How to file a mechanics lien in Puerto Rico

Step by step

8 steps for a subcontractor in Puerto Rico.

1. 1

   Step 1: Find out who owns the job before your first day

   Before you start. Not later — the answer changes what you have to do during the job.

   Puerto Rico runs three completely separate systems and they share nothing. A federal owner means the Miller Act. The Commonwealth, a municipality, or any Puerto Rico department, agency or instrumentality means the Act 388 public-works bond. A private person or company means the Act 73 wage lien and the Act 111 wage bond. Your deadline and your only remedy both come out of this one answer.

   Where it goes

   The general contractor's office. On federal jobs, the contracting agency's contracting officer.

   How

   Ask the general contractor in writing for the owner's legal name and address and the contract number, and keep the reply. On a federal job the contracting agency must give you a certified copy of the payment bond and the contract if you submit an affidavit that you supplied labor or material for the work and have not been paid.

   Proof to keep

   The written answer from the GC, your signed contract or purchase order, and the certified bond copy.

   What the document must contain

   • Owner's full legal name and mailing address
   • Whether the owner is federal, Commonwealth/municipal, or private
   • The prime contract number and the contracting agency, if any
   • The bonding company's name and the bond number
   • The general contractor's legal name and business address

   If you miss it: You will count the wrong clock. A Commonwealth bond claim dies six months after the government accepts the work; a private wage lien dies a year after your own work ends; a federal claim dies a year after your own last day. They are not interchangeable and there is no cure for picking wrong.

   22 L.P.R.A. § 58 (definitions of 'public work' and 'Commonwealth of Puerto Rico'); 40 U.S.C. §§ 3131(b), 3133(a)(opens the statute in a new tab)
2. 2

   Step 2: Confirm a payment bond actually exists and get a copy

   Before you start, and again the day a payment goes late.

   On private work, any contractor whose permitted estimated construction cost is over $15,000 must post a wage payment bond in favor of the Secretary of Labor BEFORE starting, for at least 20% of estimated cost. On Commonwealth public work, every contractor must post a payment bond from the day the contract is signed, for at least half the contract value, with no dollar threshold. On federal work over $100,000 a payment bond is required. Since the bond is the only remedy most claimants have here, you need to know it exists before you rely on it.

   Where it goes

   The pay-site notice; the Departamento del Trabajo y Recursos Humanos; on federal jobs, the contracting agency.

   How

   On every private job the contractor or subcontractor must post a public notice at the pay site, for the whole time the contract runs, naming the contractor, the nature of the work and the bonding company. Photograph it. Ask the Department of Labor and Human Resources, in whose favor the private bond runs. On a federal job, submit your affidavit to the contracting agency for a certified copy — that copy is prima facie evidence of the bond.

   Proof to keep

   A dated photo of the posted pay-site notice, the certified bond copy, and your written request with the reply.

   What the document must contain

   • For the federal affidavit: a statement that you supplied labor or material for work described in the contract and have not been paid, or that you are being sued on the bond

   If you miss it: You may spend your whole window relying on a bond that was never posted. Puerto Rico had to make it a felony to start private work without the bond, and give the Secretary of Labor injunction power to stop the job, precisely because contractors skip it. Never take the GC's word for it.

   29 L.P.R.A. §§ 195, 196, 204, 205, 206; 22 L.P.R.A. §§ 47, 48; 40 U.S.C. §§ 3131(b), 3133(a)(opens the statute in a new tab)
3. 3

   Step 3: Write down your last day on the job, every time

   Every week you are on site, and on your final day.

   Almost every clock in Puerto Rico runs from a date somebody could argue about: the end of YOUR work, the completion of the WHOLE job, or the government's FINAL ACCEPTANCE. You cannot prove any of them from memory. Build the paper as you go.

   Where it goes

   Your own records. Keep them off the jobsite.

   How

   Keep dated delivery tickets, signed timesheets, daily reports, photos with visible dates, and signed pay applications. Note the date of the last item you actually furnished — warranty, punch-list and callback work can move that date and can cut both ways.

   Proof to keep

   Dated tickets, timesheets and photos. A signed receipt from the person who took delivery beats your own log every time.

   What the document must contain

   • The exact date of your last labor performed or material supplied
   • What was furnished on that date and to whom
   • The dates your own scope started and finished
   • Any dates you were told the whole job was complete or accepted

   If you miss it: You lose the argument about when the clock started, and the party holding the money is the one who benefits from the doubt.

   29 L.P.R.A. § 189 (one year from the end of the work claimed for); 29 L.P.R.A. § 200 (one year from completion of the whole work and all labor on it); 22 L.P.R.A. § 55 (six months from final acceptance); 40 U.S.C. § 3133(b)(4) (one year from your own last day)(opens the statute in a new tab)
4. 4

   Step 4: If you are not a wage worker, get a Property Registry annotation WHILE the job is still running

   ONLY while the works being financed are still going on. The statute says 'mientras duren las obras.' There is no day count. The day the job finishes or is abandoned, this route is gone permanently.

   This is the only route in Puerto Rico that puts anything against the property for a contractor, sub, supplier, equipment lessor or design professional. A 'refaccionary creditor' — someone who put money, work or materials into the improvement — may ask the Property Registry to enter a preventive annotation. It is not a mechanics lien and it is not a substitute for one, but it is the only property-side leverage that exists.

   Where it goes

   The Registro de la Propiedad section for the municipality where the property lies. There are 29 sections across 12 offices, headquartered in Santurce for the metro area and Mayagüez for the west.

   How

   Presented at the Registry, in practice through a Puerto Rico attorney-notary, electronically through the KARIBE digital registry. A court order is required only for Article 44 subsections 1 and 2 — subsection 9 is not one of them — but the Act does not spell out the instrument or procedure, so your notary drives this.

   Proof to keep

   The presentation receipt and its date. A refaccionary annotation takes full effect from the date the document producing it was PRESENTED, not from when the registrar gets to it.

   What the document must contain

   • Full identification of the property as it appears in the Registry
   • The nature and amount of your refaccionary credit — what you put into the work
   • Evidence the works are still in progress on the date of presentation
   • Your identification and that of the owner

   If you miss it: You permanently lose the only way to reach the property, and you are left with an unsecured money claim against a contractor who is not paying you.

   Ley 210-2015 arts. 42, 44(9), 45, 53 (30 L.P.R.A. §§ 6062, 6064(9), 6065, 6073)(opens the statute in a new tab)
5. 5

   Step 5: Everyone else: claim against the owner BEFORE he finishes paying the contractor

   Immediately. Today. There is no deadline, and that is exactly the danger — the claim is not killed by a clock, it is killed by the owner paying the contractor out.

   Puerto Rico's Civil Code gives people who put their labor and materials into a lump-sum job a direct claim against the owner — but only up to the amount the owner still owes the contractor AT THE MOMENT YOU MAKE THE CLAIM. This is the closest thing a non-worker has to a lien, and it shrinks every time the owner cuts a cheque.

   Where it goes

   The owner (the comitente) directly, in writing. Copy the general contractor.

   How

   A written demand delivered so you can prove it arrived, then suit if it is ignored. An extrajudicial demand by the creditor to the debtor also interrupts prescription and restarts your four-year clock.

   Proof to keep

   The dated demand and the delivery proof. The date you made the claim is what fixes how much of the owner's remaining balance you can reach.

   What the document must contain

   • Identification of the work and the property
   • Your contract or purchase order with the contractor or subcontractor
   • The amount you are owed and what it is for
   • An express statement that you are claiming against the owner up to the sum the owner still owes the contractor
   • The date

   If you miss it: If the owner has already paid the contractor in full when you claim, there is nothing to reach and your claim against the owner is worth zero. Puerto Rico has no notice of contest and no notice of completion, because the owner does not need one — he just pays the contractor and your leverage disappears without a word to you.

   Civil Code of Puerto Rico of 2020, arts. 1374 and 1197 (31 L.P.R.A. §§ 10271, 9489); art. 1203 (31 L.P.R.A. § 9495) for the four-year period(opens the statute in a new tab)
6. 6

   Step 6: Federal job, contracted with a subcontractor: notify the prime within 90 days

   Within 90 days from the date you did the last of the labor or supplied the last of the material. This is a hard federal deadline with no cure and no extension.

   On a federal project, if you have a direct contract with a subcontractor but no contract with the prime contractor who furnished the payment bond, you must give the prime written notice. Workers and anyone with a direct contract with the prime give no notice.

   Where it goes

   The prime contractor that furnished the payment bond.

   How

   Served by any means that provides written, third-party verification of delivery to the contractor at any place it maintains an office or conducts business, or at the contractor's residence — or in any manner a US marshal may serve a summons. Certified mail return receipt or a signed courier delivery both qualify.

   Proof to keep

   The third-party delivery verification with its date, and your last-furnishing records proving the 90 days were met.

   What the document must contain

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

   If you miss it: The payment bond claim is gone permanently. There is no lien on federal property and no Puerto Rico remedy that reaches it.

   40 U.S.C. § 3133(b)(2)(opens the statute in a new tab)
7. 7

   Step 7: Commonwealth job: sue on the bond within six months of final acceptance

   Six months after the Commonwealth finally accepts the work — NOT six months from your last day. You do not control that date and nobody has to tell you it happened. Ask the contracting agency in writing for the final-acceptance date now. If you cannot get an answer, count six months from your own last day, which is almost always earlier and therefore safe. The one case where it is not: if you did punch-list, warranty or callback work AFTER the government accepted the job, acceptance came first and your real deadline is earlier than six months from your last day.

   There is no lien on public property in Puerto Rico. The contractor's payment bond is the entire remedy, and it is the shortest window in the jurisdiction. You sue the contractor, the bond and the sureties, or any of them.

   Where it goes

   The Tribunal de Primera Instancia for the place where the work is located, or where you reside — or any one of you if there are several claimants.

   How

   A complaint against the contractor, its bond and its sureties. It may be run under the Act 2 summary procedure. All wage claims on the same work may be joined in one querella, and all materials/equipment/tools claims in another. You do not need to attach a copy of the contract or subcontract — a reference identifying it is enough. Workers and employees, including a subcontractor's employees, may sue at any time with no prior notice or demand.

   Proof to keep

   The contracting agency's written statement of the final-acceptance date — get this in writing, it is the single most important document in a Commonwealth claim. Plus your mailing receipts.

   What the document must contain

   • A reference identifying the contract or subcontract
   • The bond and the sureties
   • The wages earned, or what you supplied, sold or delivered
   • The amount claimed
   • If you supplied a subcontractor: proof of the mailed notice and that 30 days have run

   If you miss it: The cause of action prescribes and the bond may then be cancelled. There is no lien, no second remedy and no cure. Serving yourself a one-year deadline on a Commonwealth job forfeits the claim outright.

   22 L.P.R.A. §§ 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57 (Act 388 of 1951, arts. 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11)(opens the statute in a new tab)
8. 8

   Step 8: Federal job: wait 90 days, then sue within one year

   Two clocks, both measured from the same day — the day you last performed labor or supplied material. You may NOT sue until 90 days after that day. You MUST sue no later than one year after that day. Your window is days 91 through 365.

   A Miller Act suit on the prime's payment bond. There is no lien on federal property, so this is everything.

   Where it goes

   The United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico — the district where the contract was to be performed and executed. Amount in controversy does not matter.

   How

   Brought in the name of the United States for your use. If you contracted with a subcontractor rather than the prime, your 90-day written notice must already have gone out.

   Proof to keep

   Last-furnishing records and the notice delivery verification. Also keep any waiver you were asked to sign and the date you signed it.

   What the document must contain

   • The amount unpaid at the time the action is brought
   • The payment bond and the prime contract
   • Your contract or purchase order
   • For remote claimants: proof of the 90-day notice and its delivery verification

   If you miss it: Time-barred, permanently. Separately: a waiver of your right to sue on the bond is VOID unless it is in writing, signed by you, and executed AFTER you furnished the labor or material — so a waiver buried in your subcontract before you started work does not bind you. One signed after a pay application does.

   40 U.S.C. § 3133(b)(1), (b)(3), (b)(4), (c)(opens the statute in a new tab)

Who can claim a lien in Puerto Rico

Where you file

Office

NO LIEN-RECORDING OFFICE EXISTS IN PUERTO RICO. Nothing is recorded. The 29 L.P.R.A. 186 wage lien arises by operation of law and is asserted by a sworn querella filed in the Puerto Rico Court of First Instance (Tribunal de Primera Instancia) for the place where the work was done or where the worker resides on the date of the claim (32 L.P.R.A. 3118; 29 L.P.R.A. 187-188). Commonwealth and municipal public-works bond claims are filed in the Court of First Instance for the place where the work is located or where the plaintiff resides (22 L.P.R.A. 56); private-works wage-bond claims likewise (29 L.P.R.A. 201). Miller Act claims go to the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. A preventive annotation of a refaccionary credit, where available, is presented at the Registro de la Propiedad section for the municipality where the property lies.

Notarization

Not required

Sworn or verified

Sworn statement

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 Puerto Rico

• Looking for somewhere to record a lien. There is nowhere, for anyone, on any project. A contractor who spends his window hunting for a recording office loses everything. Contractors, subs, specialty contractors, suppliers, equipment lessors and design professionals have no lien on Puerto Rico property at all.
• Using a one-year deadline on a Commonwealth or municipal job. The bond claim prescribes SIX MONTHS after final acceptance (22 L.P.R.A. § 55) and there is no lien on public property to fall back on. This is the single most dangerous number in Puerto Rico.
• Not knowing the final-acceptance date. The six-month clock starts on an event you do not control and are not told about. Ask the contracting agency in writing today. Absent an answer, count six months from your own last day — earlier, and safe — EXCEPT if you did punch-list, warranty or callback work after acceptance, in which case acceptance came first and your real deadline is sooner than you think.
• Getting the private-work triggers backwards. The Act 111 bond claim runs one year from completion of the WHOLE work and all labor on it (§ 200) — later. The § 186 wage lien runs one year from the end of YOUR OWN work (§ 189) — earlier, and it is the one that expires first. Working to the bond date and missing the lien date is a common and fatal error.
• Filing the wage complaint without first demanding payment from the owner. 29 L.P.R.A. § 187 makes that demand a condition precedent. A complaint filed comfortably inside the year can still be dismissed for want of it.
• Getting the mail class wrong on the public-works notice. The OFFICIAL SPANISH TEXT of 22 L.P.R.A. § 51 says 'por correo certificado' — certified mail. The circulated English translation says 'registered mail.' These are different USPS products and guidance in the wild says both. Send the notice by certified AND registered mail, return receipt requested, on the same day.
• Suing on the public-works bond before the 30 days from your mailed notice have run — or mailing so late that the 30 days will not expire inside the six-month window. Both end the claim, and both are avoidable by mailing the day payment is missed.
• A material supplier on a PRIVATE job assuming the contractor's bond covers it. It does not. 29 L.P.R.A. § 196 secures the payment of WAGES to the contractor's laborers and employees, full stop. On private work suppliers have no lien and no bond claim — only a contract action and the capped claim against the owner. The reverse is true on public work, where 22 L.P.R.A. § 48(2) expressly covers materials, equipment and tools.
• THE LEVER YOU WILL NEVER SEE COMING — the owner pays the contractor out. Your Civil Code claim against the owner reaches only what the owner still owes the contractor AT THE MOMENT YOU MAKE THE CLAIM (art. 1374). Puerto Rico has no notice of contest and no notice of completion, because the owner needs neither: every progress payment he releases shrinks your recovery, and it hits zero the day he pays in full. Nobody has to notify you. Claim early or do not bother.
• THE SECOND LEVER — the job finishing. The Property Registry preventive annotation is available ONLY while the works last (Ley 210-2015 art. 44(9)). The owner and the GC decide when the job ends. Completion or abandonment closes the only registry route a non-worker has, permanently and without notice.
• THE THIRD LEVER — bond cancellation. Once six months post-acceptance (public) or a year post-completion (private) passes with no judicial claim pending, the bond may be cancelled (22 L.P.R.A. § 55; 29 L.P.R.A. § 200). Filing is the only thing that freezes it.
• Taking the GC's word that a bond exists. Puerto Rico had to make starting private work without the bond a FELONY and give the Secretary of Labor injunction power to stop the job (29 L.P.R.A. §§ 204, 206) — that tells you how often it is missing. Photograph the pay-site notice required by § 205 and check with the Department of Labor before you rely on the bond.
• Relying on free code sites. The 1930 Civil Code was repealed effective 28 November 2020 and the 1979 Mortgage Law was repealed by Act 210-2015, but the widely-indexed free versions of Titles 31 and 30 still show them. Anything citing 31 L.P.R.A. §§ 4130 or 5192, or the 1979 Ley Hipotecaria, is out of date. Free-site Puerto Rico pages are also edition-stamped captures, not the current code.
• Assuming the old 15-year period to sue. Personal actions of every kind now prescribe in FOUR years (Civil Code of 2020 art. 1203, 31 L.P.R.A. § 9495). Guidance written against the 1930 Code is wrong by eleven years.
• On a federal job, applying Puerto Rico's rules. It is the Miller Act: a hard 90-day notice to the prime if you contracted with a sub, no suit before day 90, and suit by day 365, in the US District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.
• Preparing English-only paperwork. Puerto Rico courts and the Property Registry operate in Spanish and registry instruments are executed before a Puerto Rico attorney-notary. An English document package will not produce a usable filing.

After you file

• Diary the defendant's answer date — 10 days from notification, or 15 if service was made outside the judicial district where you brought the action. If it passes with no answer, move for judgment: the statute says judgment is entered granting the remedy sought, without further citation or hearing. (32 L.P.R.A. § 3120)
• Do not pay stamp fees you do not owe. Every case filed under the labor summary procedure is exempt from the cancellation of the required stamps. (32 L.P.R.A. § 3132)
• Ask for costs and fees, in all three places they exist. On the wage lien, if judgment goes against the owner or grantee he may be ordered to pay costs including attorney's fees (29 L.P.R.A. § 190). Under the summary procedure, costs are awarded only in the claimant's favour and fees are awarded where the claimant had private counsel (32 L.P.R.A. § 3132). On the private wage bond, you may also recover a sum EQUAL to the unpaid wages as additional compensation (29 L.P.R.A. § 201).
• Tell the surety and the contracting agency in writing that a claim is pending. Both bonds may be cancelled once their period runs out — six months after final acceptance on public work, one year after completion on private work — UNLESS a judicial claim is pending. A pending claim freezes the bond until final judgment is satisfied up to the limit of the bond. (22 L.P.R.A. § 55; 29 L.P.R.A. § 200)
• If a Property Registry preventive annotation was entered, calendar its expiry. All preventive annotations lapse four years after being annotated unless the law fixes a different term, and the lapse operates by the mere passage of time — no one will warn you. (Ley 210-2015 art. 53, 30 L.P.R.A. § 6073)
• Watch for the property being sold. The § 186 wage lien appears in no registry at all, so a buyer who purchases and records in good faith may never see it. Whether the lien survives against that buyer is an open question in Puerto Rico. If you hear the property is being sold, tell your lawyer the same day.
• On federal work, do not sign a bond waiver on the assumption it is unenforceable. A waiver is void only if it was signed before you furnished the labor or material; one signed afterwards, in writing, is valid and binding. (40 U.S.C. § 3133(c))
• On Commonwealth work, if the problem is unpaid wages there is a faster administrative route than suit: the work inspector and the Department of Labor must investigate, prepare a payroll of the wages owed, and the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works may deduct that amount from the contractor's monthly certification or from the 10% retainage. This is not something you file, but it is worth asking the inspector to trigger. (22 L.P.R.A. § 50)