

   Step 3: On a Commonwealth job with no contract with the prime: give the prime written notice within 90 days

   Within 90 days from the day you last performed labor or last supplied material. This is a hard deadline and it is yours alone. (Separately, your right to actually sue on the bond ripens once 90 days have passed since that last day and you are still unpaid.)

   If you contracted with a subcontractor rather than directly with the prime contractor, you only get to sue on the payment bond if you first give the prime written notice within 90 days of your last work or last delivery. If you contracted directly with the prime, you do not need this notice — but send one anyway, it costs nothing and it dates your claim.

   Where it goes

   The prime (general) contractor on the Commonwealth contract.

   How

   Serve it personally, or by registered or certified mail in an envelope addressed to the prime contractor at any place it maintains an office or conducts its business. Keep the green card.

   Proof to keep

   The certified or registered mail receipt and the signed return card (or a process server's proof of personal service), a copy of the notice itself, and the delivery tickets or time records that fix your last day.

   What the document must contain

   • The amount claimed, stated with substantial accuracy
   • The name of the party to whom you furnished the material, or for whom you performed the labor
   • Enough identification of the project and contract to be unmistakable
   • The date of your last labor or last delivery

   If you miss it: You lose the right to sue on the payment bond. On a Commonwealth job, where 4 CMC § 5809 already bars any lien, that can leave you with nothing but an unsecured breach-of-contract claim against whoever hired you — often the party that just ran out of money.

   NMIAC § 70-30.3-301(d)(1)-(2)(opens the statute in a new tab)
4. 4

   Step 4: Write down your own three dates, from day one

   Throughout the job. Do it as you go — you will not reconstruct it later.

   Three dates decide everything in the CNMI. (1) Visible commencement of operations — the first actual work, or the first delivery of materials to the site, substantial enough to put people on notice the property is being improved. Your lien's priority relates back to that date. (2) Your own last day of labor or last delivery. (3) The day YOUR contract's work was substantially completed, or abandoned. The 60-day clock is tied to your contract, not to the project.

   Where it goes

   Your own project file. Keep it somewhere you can produce it inside a week.

   How

   Daily logs, signed and dated delivery tickets, dated site photographs, time sheets, and a copy of any letter or email that says your scope is finished or terminated.

   Proof to keep

   Signed delivery tickets, daily reports, dated photographs, and the completion or termination letter for your own scope of work.

   What the document must contain

   • Date of first work or first delivery on site
   • Date of each delivery or work period, with what was done
   • Date of your last labor or last delivery
   • Date and document showing your scope was completed, terminated, or abandoned

   If you miss it: You will not be able to prove when your 60 days started, and the owner will argue it started earlier than you say. In a strict-compliance jurisdiction, the party who cannot prove its dates loses.

   4 CMC §§ 5801(h), 5803(c), 5806(opens the statute in a new tab)
5. 5

   Step 5: Watch for a Notice of Completion — somebody else can start your clock without warning

   From the moment there has been substantial completion of the work, delivery of the materials, or actual abandonment. Check your mail and the court record regularly from then on.

   This is the lever the other side can pull, and it is the one that catches people. The 60-day clock starts when the owner, the general contractor, or a material supplier completes delivery of a "Notice of Completion" on all other parties attesting the contracted work is complete or abandoned for non-payment. A subcontractor is NOT on that list — you cannot start your own clock, and someone else can start it on you. Worse, it does not have to look like a legal notice. A federal court applying this statute held that a plain signed "notice of mutual termination" between the owner and the contractor was a valid Notice of Completion: no required title, no magic words, no notarization, and no filing with the court. The clock ran from the day it was delivered. The notice is only effective if, before it, there was substantial completion, delivery of the materials, or actual abandonment — but all three of those normally happen BEFORE the day you would call the project finished.

   Where it goes

   Your mail and email; the Clerk of the CNMI Superior Court (Saipan, Rota, or Tinian).

   How

   Read everything the owner or GC sends you and date-stamp it. Treat any signed writing saying your work is finished, accepted, or terminated as the start of 60 days, and diary the deadline the same day you sign it. Separately, ask the Clerk of the Superior Court to check the "Notice of Completion Record" — a book the clerk keeps, arranged alphabetically by the names of the owners.

   Proof to keep

   The notice with its envelope or email header showing the delivery date; and a copy of anything YOU signed that mentions completion, acceptance, or termination — those are the documents that get used against you.

   What the document must contain

   • Who delivered it — it only counts from the owner, general contractor, or material supplier
   • The date delivery on all other parties was completed
   • That it attests the contracted work is completed or abandoned for non-payment
   • That substantial completion, materials delivery, or actual abandonment already happened before it

   If you miss it: Your 60 days can run out before you realize it started. That is precisely how the reported CNMI case was lost: the contractor signed a mutual termination effective September 30, 2018, the deadline expired November 29, 2018, and it filed over a year later.

   4 CMC §§ 5803(c), 5804(opens the statute in a new tab)
6. 6

   Step 6: Make a written demand for payment the moment payment is late

   As soon as a payment is missed. There is no fixed deadline — do it immediately, and do not wait for completion.

   4 CMC § 5807 lets you enforce the lien only "after demand and refusal of the amount due or upon neglect to pay same upon demand." You are allowed to put the demand inside the application itself, which saves a separate step — but sending one early, in writing, gives you a dated record of refusal and starts the conversation while the owner still holds money. That last part matters more in the CNMI than almost anywhere: once the owner has paid the general contractor in full, the owner-paid-in-full defense can kill your lien outright.

   Where it goes

   The party who contracted with you, and the property owner.

   How

   In writing, sent so you can prove delivery — certified mail, or email with a delivery record. Send it to the party who hired you and to the owner.

   Proof to keep

   The demand letter, proof of delivery, and any reply — or a record of the silence.

   What the document must contain

   • The amount due
   • The work performed or materials furnished
   • The contract or purchase order it arises under
   • A clear demand for payment by a stated date

   If you miss it: No automatic forfeiture: you can still include the demand in the application. But you arrive at the hearing with no dated proof of demand and refusal, and you have given the owner months of extra time to pay the GC in full and defeat your claim.

   4 CMC § 5807(opens the statute in a new tab)
7. 7

   Step 7: File the Application for a Lien and Notice of Lien in the Superior Court within 60 days

   Not later than 60 days after the "date of completion." Count from the EARLIEST of these, whichever comes first: the day a Notice of Completion was delivered; the day your own contract's work was substantially completed; the day you made your last delivery; the day the work was actually abandoned. Do NOT count from the day the whole project finishes — a court has already rejected that reading and denied a lien because of it. (There is one outer backstop: if no valid Notice of Completion is ever delivered within one year after actual completion or abandonment, the date of completion is deemed to be one year after actual completion or abandonment. Never plan around it — see the common mistakes.)

   Two documents, filed together in the Superior Court: an "Application for a Lien," and a written "Notice of Lien" setting out the facts you say give you a lien. This is the commencement of a lawsuit, not a recording. There is no separate foreclosure action to remember later — this filing IS the action.

   Where it goes

   Clerk of the CNMI Superior Court, in the senatorial district where the property is situated. There are three clerk's offices: Saipan (670) 236-9782, Rota (670) 532-9422, Tinian (670) 433-3410.

   How

   File with the clerk, accompanied by any filing fee the court requires. The statute fixes no amount, and the Judiciary's public fee page does not publish a civil first-paper fee — call the Clerk's cashier at (670) 236-9790 or the Clerk at (670) 236-9782 and ask before you go. Have CNMI counsel draft this: it is an initiating court pleading and the only CNMI court to address the point required strict compliance.

   Proof to keep

   File-stamped copies of both documents, the fee receipt, and the docket number. Photograph them before you leave the courthouse.

   What the document must contain

   • The amount of the claim
   • The work or material furnished
   • A description of the property sufficient to identify it
   • The return date to the court
   • Any matter necessary for a clear understanding of the claim
   • In the accompanying Notice of Lien: the alleged facts by virtue of which you claim a lien
   • In practice, because you must serve each of them: your name and address, the owner's name and address, and the name and address of the party or parties who contracted for the improvement
   • In practice: your CNMI business license, which is your standing to claim at all

   If you miss it: You lose the lien permanently. There is no extension, no cure and no judicial discretion. The only CNMI court to address it held that "to attain a mechanic's lien, a claimant must strictly comply with the terms of the statute. The failure to do so will be fatal to the request."

   4 CMC § 5803(a), (c)(opens the statute in a new tab)
8. 8

   Step 8: Set the return date 3 to 10 days out and serve everyone like a summons

   You pick the return date when you draft — before you know when service will actually happen. It must fall not less than three nor more than 10 days after service is accomplished. Serve immediately after filing.

   Two traps in one step. First, the return date: the Application and Notice "shall be returnable not less than three nor more than 10 days after service." That is a narrow window you have to hit with a date you write down in advance. Second, service: you must serve a copy of the application and notice, in the manner prescribed by law for service of summons, on the owner of the property, on any person with an interest in the property, AND on the party or parties who contracted for the improvement. That third one is often the general contractor, not the owner — and people forget it.

   Where it goes

   Each party's address: the owner, every interest holder, and every contracting party.

   How

   Line up your process server or the Marshals Service BEFORE you set the return date, so the date you write matches the service you can actually achieve. Service is under the NMI Rules of Civil Procedure for a summons. If the land is held in joint or common ownership or as an estate by the entirety, service on one owner or lessee counts as service on all of them — and the same rule applies to jointly held contracting parties.

   Proof to keep

   The process server's return of service for every single party, showing the date, sitting next to your return date so you can show the court the window was met.

   What the document must contain

   • A return date falling within 3 to 10 days after actual service
   • A served copy of the Application for a Lien and the Notice of Lien for each party
   • A return of service for each party filed with the court

   If you miss it: Your initiating papers are defective in the middle of a 60-day window that cannot be extended. And no order letting the lien attach can be entered at all until the party who contracted for the improvement has been served and given the opportunity to appear — so incomplete service means no lien, even if you filed on day one.

   4 CMC § 5803(a), (b), (d)(opens the statute in a new tab)
9. 9

   Step 9: Show up at the probable-cause hearing with everything — the lien is won or lost here

   On the return day, 3 to 10 days after service. That is days, not months. Assume you get one week to prepare.

   The court holds a hearing to decide whether probable cause exists to let the lien attach. Everyone entitled to notice can offer testimony and documentary evidence. If the party who hired you claims a set-off against you, or anyone disputes the amount, the court hears the evidence and will only permit a lien to attach in the NET amount it determines is the reasonable probable outcome of the dispute. And the key fact: "The lien shall not attach to the property until the court finds probable cause exists and so orders." Filing secured nothing. This hearing creates the lien or there is no lien.

   Where it goes

   CNMI Superior Court, in the senatorial district where the property sits.

   How

   Appear with CNMI counsel. Bring witnesses who can testify to the work and the dates. The court may continue the return-day hearing so the whole controversy need not be decided that day, but it must handle these cases on an expedited schedule — so do not count on a long adjournment.

   Proof to keep

   The Order Directing Lien To Attach — that order IS your lien. Get a certified copy. Also order the hearing transcript.

   What the document must contain

   • Your contract and any change orders
   • Invoices and the payment history
   • Signed delivery tickets and daily logs
   • Dated photographs
   • Your CNMI business license
   • Proof of your demand for payment and the refusal
   • Evidence answering any set-off the other side raises

   If you miss it: No order, no lien. A contractor who files and then waits, the way you would wait after recording a lien in a normal state, holds no security interest at all — nothing stops the owner conveying the property or letting a new encumbrance jump ahead of you in the meantime.

   4 CMC § 5803(b)(opens the statute in a new tab)
10. 10

    Step 10: Go to trial — bench trial, set within 90 days of attachment

    Once the lien attaches, the court must set your claim for trial within 90 days, unless good cause is shown for delay.

    Trial is to the court, with no right to a jury trial for any party. Understand what the 90 days is and is not: it directs the COURT to schedule, it is expressly continuable for good cause, and you forfeit nothing if the court runs slow. There is no separate claimant-side enforcement or foreclosure deadline in the CNMI at all — your Application already commenced the action. The 60-day filing deadline is the only hard forfeiture deadline in this jurisdiction.

    Where it goes

    CNMI Superior Court.

    How

    Ordinary civil litigation through your CNMI counsel. All proceedings concerning the same improvement will normally be consolidated for trial, and other claimants, lienors, sureties and encumbrancers may be joined or intervene.

    Proof to keep

    The full evidentiary record from the probable-cause hearing, plus anything new. Keep the Order Directing Lien To Attach with the file.

    What the document must contain

    • Proof of the contract and the price agreed to be paid
    • Proof of the work performed or materials furnished
    • Proof of non-payment, demand and refusal
    • Your licensure or supplier status

    If you miss it: This deadline binds the court, not you — so a slow docket costs you nothing. But if YOU are the party seeking the delay past 90 days, the court must require you to post a cash bond covering the owner's lost rental income if the lien is keeping them from using the property, plus anticipated attorneys' fees. Ask for a continuance only if you can fund it.

    4 CMC § 5805(opens the statute in a new tab)
11. 11

    Step 11: Check where you rank before you spend more money on trial

    Optional

    Before trial, and ideally before you file at all.

    Your lien relates back to and takes effect from the time of visible commencement of operations, and ranks equally with all other mechanics' liens. But it loses to liens in favor of any branch of the government, and to any mortgage, lien or judgment recorded or filed before visible commencement. On top of that, a mortgage recorded before the date of completion can beat you to the extent its money was actually used to pay for the improvement — but only if the mortgage recites that this is its purpose. And if the sale proceeds are not enough to cover everyone, mechanics' liens share pro rata by the principal amounts, regardless of who filed first, so being early buys you no advantage over other claimants.

    Where it goes

    Commonwealth Recorder's Office.

    How

    Run a title search and compare every recorded instrument's date against your visible-commencement date.

    Proof to keep

    The title report, and your evidence of the visible-commencement date (first delivery tickets, first day's photos).

    What the document must contain

    • The date of visible commencement of operations on your project
    • Every mortgage, lien or judgment recorded before that date
    • Any construction mortgage recorded before the date of completion, and whether it recites that its purpose is to fund the improvement

    If you miss it: You can win the lien and still recover nothing from the sale proceeds. Better to know that before you fund a trial.

    4 CMC § 5806(opens the statute in a new tab)
12. 12

    Step 12: After you are paid, file written notice that the lien is satisfied

    Whenever the lien or claim of lien is satisfied. Do it promptly.

    This is a post-filing duty that people forget, and the statute puts the cost on you: "Whenever the lien or claim of lien herein provided is satisfied, a written notice thereof shall, at the expense of the lienor, be filed with the clerk of court." The clerk then notes it in the Mechanics' Lien Record.

    Where it goes

    Clerk of the CNMI Superior Court where you filed.

    How

    File the written notice of satisfaction with the Clerk of the Superior Court and pay whatever it costs.

    Proof to keep

    A file-stamped copy of the notice of satisfaction, and confirmation it was entered in the Mechanics' Lien Record.

    What the document must contain

    • Identification of the case and the lien
    • A statement that the lien or claim of lien has been satisfied
    • Your signature as the lienor

    If you miss it: The statute makes this mandatory. Leaving a satisfied lien sitting on the court record against an owner's property invites a motion against you and a claim for the owner's fees, and it will follow you with every CNMI owner who checks the Mechanics' Lien Record before hiring.

    4 CMC § 5806(opens the statute in a new tab)
13. 13

    Step 13: If you lose, appeal within 30 days

    Optional

    Within 30 days of the final judgment.

    Any party aggrieved by a final judgment entered under this chapter may appeal within 30 days, and the appeal proceeds on the normal appellate calendar. Be aware of the sting in the tail: the party prevailing on the appeal is awarded their reasonable attorneys' fees. That cuts both ways — a weak appeal can cost you the other side's fees on top of the judgment.

    Where it goes

    Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

    How

    Notice of appeal under the NMI appellate rules, through counsel.

    Proof to keep

    The file-stamped notice of appeal showing the filing date against the judgment date.

    What the document must contain

    • A timely notice of appeal
    • The final judgment appealed from

    If you miss it: The judgment stands and it is over. Unlike the 60-day filing deadline, there is no backstop of any kind behind this one.

    4 CMC § 5805(opens the statute in a new tab)

Who can claim a lien in Northern Mariana Islands

Where you file

Office

Clerk of the CNMI Superior Court (offices in Saipan, Rota and Tinian); venue is the court of the senatorial district in which the property is situated

Notarization

Not required

How it is served

Served like a court summons

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

What trips people up in Northern Mariana Islands

• Waiting for the whole project to be finished. The 60 days runs from when YOUR contract's work was substantially completed or abandoned, not from when the building opens. A contractor on the Saipan casino project argued for the whole-project reading and lost: the court held "'date of completion' in section 5803 means date of completion of the performance of a specific contract between the owner and the lien claimant, either because the contracted work was substantially completed or abandoned," and added that "[t]he fact that the entire casino construction project is not yet completed or abandoned is irrelevant." Pacific Rim Land Development, LLC v. Imperial Pacific International (CNMI), LLC, No. 1:19-cv-00016 (D. N. Mar. I. Apr. 28, 2020).
• Assuming a "Notice of Completion" will look like a legal notice. It does not have to. In the same case the court held that an ordinary signed "notice of mutual termination" was a valid Notice of Completion — no required title, no required wording, no notarization, and no filing with the court: "There are no requirements that the notice be titled a specific way or contain certain language; the aim is to inform the necessary parties that the contracted work is either completed or abandoned." Anything you sign saying your scope is finished or terminated can start your 60 days that same day. Diary the deadline before you sign.
• Filing the application and then waiting, the way you would wait after recording a lien anywhere else. In the CNMI "[t]he lien shall not attach to the property until the court finds probable cause exists and so orders." Until that order is signed you hold no security interest and nothing stops the property being sold or encumbered ahead of you.
• Treating this as paperwork instead of litigation. You are served into a contested evidentiary hearing 3 to 10 days after service. Retain CNMI counsel at the first missed payment, not at day 55 — there is not enough time to find a lawyer after you file.
• Betting on the one-year backstop. The deemed one-year date of completion applies ONLY if no valid Notice of Completion was delivered within a year of actual completion or abandonment. If somebody delivered one at substantial completion and you sat waiting for the roughly 425-day outer window, you are about a year late. The court in Pacific Rim explicitly contrasted the short notice-driven period with the "generous year plus 60-day deadline in cases without valid notice" — and applied the short one.
• Forgetting the owner-paid-in-full defense. Since 2007, § 5802 gives the lien only "provided that the owner has not paid in full the cost of the construction material of the improvement of real property." A subcontractor or supplier stiffed by a general contractor whom the owner has already paid in full can meet every deadline and still have nothing. This is the strongest reason in the CNMI to move at the FIRST missed payment rather than at completion.
• Working a Commonwealth government job assuming you can lien it if you are stiffed. You cannot, ever — 4 CMC § 5809. And there is no stop notice and no bond-claim substitute inside the lien chapter; the bond claim lives in the procurement regulations and carries its own hard 90-day written notice deadline for anyone without a direct contract with the prime.
• Working in the CNMI without a CNMI business license. Standing under § 5802 runs only to a "licensed construction contractor," defined by possession of a CNMI business license to carry out construction or improvements. Off-island contractors lose the remedy entirely this way, regardless of how clear the debt is.
• An individual worker trying to lien for unpaid wages in their own name. Laborers have lien rights only derivatively, through an employer that is itself a licensed construction contractor.
• An architect, engineer or surveyor relying on the § 5801(d) definition of "Labor." That definition includes plan-furnishing and supervision services, but § 5802 grants the lien only to licensed construction contractors and material suppliers — it never reaches "labor" providers. Untested in the CNMI. Assume no lien and plan accordingly.
• Filing a substantially-correct-but-imperfect application and hoping for equity. The only CNMI court to address the balance called for strict compliance: "[T]o attain a mechanic's lien, a claimant must strictly comply with the terms of the statute. The failure to do so will be fatal to the request." Misamis Corp. v. Glad, Civil Action No. 00-0115B, Order Denying Application for Lien at 4 (N. Mar. I. Super. Ct. May 8, 2000), quoted in Pacific Rim.
• Getting the return date wrong. It must be not less than three nor more than 10 days after service, and you have to write it into the papers before you know when service will land. Book your process server first, then set the date.
• Serving only the owner. § 5803(a) requires service on the owner, on any person with an interest in the property, AND on the party or parties who contracted for the improvement — which is frequently the general contractor. No attachment order can issue until the contracting party has been served and given the chance to appear.
• Walking into the return-day hearing without documents. If the other side raises a set-off or disputes the amount, the court "shall only permit the attachment of a lien in the net amount which the court determines is the reasonable probable outcome of any such dispute." Your lien gets sized in that room, in the first days of the case.
• Winning the lien and never checking priority. You are subordinate to every government lien and to anything recorded before visible commencement of operations, and a construction mortgage that recites it funds the improvement can leapfrog you. Proceeds are then split pro rata among mechanics' liens regardless of filing order.
• Leaving a satisfied lien on the record. Once you are paid, YOU must file written notice of satisfaction with the clerk, at your own expense (4 CMC § 5806).

After you file

• Serve the owner, every person with an interest in the property, and the party or parties who contracted for the improvement — in the manner prescribed for a summons. No order letting the lien attach can be entered until the contracting party has been served and given an opportunity to appear. File a return of service for each party.
• Hit the return-day hearing 3 to 10 days after service. Bring your contract, change orders, invoices, delivery tickets, daily logs, photographs, your CNMI business license, and your demand letter with proof of delivery. Bring witnesses. Expect a set-off fight — the judge sizes your lien at this hearing.
• Obtain and keep a certified copy of the Order Directing Lien To Attach. That order is your lien. Until it exists, you have nothing. Confirm the clerk has entered it in the Mechanics' Lien Record along with the date.
• Be ready for trial within 90 days of attachment. It is a bench trial, no jury for any party, and your Application already commenced the action — there is no second foreclosure suit to file. The 90 days binds the court, not you, so a slow docket costs you nothing. But if YOU seek the delay, the court must make you post a cash bond covering the owner's lost rental income plus anticipated attorneys' fees.
• Expect other claimants. All proceedings concerning the same improvement are normally consolidated for trial, other lienors, sureties, encumbrancers and interest holders may be joined or intervene, and the owner may bring a third-party action against a licensed contractor it already paid and counterclaim against you.
• Run a title search at the Commonwealth Recorder's Office and confirm where you rank before you fund a trial. If prior mortgages and government liens exhaust the property, winning may be worth nothing.
• If judgment goes against you, file the notice of appeal within 30 days. The party prevailing on appeal is awarded reasonable attorneys' fees, so take the risk seriously in both directions.
• When the lien or claim of lien is satisfied, file a written notice of satisfaction with the clerk of court at your own expense (4 CMC § 5806). This is mandatory, it is on you, and the clerk records it in the Mechanics' Lien Record.