How to file a mechanics lien in Montana

Step by step

13 steps for a subcontractor in Montana.

1. 1

   Step 1: Confirm Montana lien law actually covers this job

   Before you start work, or the day you first think you might not get paid.

   Montana construction liens only secure work done under a 'real estate improvement contract' on private property. Two whole categories of work are carved out, and public property cannot be liened at all. Five minutes here saves you from spending 90 days preparing a document that attaches to nothing.

   Where it goes

   Nothing is filed at this step. County clerk and recorder records or the county tax roll will show ownership.

   How

   Read your contract and check the county record or tax roll for who owns the land. If the owner is the state, a county, a city or town, a school district or another public body, stop — none of the steps below apply to you. Go to the public-project step at the end.

   Proof to keep

   Your signed contract, subcontract or purchase order, and the deed or tax record showing who owns the property and in what names.

   If you miss it: You can do everything else perfectly and still have no lien. Contracts mainly for mining or removing timber, minerals, gravel, soil or sod primarily for sale, and contracts for planting, cultivating or harvesting crops, are not real estate improvement contracts and support no construction lien.

   Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-522(6) (definition and exclusions); see also §§ 71-3-521 (scope), 71-3-523 (who may claim)(opens the statute in a new tab)
2. 2

   Step 2: Send the Notice of Right to Claim a Lien to the owner within 20 days of your first day

   No later than 20 days after the first day you furnished labor or materials. Count from your own first day, not from the day the project started.

   This is where Montana is the opposite of what you are used to. You need this notice only on residential work — a dwelling for fewer than five families — and only if you did not contract directly with the owner. On anything partly or wholly commercial, and on a dwelling for five or more families, no preliminary notice is required. The notice is not a lien. It tells the owner you are on the job and could lien later.

   Where it goes

   To the contracting owner. This step goes to the owner only. Filing it with the county is a separate step, and it is the next one.

   How

   Send it to the contracting owner by certified mail, or hand it to them in person and get a written acknowledgment of receipt from the owner. Certified mail counts as given on the day you mail it — you do not have to wait for delivery.

   Proof to keep

   The certified mail receipt and return receipt, or the owner's signed written acknowledgment. Keep a copy of the notice exactly as sent, plus dated delivery tickets or timesheets that prove your first day on the job.

   What the document must contain

   • The date of mailing
   • The owner's name
   • The owner's address
   • Your name
   • Your address
   • A description good enough to identify the property being improved
   • The warning text the statute spells out word for word, headed 'NOTICE OF THE RIGHT TO CLAIM A LIEN' and beginning 'WARNING: READ THIS NOTICE. PROTECT YOURSELF FROM PAYING ANY CONTRACTOR OR SUPPLIER TWICE FOR THE SAME SERVICE.' A generic preliminary-notice form from another state will not comply (§ 71-3-532(3))

   If you miss it: You do not lose everything. If you send it late, your lien still covers the labor and materials you furnished during the 20 days before the day you send it; everything earlier is gone. So send it the day you realize you are late, not never. But if the notice was required and you never send it at all, you cannot claim a construction lien — § 71-3-531(5) says a person may not claim a lien unless they complied. One narrow exception gives 45 days instead of 20: it applies only when the owner is paying from a regulated lender's funds secured against the property for this particular improvement, and it expressly does not apply to a contract on an owner-occupied residence (§ 71-3-531(4)).

   Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-531(1), (3), (5); content required by § 71-3-532(3)(opens the statute in a new tab)
3. 3

   Step 3: File a copy of that notice with the county clerk and recorder within 5 business days

   No later than 5 business days after the day you gave the notice to the owner. Business days, not calendar days.

   This is the step people miss, and missing it is fatal. Serving the owner is only half the job. If the copy never gets filed with the county, you have no lien — no matter how perfectly you served the owner.

   Where it goes

   The clerk and recorder of the county where the improved real estate is located.

   How

   File a copy at the counter or by mail. Your county clerk and recorder may allow electronic filing, but is not required to — call first. If you file electronically it must be electronically signed.

   Proof to keep

   The clerk's file number and the stamped or endorsed filing date. Write the file number down somewhere you will find it again — you need it for the yearly continuation and again for the release.

   What the document must contain

   • A copy of the notice in the form § 71-3-532 requires
   • Signed by you, or by someone authorized to sign for you

   If you miss it: You cannot claim a construction lien on that job. The owner was served, you believe you are protected, and you are not.

   Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-531(6)(a), (6)(b)(opens the statute in a new tab)
4. 4

   Step 4: File a 1-year continuation before your recorded notice lapses

   Before the first anniversary of the date the notice copy was filed with the clerk and recorder. Then again each year the job runs. Set the reminder for month 11, not month 12.

   The notice you filed with the county dies on its own after one year. And you cannot file a lien at all unless an unexpired notice or continuation is sitting on file at the exact moment you file the lien. On a job that runs long, this destroys lien rights silently — nobody tells you.

   Where it goes

   The same county clerk and recorder where you filed the original notice.

   How

   File the continuation with the same clerk and recorder, signed by you or by someone authorized to sign for you.

   Proof to keep

   The new file number and filing date, plus proof you filed before the lapse date.

   What the document must contain

   • The clerk and recorder's file number of the original notice
   • The date the original notice was filed
   • The name of the person to whom the original notice was given
   • Signature of the person who filed the original notice, or someone authorized to sign for them

   If you miss it: The notice lapses and the clerk may remove it from the public record. With no unexpired notice or continuation on file, you cannot file a lien — even if you are still well inside your 90 days and did everything else right.

   Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-531(6)(c), (6)(d), (6)(e)(opens the statute in a new tab)
5. 5

   Step 5: Keep dated proof of your own first and last day on the job

   Every day you are on the job, from the first day to the last.

   Your 90-day lien deadline runs from your own final day furnishing labor or materials — not from the day the building is finished. If you finish in month 3 of an 18-month build, your clock started in month 3. The lien document itself also has to state both dates.

   Where it goes

   Your own files.

   How

   Keep dated delivery tickets, signed timesheets, daily reports, or invoices tied to specific dates. If you go back to the site later, write down exactly what you did and why, because that date is what your 90 days may run from.

   Proof to keep

   Records that independently show your first furnishing date and your last furnishing date, dated at the time and not reconstructed afterward.

   If you miss it: If you cannot prove your last day, you cannot prove your lien was timely. And § 71-3-535(3)(g) requires both the first and last furnishing dates inside the lien itself — a lien without them is defective on its face.

   Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-535(1)(a), (3)(g)(opens the statute in a new tab)
6. 6

   Step 6: Watch the county record for the owner's Notice of Completion

   From the time work slows or stops. Thirty days of no labor on the building is itself 'completion' under § 71-3-533 and lets the owner file — a job that simply goes quiet for a month can start this.

   This is the lever the other side can pull. The contracting owner can file a Notice of Completion with the county. Section 71-3-535(1) sets the lien deadline at 90 days after your own final furnishing OR 90 days after the owner files a notice of completion. The statute is written with 'or' and does not say which controls when the two dates differ, so calendar from whichever comes first.

   Where it goes

   County clerk and recorder for the county where the property sits, and the newspaper of general circulation in that county.

   How

   Check the clerk and recorder's records for the property. If you gave the owner a Notice of Right to Claim a Lien, the owner is required to give you a copy of the notice of completion — do not rely only on that. It is also published once each week for 3 successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county.

   Proof to keep

   A copy of the recorded notice of completion with its file date, if one exists.

   If you miss it: You may calendar your lien deadline from a date the statute does not clearly protect. Whether an owner's notice of completion can cut your window below 90 days from your own last day is not settled by the text of § 71-3-535(1).

   Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-533; § 71-3-535(1)(b)(opens the statute in a new tab)
7. 7

   Step 7: Serve a copy of the lien on every owner of record — before you file it

   Before you present the lien to the clerk, and early enough that service plus filing both land inside your 90 days. Do not leave it to day 88.

   The clerk is forbidden to file your lien unless it arrives with your certification that a copy was already served on each owner of record. Service is a condition of filing, not a follow-up. Do this first, and leave yourself room inside the 90 days.

   Where it goes

   Each and every owner of record named in the lien. If the property is held by joint tenants, tenants in common, or a married couple, that is more than one person and each one must be served.

   How

   Personal service on each owner, or mail a copy of the lien by certified mail, return receipt requested, to each owner's last known address.

   Proof to keep

   Certified mail receipts and return receipts for each owner, or the process server's proof of personal service on each owner. Keep one set per owner, not one for the property.

   What the document must contain

   • A certification by you or your agent, filed with the lien, stating that a copy of the lien has been served upon each owner of record of the property named in the lien
   • A statement of the method of service used

   If you miss it: The clerk refuses the lien. If you discover that on day 88, you may not have time to serve and re-present before day 90, and the lien is gone.

   Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-534(2); § 71-3-535(2)(b)(opens the statute in a new tab)
8. 8

   Step 8: File the lien with the county clerk and recorder within 90 days of your last day

   No later than 90 days after your own final day furnishing labor or materials.

   This is the lien itself; everything before this was setup. One warning that runs the other way: do not file early as a precaution. A lien filed before you have substantially furnished your labor or materials is not effective to create a construction lien at all, unless someone else's fault stopped you from performing (§ 71-3-535(4)).

   Where it goes

   The clerk and recorder of the county in which the improved real estate is located.

   How

   File it with the county clerk and recorder, with your certification of service attached. The clerk may allow electronic filing but is not required to. On notarization: § 71-3-535(3) lists no oath or acknowledgment, and the statutory lien form in § 71-3-536 has no notary block — but § 70-21-203 requires an instrument to be acknowledged before it can be recorded, while § 71-3-535(2)(a) says 'filed.' The statutes do not resolve that gap. Call your county clerk and recorder before filing day and ask what they require at the counter.

   Proof to keep

   The stamped filing date and the file or reception number, and a conformed copy of what was actually filed. Your 2-year clock to sue runs from this filing date, so record it exactly.

   What the document must contain

   • (a) Your name and address
   • (b) A description of the real property sufficient to identify it
   • (c) The name of the contracting owner
   • (d) The name and address of the party you contracted with — for a subcontractor that is the general contractor, not the owner
   • (e) A description of the services or materials you provided
   • (f) The amount unpaid, or a good faith estimate
   • (g) The date services or materials were first furnished, and the date last furnished
   • (h) A declaration that a Notice of Right to Claim a Lien was given to the contracting owner, OR an explanation of why the notice was not required. If you are relying on the commercial exemption, you must say so here — leaving this blank is a defect on the face of the lien
   • Plus the certification of service from the previous step (§ 71-3-534(2))

   If you miss it: No lien. Section 71-3-535(1) says the lien 'does not attach and may not be enforced' unless it was filed in time. You still have whatever contract claim you have against whoever hired you, but you lose the property as security.

   Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-535(1)(a), (2), (3), (4); form at § 71-3-536; recording fees at §§ 7-4-2631(1)(a), 7-4-2632(opens the statute in a new tab)
9. 9

   Step 9: File a release of your Notice of Right to Claim a Lien once you are paid

   When you are paid for the services and materials the notice covered. If the contracting owner requests the release after you have been paid, within 5 business days of that request.

   Once you have been paid for the labor and materials the notice covered, clearing the recorded notice is your legal duty, not a courtesy. And if the owner asks you to release it, you have 5 business days.

   Where it goes

   The clerk and recorder of the county in which the improved real estate is located.

   How

   File the release with the clerk and recorder, signed by you or by someone authorized to sign for you.

   Proof to keep

   The release's file number and filing date, and the owner's written request if there was one, so you can show you were inside the 5 business days.

   What the document must contain

   • The clerk and recorder's file number of the notice of the right to claim a lien
   • The date on which the notice of the right to claim a lien was filed
   • The name of the person to whom the notice of the right to claim a lien was given
   • Signature of the person who filed the notice, or someone authorized to sign for them

   If you miss it: Section 71-3-538 states the duty but sets no penalty of its own. What remains is a recorded notice you never released, sitting as a cloud on someone's title.

   Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-538(opens the statute in a new tab)
10. 10

    Step 10: Sue to foreclose the lien within 2 years of the day you filed it

    Within 2 years from the date of the filing of the lien. Not from when the debt came due, not from when the job ended — from the filing date.

    Filing the lien does not collect the money. If you do not start the lawsuit within 2 years of the lien's filing date, the lien is over.

    Where it goes

    A Montana district court for the county where the property is located. Section 71-3-562 itself does not name the court; §§ 71-3-551 and 71-3-552 route the related bond substitution through the clerk of the district court in that county.

    How

    Commence an action to foreclose the construction lien. All persons interested in the matter in controversy, or in the property charged with the lien, or holding liens on it, may be made parties.

    Proof to keep

    The file-stamped complaint and the date the action was commenced.

    If you miss it: The lien is unenforceable. Section 71-3-562 is flat: all actions under this part must be commenced within 2 years from the date of filing the lien.

    Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-562; parties at § 71-3-561(opens the statute in a new tab)
11. 11

    Step 11: If your lien gets bonded off, sue on the bond inside the same 2 years

    Same deadline as foreclosing the lien: within 2 years from the date you filed the lien. Substituting a bond does not restart or extend the clock.

    The other side can make your lien disappear from the property. The contracting owner, the original contractor, or any subcontractor can file a bond for 1 1/2 times your lien amount. The moment they do, your lien against the real property is discharged and released in full and the bond is substituted for it. You are no longer suing the land; you are suing the bond — and a bond does not buy you more time.

    Where it goes

    The bond is filed with the clerk of the district court in the county where the property is located; if the property sits in more than one county, with the clerk of the district court of any county holding part of it.

    How

    They can file the bond any time before you have commenced a foreclosure action, or within 30 days of service of your complaint. Once filed, you bring an action upon the bond instead of foreclosing on the property.

    Proof to keep

    A copy of the filed bond, its filing date, and the name of the surety.

    If you miss it: Same as missing the foreclosure deadline. Section 71-3-553(2) applies the lien-foreclosure limitation to the bond action 'as it would had a bond not been filed.'

    Mont. Code Ann. §§ 71-3-551, 71-3-552, 71-3-553(opens the statute in a new tab)
12. 12

    Step 12: Acknowledge satisfaction once the lien debt is paid

    Once the indebtedness that is a lien on the property is paid and satisfied. The statute sets no specific number of days.

    When the debt secured by your lien is paid, Montana makes clearing the record your job, the same way a paid-off mortgage gets released. This one carries actual money damages.

    Where it goes

    The county record where the lien was filed.

    How

    Acknowledge satisfaction of the indebtedness in the same manner as a mortgage.

    Proof to keep

    The recorded satisfaction and its date.

    If you miss it: If you fail to acknowledge satisfaction, you are liable to any person injured by that failure for the amount of the injury and the costs of the action.

    Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-537(opens the statute in a new tab)
13. 13

    Step 13: On a public project, file a bond notice instead — there is no lien to file

    Within 90 days after the completion of the contract with an acceptance of the work by the affirmative action of the board, council, commission, trustees, officer or body.

    You cannot lien public property. On state, county, city, town, school district and other public work, the public body is required to take a payment bond from the contractor, conditioned that the contractor will pay all laborers, mechanics, subcontractors and material suppliers. That bond is your remedy, and it is a completely different process from the lien steps above. Smaller contracts can be exempt from the bond requirement under § 18-2-201, so confirm a bond actually exists before you count on it.

    Where it goes

    The board, council, commission, trustees, officer or body that awarded the contract.

    How

    Present and file a written, signed notice with the public body. Ask the public body for a copy of the payment bond as soon as you know payment is at risk.

    Proof to keep

    A date-stamped copy of the filed notice, and written confirmation of the date the public body accepted the work.

    What the document must contain

    • Your name (or your company's name)
    • The amount of your claim
    • The name of the principal — the contractor the bond was taken from
    • The name of the party that furnished the security
    • A description of the work
    • Your signature, or the signature of the person or corporation making the claim

    If you miss it: You lose your claim on the bond, and there is no lien to fall back on — a construction lien document prepared for a public job is a worthless instrument.

    Mont. Code Ann. §§ 18-2-201, 18-2-204(opens the statute in a new tab)

Who can claim a lien in Montana

Where you file

Office

County Clerk and Recorder

Recording fee

$20–$40

Notarization

Required

Sworn or verified

Certification of service

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 Montana

• Assuming commercial subs and suppliers must send a preliminary notice. In Montana they do not — § 71-3-531(1)(d) exempts any improvement 'partly or wholly commercial in character,' and (1)(c) exempts a dwelling for five or more families. The dangerous half of this mistake runs the other way: a residential sub who assumes Montana works like everywhere else and skips the notice has no lien.
• Serving the owner with the Notice of Right to Claim a Lien and stopping there. The copy must also be filed with the county clerk and recorder within 5 business days (§ 71-3-531(6)(a)). Two tasks, two deadlines. Doing only the first one leaves you with no lien and no warning.
• Letting the recorded notice lapse at one year. It is effective for exactly 1 year, and under § 71-3-531(6)(e) you cannot claim a lien unless an unexpired notice or continuation is on file at the moment you file. On a long job you can do everything right at the start, keep working, and lose the lien to a calendar event nobody mentioned.
• Treating a missed 20-day notice as total loss and walking away. Under § 71-3-531(3) the lien survives for whatever you furnished in the 20 days before you send it. Send it today rather than writing the claim off.
• Using the 45-day window on an owner-occupied home. Section 71-3-531(4) expressly excludes a contract on an owner-occupied residence, so the window there is 20 days. Believing you have 45 on the most common kind of residential job costs you 25 days of coverage.
• Presenting the lien without the certification that a copy was served on each owner of record. The clerk may not file it (§ 71-3-534(2)). Mail the lien to the recorder on day 88 without the certification and you find out about the problem after day 90.
• Serving only one owner when there are several. Section 71-3-534(2) requires service on each owner of record. Joint tenants, tenants in common and married couples are each separate owners of record, and § 71-3-522(4)(b) presumes agency between spouses for other purposes — that presumption does not excuse serving both.
• Leaving the § 71-3-535(3)(h) declaration blank. Every lien must declare that a Notice of Right to Claim a Lien was given, or explain why it was not required. A commercial claimant relying on the exemption has to affirmatively state that reason in the lien.
• Filing the lien early as insurance. Under § 71-3-535(4) a lien filed before you have substantially furnished your labor or materials does not create a construction lien at all, unless another's fault prevented you from performing. A defensive early filing can be worse than none.
• Calendaring the 90 days from project completion instead of from your own final furnishing (§ 71-3-535(1)(a)). Your clock starts when you finish, not when the building does. The 'or' in § 71-3-535(1)(b) invites exactly this misreading.
• Assuming your job title settles whether you need the preliminary notice. Section 71-3-531(1)(a) exempts an original contractor who furnishes directly to the owner at the owner's request — that is about privity with the contracting owner, not about the words on your business card. A supplier selling straight to the homeowner is exempt; a 'general contractor' hired by someone other than the contracting owner may not be.
• Assuming a tenant-improvement lien reaches the landlord's land. Under § 71-3-525(3) the lien attaches to the improvement and the leasehold term only, and does not reach the lessor's interest unless the lessor contracted for or agreed to the improvement before it was begun. The collateral can be worth far less than you think.
• Trying to lien a public job. There is no construction lien against public property; § 18-2-201 payment bonds are the route, and the bond notice has its own 90-day deadline running from completion and acceptance of the contract.
• Over-claiming on equipment. Rented tools, appliances and machinery are limited to reasonable rental value for the period of actual use; purchased tools count only if bought for that particular improvement and having no substantial value after it is done (§ 71-3-524(3)).
• Believing the owner has an 'I already paid the contractor in full' defense. The warning Montana requires in the notice itself tells owners the opposite: people who are owed money 'may look to your property for payment, even if you have paid your contractor in full' (§ 71-3-532(3)).
• Budgeting for one filing fee. You pay separately for the notice filing, each yearly continuation, the lien, and the release. Section 7-4-2632 sets $20 for the first page and $10 for each additional page; § 7-4-2631(1)(a) separately sets $5 for filing and indexing a lien. Which one a given county applies is not resolved by the statutes — call ahead and bring more than you think you need.

After you file

• Service is already done. Unlike most states, Montana makes service on every owner of record a precondition of filing, not a post-filing chore (§ 71-3-534(2)). If the clerk accepted your lien, that part is behind you.
• Your lien attaches back to the commencement of work as defined in § 71-3-522, not to the filing date (§ 71-3-535(5)) — which is why it can outrank things recorded after work began. The exception: a lien for preparing plans, surveys or architectural or engineering drawings that were not used to produce a physical change attaches only when it is filed (§ 71-3-535(6)), so design professionals sit further back in line than they expect.
• You have 2 years from the lien's filing date to commence an action. Nothing about filing the lien collects money, and nothing tolls that clock (§ 71-3-562).
• The other side can bond your lien off. The contracting owner, the original contractor, or any subcontractor can file a bond for 1 1/2 times your lien with the clerk of the district court, at any time before you commence a foreclosure action or within 30 days of service of your complaint (§ 71-3-551). On filing, your lien against the property is 'forthwith discharged and released in full' and the bond stands in its place (§ 71-3-552). You then sue the bond — under the same 2-year limitation, 'as it would had a bond not been filed' (§ 71-3-553(2)).
• Your lien amount is the unpaid part of your own contract price (§ 71-3-526(1)), and it is reduced by the liens of anyone claiming through you (§ 71-3-526(2)). If your own sub or supplier liens the job, your recoverable number drops.
• Two post-payment duties are yours, and this is the second place people forfeit something. When you are paid for what the preliminary notice covered, file a release of the Notice of Right to Claim a Lien — within 5 business days if the owner asks (§ 71-3-538). When the lien debt itself is paid, acknowledge satisfaction in the same manner as a mortgage, or you are liable to anyone injured by the failure for the amount of the injury plus costs (§ 71-3-537).
• Keep watching the county record for a Notice of Completion even after you file. It is published once each week for 3 successive weeks, and the owner must send a copy to anyone who gave a Notice of Right to Claim a Lien (§ 71-3-533).