How to file a mechanics lien in North Dakota

Step by step

12 steps for a subcontractor in North Dakota.

1. 1

   Step 1: Get your contractor license before you sign

   Before you sign or start any job where the cost, value or price exceeds $4,000. Not after the dispute starts - you need to have been licensed for the work.

   North Dakota bars an unlicensed contractor from bringing any court claim tied to contracting. You can record a textbook-perfect lien and still be unable to foreclose it, because you cannot maintain the foreclosure suit. The $4,000 threshold is per job, measured by cost, value or price.

   Where it goes

   North Dakota Secretary of State, who is the registrar for contractor licensing (N.D.C.C. 43-07-01(5)). https://www.sos.nd.gov/business/licensing-registration/contractors

   How

   Apply through the Secretary of State's FirstStop portal. The license must be in the same name your business is registered under and the same name you invoice under. You will need a certificate of liability insurance naming the Secretary of State as certificate holder, and a Workforce Safety & Insurance certificate if you have North Dakota employees. Use FirstStop to check your own status - and your customer's - before you start.

   Proof to keep

   Your license certificate and a dated FirstStop record showing the license was active for the whole period you performed the work.

   What the document must contain

   • A current license in the exact name you contract and invoice under
   • A license class that covers the contract amount of the job (classes A through D by maximum contract size)

   If you miss it: You 'may not maintain any claim, action, suit, or proceeding in any court of this state related to the person's business or capacity as a contractor.' The lien survives on paper and dies in court. Acting as an unlicensed contractor is also a class A misdemeanor and carries a civil penalty you must pay before you can be licensed.

   N.D. Cent. Code § 43-07-02(1); definition of 'contractor' (which expressly includes subcontractors) at § 43-07-01(1)(opens the statute in a new tab)
2. 2

   Step 2: Confirm your work is NOT oil, gas or pipeline work

   Before you start, and again the moment you start thinking about a lien. This is the single most expensive wrong turn in North Dakota.

   If you performed labor or furnished materials or services on an oil or gas leasehold or on a pipeline, you are under chapter 35-24, and chapter 35-27 says you are 'prohibited from claiming or maintaining a lien under this chapter.' Chapter 35-24 has a completely different clock: SIX MONTHS from your last labor, material or services to file the lien statement, and TWO YEARS from filing to bring the foreclosure action. The statement must be verified by affidavit - sworn, not just signed - and it needs a 16-point-type disclaimer saying the lien attaches only to the leasehold or pipeline and does not encumber the freehold.

   Where it goes

   Same office - the recorder of the county where the leasehold or pipeline, or part of it, is situated - but a different chapter and a different form.

   How

   Look at what you actually worked on, not who hired you. Drilling, operating a well, constructing a pipeline, or constructing/assembling/repairing material used in that work puts you in 35-24. If you are anywhere near the Bakken, assume 35-24 until you have ruled it out. Chapter 35-24 text: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t35c24.pdf

   Proof to keep

   Contracts, work orders and delivery tickets that identify the site - a well pad and a pipeline right-of-way look different on paper from a building site, and that paper decides which chapter you are in.

   What the document must contain

   • Chapter 35-24 statement, verified by affidavit: the amount claimed and the items of it
   • The dates labor was performed or material or services furnished
   • The name of the owner of the leasehold or pipeline, if known
   • Your name and mailing address
   • A description of the leasehold or pipeline
   • If you are a subcontractor-type claimant under § 35-24-04, the name of the person for whom the labor was immediately performed or the material or services immediately furnished
   • The 16-point-type leasehold disclaimer (omitting it does not invalidate the lien, but include it)

   If you miss it: You record a chapter 35-27 lien the statute forbids you to claim, and while you are waiting on a 90-day clock that does not apply to you, the real six-month 35-24 deadline runs out. You lose both.

   N.D. Cent. Code § 35-27-02(5); § 35-24-11(3) (six months to file, verified by affidavit); § 35-24-14 (two years from filing to sue)(opens the statute in a new tab)
3. 3

   Step 3: Find out whether the property is publicly owned

   Before you start. It changes every deadline and every remedy.

   No construction lien attaches to North Dakota public property. On a public improvement contract over $250,000, the governing body must take a payment bond from the contractor before any work is done, and that bond - not a lien - is your remedy. The bond secures all bills, claims and demands until paid, with preference to labor and material suppliers. On a public job of $250,000 or less there may be no bond at all, and you have no lien either - only a contract claim against whoever hired you.

   Where it goes

   The governing body that let the contract - city, county, township, school board, state agency or other public board.

   How

   Ask the public body that let the contract for a certified copy of the bond and the contract. They must provide it if you submit an affidavit that you supplied labor or materials for the improvement and have not been paid. You pay the actual cost of the copy. The certified copy is prima facie evidence of the bond's contents, execution and delivery.

   Proof to keep

   The certified copy of the bond and the contract, your written request, and their response.

   What the document must contain

   • An affidavit that you have supplied labor or materials for the improvement and that payment has not been made (or that you are being sued on the bond)
   • Payment of the actual cost of preparing the certified copy

   If you miss it: You record a lien that cannot attach to anything, and you burn the bond-claim clock doing it. On a sub-$250,000 public job you may discover there is no bond at all - find that out at the start, not at day 89.

   N.D. Cent. Code § 48-01.2-10(opens the statute in a new tab)
4. 4

   Step 4: Get the owner's legal name and the legal description in writing

   As soon as you take the job. Do not wait until you are chasing money.

   If you extended credit or contracted with any agent, trustee, contractor or subcontractor of the owner - that is, anyone other than the owner - the statute gives you the right, on demand, to request and secure evidence of the legal description of the property and the name of the legal or equitable owner. You need both: the right owner name to send the certified-mail notice, and a legal description the recorder will accept.

   Where it goes

   The party that hired you; and the county recorder's office for the recorded legal description.

   How

   Put the demand in writing to whoever hired you, or to the general contractor. Cross-check against the recorded deed and the county tax records. A street address alone is not a legal description.

   Proof to keep

   Your written demand, their written reply, and a copy of the recorded deed or tax record you relied on for the description.

   What the document must contain

   • Evidence of the legal description of the real estate on which the improvement is located
   • The name of the legal or equitable owner of that real estate

   If you miss it: You mail the required notice to the wrong person, or the recorder refuses your lien because the legal description is not adequate - and the 90 days keeps running while you sort it out.

   N.D. Cent. Code § 35-27-02(4) (right to demand owner name and legal description); § 11-18-05(1)(a)(3) (recorder must consider the legal description adequate)(opens the statute in a new tab)
5. 5

   Step 5: When payment stops: fix your last work date and find out what the owner has paid

   The day you decide you are not getting paid. Your 90 days started on your own last day of work, whether or not you noticed.

   Two numbers decide whether a lien is worth filing. First, your last day of contribution - the 90-day recording clock runs from the day all of YOUR contribution is done, not from when the job finished or was abandoned. Second, what the owner has already paid. North Dakota caps your lien at the difference between the price the owner has paid and the price or value of your contribution. If the owner has paid the full price or value, no lien is allowed at all. A subcontractor on a job where the homeowner already paid the general contractor in full has nothing to lien, however clean the paperwork.

   Where it goes

   Your own records first; then a written request to the owner or to the general contractor.

   How

   Pull daily reports, delivery tickets and signed timesheets and pin the exact last calendar date. Then ask the owner or the general contractor, in writing, what has been paid on the contract. Calculate only what is justly due - strip out disputed extras, and for rental equipment use reasonable value for actual use, not your contract rate.

   Proof to keep

   Signed field tickets, delivery receipts, dated photographs, and your written inquiry about what the owner has paid. The first and last dates you put in the lien will bind you against everyone except the owner, so the backup matters.

   What the document must contain

   • The exact calendar date of your last contribution, backed by a document
   • The amount actually and justly due - no padding, no disputed extras, no contract-rate rental charges the owner never agreed to

   If you miss it: Guess the last date and you either file outside 90 days or lock yourself into a date you cannot later correct against third parties. Pad the amount and you can lose the entire lien - no lien exists for any amount if it appears you knowingly demanded more than is justly due - and the owner who successfully contests validity OR accuracy must be awarded full costs and reasonable attorney's fees against you.

   N.D. Cent. Code § 35-27-13 (clock runs from your own last contribution); § 35-27-02(2) (unpaid-balance cap); § 35-27-16 (overstatement; dates bind you); § 35-27-24.1 (mandatory owner fee award)(opens the statute in a new tab)
6. 6

   Step 6: Mail the owner certified notice that a lien will be claimed

   At least 10 days before the day you record the lien. Because you must record within 90 days of your last work, that means mailing by about day 75 at the very latest - and earlier is genuinely safer. Certified mail takes days to arrive, and it is not settled whether 'given' means mailed or received. Send it the week you decide to lien.

   Written notice that a lien will be claimed must be given to the legal or equitable owner of the real estate by certified mail at least ten days before the construction lien is recorded. It is a gate on recording: you cannot lawfully record until the ten days have run.

   Where it goes

   The legal or equitable owner of the real estate, at their address of record. The owner includes every person for whose immediate use and benefit the improvement is made.

   How

   Certified mail. Not registered mail, not regular first-class, not email, not hand delivery. Return receipt requested. Send a separate notice to every owner of record - if the property is held by two people or an entity plus an individual, cover them all.

   Proof to keep

   The certified mail receipt showing the postmark date, the return receipt card or USPS tracking showing delivery, and an exact file copy of what you mailed. The postmark date is what proves you cleared the ten days.

   What the document must contain

   • The statute prescribes no form and requires nothing beyond written notice that a lien will be claimed - but do not send a bare sentence
   • Your name and address
   • The owner's name
   • The property address and the legal description
   • The name of the party that hired you
   • The unpaid amount
   • Your first and last dates of contribution
   • A plain statement that a construction lien will be claimed against the property

   If you miss it: You have not met a precondition to recording. Record anyway and the lien is open to attack - and if the owner successfully contests it in district court, the court MUST award the owner the full amount of all costs and reasonable attorney's fees. A missed notice turns a collection claim into a bill you owe.

   N.D. Cent. Code § 35-27-02(4); consequence of a successful owner challenge at § 35-27-24.1(opens the statute in a new tab)
7. 7

   Step 7: Record the lien with the county recorder within 90 days of your last day of work

   Within ninety days after all your contribution is done. Count from your own last day, not the job's completion. Do NOT aim for day 90: North Dakota's counting rule excludes the first day, includes the last, and extends only if the last day is a holiday - and Saturday is not a holiday under North Dakota law (Sunday is). A day-90 Saturday is still day 90, and the recorder's counter is closed. Record by day 75-80 and sleep at night.

   You perfect the lien by recording it with the county recorder. Five things are statutory content; the rest are what make the document recordable at the counter. A lien the recorder rejects on formatting is a lien that is not recorded.

   Where it goes

   The recorder of the county in which the property is situated. North Dakota has County Recorders, not a 'Register of Deeds' - if a form or website says Register of Deeds, it is not describing North Dakota. Find your county's office through the North Dakota County Recorders Association map at https://www.ndcountyrecorders.org/

   How

   Record in person or by mail. The document and any acknowledgment must carry an ORIGINAL signature - wet ink. Execution must be established by acknowledgment before a notary. (Two alternatives also make an instrument recordable without acknowledgment: an affidavit bearing a jurat or verification upon oath or affirmation, or an instrument signed by a North Dakota-licensed attorney bearing their bar identification number. Notarized acknowledgment is the safe default.) Chapter 35-27 does not require you to serve the recorded lien on the owner afterward.

   Proof to keep

   The recorder's returned copy showing the document number and the date and time of recording, plus your fee receipt. Recording fee: $20 for a document of one to six pages, $65 for more than six pages, plus $3 per page after the first twenty-five, plus $1 for each additional section of land listed over ten, plus $10 if the margins do not conform. A normal lien is one or two pages, so budget $20-$30.

   What the document must contain

   • STATUTORY (all five, § 35-27-13): a description of the property
   • STATUTORY: the amount due
   • STATUTORY: the date of the first contribution
   • STATUTORY: the date of the last contribution
   • STATUTORY: the person with which the claimant contracted - the party that actually hired you. This element is the one most often left off
   • CONDITIONAL: if the lien is for a wind turbine or associated facility under § 17-04-07 and the freehold owner is not also the leasehold owner, a 16-point-type statement that the lien attaches only to the leasehold and does not attach to or encumber the real property or freehold estate (leaving it out does not invalidate the lien, but include it)
   • RECORDABILITY: original wet signature plus notarial acknowledgment (§ 47-19-03)
   • RECORDABILITY: a legal description the recorder considers adequate
   • RECORDABILITY: at least a 3-inch clear space across the top of the first page for the recorder's stamp - otherwise the recorder adds a page and charges you for it
   • RECORDABILITY: a 1-inch top, bottom or side margin on every page, or an extra $10 fee
   • RECORDABILITY: legible print, at least 10-point Calibri unless you are using a government-issued form
   • PRACTICAL (not statutory, but include): your name and address, the owner's name and address, the property street address, and a description of the work

   If you miss it: Technically the 90 days is a priority deadline, not an absolute bar - a late filing defeats the lien only against good-faith purchasers and encumbrancers for value whose rights accrued before you filed, and against the owner to the extent of the amount already paid to a contractor before you recorded. In practice, for a subcontractor or supplier, the owner has already paid the general contractor, and that carve-out swallows the entire claim. Treat 90 days as absolute. The true outer wall is that no lien may be filed more than three years after the date the first item of material is furnished - and by then it is worth nothing. Priority also punishes lateness: liens for manual labor and for materials filed inside the ninety-day period share ratably in the security; liens filed after it rank by order of filing.

   N.D. Cent. Code § 35-27-13 (deadline and content); § 35-27-14 (effect of late filing, three-year outer bar); § 47-19-03 (acknowledgment required to record, original signature); § 11-18-05(1) (fees, margins, 3-inch space, 10-point Calibri, adequate legal description); § 1-02-15 (computing time); § 1-03-01 (Sunday is a holiday, Saturday is not); § 35-27-22 (priority)(opens the statute in a new tab)
8. 8

   Step 8: Public job: send the registered-mail bond notice and sue on the bond

   Optional

   If you contracted with a subcontractor and have NO contract with the bonded prime: written notice to the prime within 90 days from the date you completed your contribution. You may sue on the bond once you have gone unpaid for 90 days after completing your contribution. Every bond claim is barred unless suit is commenced within ONE YEAR after completion and acceptance of the project.

   On a public improvement there is no lien - the payment bond is the claim. If you have a direct contractual relationship with the bonded prime contractor, you need no notice; you simply sue on the bond once 90 days of non-payment have passed. If your contract is with a SUBCONTRACTOR and you have no contractual relationship with the prime that furnished the bond, you have no claim for relief on the bond at all unless you give the prime written notice within 90 days of completing your contribution. First-tier subs do not need the notice; sending it anyway costs a stamp.

   Where it goes

   The prime contractor that furnished the bond. For the suit: court, against the contractor and the surety.

   How

   REGISTERED mail - not certified. In an envelope addressed to the contractor at any place the contractor maintains an office, conducts business, or has a residence. Then bring the suit in court within one year of completion and acceptance.

   Proof to keep

   The registered mail receipt and tracking showing the mailing date and the address used, a file copy of the notice, and the certified copies of the bond and contract you obtained from the public body.

   What the document must contain

   • A statement, with substantial accuracy, of the amount claimed
   • The name of the person for which the contribution was performed - who hired you

   If you miss it: Miss the 90-day registered-mail notice and you 'do not have a claim for relief upon the bond' - the bond is simply closed to you. Miss the one-year suit deadline and the claim is barred as a lien or claim against the contractor and the contractor's surety. Your only remaining route is a straight contract claim against whoever hired you.

   N.D. Cent. Code § 48-01.2-11 (90-day registered-mail notice; suit after 90 days unpaid); § 48-01.2-12 (one-year bar from completion and acceptance)(opens the statute in a new tab)
9. 9

   Step 9: If the owner requests an itemized, verified account, furnish it

   The owner may make this written request within fifteen days after completion of the contract. Once they do, you cannot commence any enforcement action until ten days after you furnish the statement.

   This is a delay lever the owner controls. On written request, you must furnish an itemized and verified account of your claim. 'Verified' means sworn, not merely signed. Until ten days after you furnish it, no action or proceeding to enforce the lien may be commenced. Separately, the owner may withhold from the general contractor enough of the contract price to meet the demands of everyone holding a lien below the contractor, and may pay and discharge those liens and deduct the cost - which is why serving the owner with a notice of your claim (allowed at any time under the same section) is worth doing, even though it does not force the owner to withhold anything.

   Where it goes

   The owner. For this section, 'owner' includes any person interested in the premises other than a lienor.

   How

   Prepare an itemized account, swear to it before a notary, and deliver it to the owner with proof of the date. Diary the date you furnished it and add ten days - that is the earliest you can commence suit.

   Proof to keep

   The sworn statement itself, the transmittal, and delivery proof establishing the exact date you furnished it. That date starts the ten-day block.

   What the document must contain

   • An itemized account of your claim
   • The amount of the claim
   • Your name and address
   • A verification - sworn before a notary

   If you miss it: Your enforcement action is blocked until you furnish the statement. If a 30-day owner demand is already running, an unanswered request can consume the entire window and cost you the lien.

   N.D. Cent. Code § 35-27-09(opens the statute in a new tab)
10. 10

    Step 10: Watch for the owner's written demand - it cuts three years down to thirty days

    The clock starts the moment the demand is delivered to you and filed with the county recorder. Thirty days from the date of delivery. Open your mail.

    This is the lever the other side pulls, and it is the most dangerous rule in North Dakota construction lien law. On written demand by or on behalf of the owner, delivered to you and filed with the county recorder, suit must be commenced and filed AND a lis pendens recorded within thirty days after the date of delivery, or the lien is forfeited. The statute shuts the door on every excuse: 'This thirty-day requirement applies regardless of the method of delivery and additional time may not be allowed based on the method of delivery.' There is no mailbox rule, no extension for slow mail, no relief for being out of town. The demand itself must tell you that the lien is forfeited if you do not act in time - so if you receive a letter with that warning, that is the trigger.

    Where it goes

    Delivered to you, and filed with the recorder of the county where your lien is recorded.

    How

    Open every certified and registered letter the day it arrives. Periodically check the recorder's index against your lien for a filed demand. Treat the delivery date as day zero, get a lawyer that same week, and plan on PERSONAL SERVICE for the pre-suit notice in the next step - the registered-mail route takes twenty of your thirty days and leaves almost nothing.

    Proof to keep

    The envelope with its postmark, the demand itself, and a dated record of exactly how and when it was delivered. The delivery date is the only date that matters.

    What the document must contain

    • A valid demand must inform the lienor that if suit is not commenced and a lis pendens recorded within the thirty days required under this section, the lien is forfeited

    If you miss it: The lien is forfeited. Not tolled, not suspended, not curable by refiling - forfeited, and there is no extension for how it reached you. Any calendar that shows only your three-year date will walk you straight into this.

    N.D. Cent. Code § 35-27-25(opens the statute in a new tab)
11. 11

    Step 11: Serve the pre-suit notice of intent to enforce

    At least TEN days before you commence the action if you serve it personally. At least TWENTY days before if you send it by registered mail. This sits inside your enforcement window, so it shortens every deadline above.

    Before a lienholder may enforce a lien, the lienholder must give the owner written notice of the intention to do so. This is a separate notice from the certified-mail notice you sent before recording, and it is a condition precedent to suit. It appears eleven sections later in the chapter than the first notice, which is why it is so often missed.

    Where it goes

    The legal or equitable owner of the property affected.

    How

    Personal service on the legal or equitable owner (10 days' lead time), OR REGISTERED mail directed to the owner's last-known address (20 days' lead time). Registered, not certified - this is a different mail standard from the pre-recording notice. If a 30-day owner demand is running, use personal service; the 20-day mail route barely fits and leaves no margin for error.

    Proof to keep

    The process server's affidavit of personal service (with the date), or the registered mail receipt and return card, plus a file copy of the notice. You will need to prove the lead time was satisfied.

    What the document must contain

    • Written notice of the lienholder's intention to enforce the lien

    If you miss it: You have not satisfied a mandatory condition precedent, and your enforcement action is exposed to dismissal. If the three-year window or a 30-day demand window has closed by the time that happens, the lien dies with the case.

    N.D. Cent. Code § 35-27-24(opens the statute in a new tab)
12. 12

    Step 12: Commence suit, file it, and record a lis pendens - all three

    Within THREE YEARS after the date your lien was recorded (not from your last work, not from completion). Or within THIRTY DAYS of delivery if the owner served a demand. Whichever comes first. And back the whole thing up by the 10 or 20 days the pre-suit notice takes.

    A lien is not valid, effective, nor enforceable unless the lienor commences an action AND records a lis pendens with the county recorder within the window. Two independent conditions. 'If a lis pendens is not recorded within the limitations provided by this section, the lien is deemed satisfied.' Filing the complaint alone loses the lien. And in North Dakota a civil action is commenced by SERVICE of the summons, not by filing it - so 'commenced and filed' means you must get the summons served AND the case filed, plus record the lis pendens, all inside the window.

    Where it goes

    District court of the county where the property is situated, for the suit. The county recorder, for the lis pendens.

    How

    Serve the summons on the defendant. File the action in the district court of the county where the property is situated. Record a notice of pendency of the action with the recorder of each county in which the property sits. One more trap: the lis pendens 'is of no avail unless it is followed by the first publication of the summons, or by the personal service thereof on a defendant, within sixty days after such filing.' Any number of claimants against the same property may join in one action, and separate actions may be consolidated. The judgment may direct that if a deficiency remains after the sale, execution may issue for the deficiency.

    Proof to keep

    The affidavit of service of the summons with its date, the file-stamped complaint, and the recorder's stamped lis pendens showing its document number and recording date. Those three dates are what prove you met the window.

    What the document must contain

    • Lis pendens (N.D.C.C. § 28-05-07): the names of the parties
    • Lis pendens: the object of the action
    • Lis pendens: a description of the real property affected

    If you miss it: Miss the three years and the lien is not valid, effective or enforceable. Miss a 30-day demand and the lien is forfeited, with no extension for the method of delivery. Record no lis pendens and the lien is deemed satisfied even if you sued in time. None of these can be cured by recording a new lien - by then your 90 days are long gone.

    N.D. Cent. Code § 35-27-25 (three years / thirty days; suit and lis pendens both required); § 28-05-07 (lis pendens contents, where recorded, 60-day service follow-up); N.D.R.Civ.P. 3 (a civil action is commenced by service of a summons); § 35-27-24 (district court of the county where the property is situated)(opens the statute in a new tab)

Who can claim a lien in North Dakota

Where you file

Office

County Recorder

Recording fee

$20–$65

Notarization

Required

How it is served

Certified mail

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

What trips people up in North Dakota

• BELIEVING YOU HAVE THREE YEARS. The owner can deliver a written demand, file it with the county recorder, and collapse your three years to thirty days - at any time, unilaterally, and the statute says no extra time may be allowed based on how it was delivered. Within those thirty days you must serve and file suit AND record a lis pendens, and you must already have served the pre-suit notice (10 days personal service, 20 days registered mail). This is the single most common uncurable loss in North Dakota. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-25. Source(opens the statute in a new tab)
• FILING SUIT AND STOPPING THERE. A recorded lis pendens is a second, independent condition: 'If a lis pendens is not recorded within the limitations provided by this section, the lien is deemed satisfied.' A perfect lawsuit with no lis pendens loses the lien. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-25.
• THINKING 'COMMENCED' MEANS FILED. In North Dakota a civil action is commenced by SERVICE of the summons, not by filing it with the court. Under a 30-day demand you must get the defendant served, not just get papers to the clerk. N.D.R.Civ.P. 3. Source(opens the statute in a new tab)
• MISSING THE SECOND NOTICE. There are two owner notices, eleven sections apart. Certified mail at least 10 days before RECORDING (§ 35-27-02(4)), and a separate written notice of intent to ENFORCE - personal service 10 days before suit, or registered mail 20 days before suit (§ 35-27-24). Most people send the first and never learn about the second. Source(opens the statute in a new tab)
• CONFUSING CERTIFIED AND REGISTERED MAIL. Three different standards in one state: CERTIFIED for the pre-recording notice to the owner (§ 35-27-02(4)); REGISTERED for the pre-suit notice of intent to enforce (§ 35-27-24); REGISTERED for the public-works bond notice to the prime (§ 48-01.2-11). A template that hardcodes certified mail everywhere defeats two of the three.
• NOT CHECKING WHAT THE OWNER HAS PAID. North Dakota is an unpaid-balance state. Your lien is capped at the difference between what the owner has paid and the value of your contribution, and 'If the owner, trustee, or agent has paid the full price or value of the contribution, no lien is allowed.' A sub or supplier on a job where the owner already paid the general contractor in full has no lien, no matter how perfect the filing. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-02(2).
• PADDING THE AMOUNT. No lien exists for any amount if it is made to appear you knowingly demanded more than is justly due - the whole lien, not just the excess (§ 35-27-16). And an owner who successfully contests the validity OR THE ACCURACY of a lien MUST be awarded the full amount of all costs and reasonable attorney's fees (§ 35-27-24.1). Rolling in disputed extras turns a collection claim into a fee judgment against you. Source(opens the statute in a new tab)
• GETTING THE DATES WRONG AND EXPECTING TO FIX THEM. Against everyone except the owner, you are 'concluded by the dates therein given, showing the first and last items of the claimant's account.' A sloppy last-contribution date cannot be corrected later against a bank or a buyer. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-16.
• WORKING UNLICENSED ON A JOB OVER $4,000. An unlicensed contractor 'may not maintain any claim, action, suit, or proceeding in any court of this state' related to contracting. The lien can be recorded perfectly and still be unenforceable, and acting unlicensed is a class A misdemeanor. N.D.C.C. § 43-07-02(1). Source(opens the statute in a new tab)
• USING THE WRONG CHAPTER ON OIL, GAS OR PIPELINE WORK. Chapter 35-27 expressly prohibits anyone furnishing labor, materials or services under chapter 35-24 from claiming a lien under it. Chapter 35-24 gives SIX MONTHS to file (not 90 days), TWO YEARS from filing to sue, requires a statement verified by affidavit, and needs a 16-point disclaimer. Route a Bakken claim into a 35-27 lien and you file a prohibited lien while the real clock expires. N.D.C.C. §§ 35-27-02(5), 35-24-11(3), 35-24-14.
• READING § 35-27-14's THREE YEARS AS THE FILING DEADLINE. It is not. Late filing defeats the lien against good-faith purchasers and encumbrancers, and against the owner to the extent already paid to a contractor - which for a sub is usually the whole claim. Three years from the FIRST item of material is only an absolute outer wall on a lien that is already nearly worthless. 90 days is the real deadline.
• COUNTING ON A WEEKEND EXTENSION. North Dakota computes time by excluding the first day and including the last, extending only if the last day is a holiday - and Sunday is a holiday under state law while SATURDAY IS NOT. A 90th day that lands on a Saturday is still the 90th day, and the recorder's office is closed. N.D.C.C. §§ 1-02-15, 1-03-01.
• MINGLING CHARGES ACROSS JOBS. A supplier running one open account across several owners' properties defeats the right to a lien against every one of them, except where the properties are jointly or commonly owned. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-10.
• LIENING TENANT-ORDERED WORK WITHOUT CHECKING THE OWNER. If the owner's tenant ordered the improvements, no lien is allowed unless the legal or equitable owner had actual or constructive notice and failed to object. Owners can also kill liens for unauthorized improvements by serving written notice within five days of learning of the work, or by posting and keeping posted a conspicuous objection on the premises. Commercial tenant-improvement work is badly exposed. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-07(2)-(3).
• LIENING EQUIPMENT AT THE CONTRACT RATE. Rental is lienable only to the extent of the reasonable value for the period of ACTUAL USE, and 'The rental value is not determinable by the contract for rental unless the owner is a party to the rental contract.' Hand tools are excluded entirely. Liening your invoiced rate is an overstatement risk under § 35-27-16. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-01(4).
• GOING TO THE 'REGISTER OF DEEDS.' North Dakota has County Recorders. Section 35-27-13 says 'the recorder of the county,' and chapter 11-18 governs the office. Register of Deeds is Minnesota, Wisconsin and Tennessee terminology; following it sends you to an office that does not exist here.
• ASSUMING A PUBLIC JOB WORKS THE SAME WAY. No lien attaches to public property. The bond is the remedy, and only on contracts over $250,000. Second-tier claimants must give the prime registered-mail notice within 90 days of completing their contribution, and every bond suit is barred one year after completion and acceptance. N.D.C.C. §§ 48-01.2-10, 48-01.2-11, 48-01.2-12.
• MISSING THE MONTH-END TRIGGER ON RAILWAY WORK. A construction lien on a line of railway runs ninety days from the LAST DAY OF THE MONTH in which the labor or material was furnished - not from your own last contribution. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-18. Source(opens the statute in a new tab)
• SIGNING A WAIVER WITHOUT READING IT. If the owner, trustee or agent holds a valid lien waiver signed by you, no lien is allowed - full stop. Chapter 35-27 prescribes no conditional or unconditional waiver forms, so the language is unregulated and whatever you sign is what you get. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-02(3).

After you file

• Diary BOTH enforcement dates the day you record: three years from the RECORDING DATE of the lien (not from your last work), and a standing alert that any owner demand resets you to 30 days from delivery. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-25.
• Keep the address the owner has for you current, and open every certified and registered letter the day it arrives. The owner's 30-day demand is delivered to you and filed with the recorder, and no extra time is allowed for the method of delivery. A demand sitting unopened is a forfeited lien.
• Periodically check the county recorder's index against your recorded lien for a filed owner demand. The demand is filed with the recorder as well as delivered to you, so the record is a second place to catch it.
• Chapter 35-27 does NOT require you to serve the recorded lien on the owner after recording. Do not let anyone tell you there is a post-recording service deadline in this chapter - there is not.
• If the owner makes a written request within fifteen days after completion of the contract, furnish an itemized and VERIFIED (sworn) account of your claim, with the amount and your name and address. No enforcement action may be commenced until ten days after you furnish it. Keep proof of the furnishing date. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-09.
• Build the pre-suit notice into your enforcement calendar, not into the last week. Personal service needs 10 days of lead time before suit; registered mail needs 20. Under a 30-day demand, only personal service realistically fits. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-24.
• When you do enforce, all three acts must land inside the window: serve the summons (that is what commences the action in North Dakota), file the case in the district court of the county where the property sits, and record the lis pendens with the county recorder. Missing the lis pendens alone makes the lien 'deemed satisfied.' N.D.C.C. § 35-27-25; N.D.R.Civ.P. 3.
• After recording the lis pendens, make sure the summons is first published or personally served on a defendant within sixty days, or the lis pendens 'is of no avail.' N.D.C.C. § 28-05-07.
• Do not amend a recorded lien to raise the amount without legal advice. The dates in your lien already bind you against everyone but the owner, and any appearance of knowingly demanding more than is justly due voids the entire lien and triggers a mandatory cost-and-fee award to the owner. N.D.C.C. §§ 35-27-16, 35-27-24.1.
• If you are paid, release the lien promptly. Chapter 35-27 sets no statutory release deadline or penalty (the old penalty section, § 35-27-26, was repealed), but leaving a satisfied lien on title invites the owner's § 35-27-24.1 challenge to its accuracy - which carries a mandatory fee award against you.
• Know your priority position. Liens rank by class: manual labor, then materials, then subcontractors other than manual laborers, then original contractors. Manual-labor and materials liens filed inside the ninety-day period share ratably; those filed later rank by order of filing. N.D.C.C. § 35-27-22.
• On a public job there is no lien to monitor - watch the bond deadlines instead: registered-mail notice to the prime within 90 days of your last contribution if you have no contract with the prime, and suit within one year after completion and acceptance. N.D.C.C. §§ 48-01.2-11, 48-01.2-12.