Washington Construction Law Payment Resources

Simply put, filing a lien is the single most effective method to secure payment for the labor and/or materials you put on a person’s property. In almost all cases, it is less expensive and time-consuming than suing for breach of contract.

When you file a lien, you have the right to require the County Sheriff to sell the property you put work into and collect the amount owing from the sale proceeds. Because of this right to sell and collect, most lending institutions or other prospective purchasers will avoid any property that has a lien filed against it. Who would want to invest in a piece of property if someone else has the right to sell and take some of the money first? Thus, when you file a lien, you are in a much better position to secure payment from the unwilling owner because he or she will have a difficult time selling the property with a lien clouding the title.

The filing of a lien does not guarantee payment, but it does prevent the owner from conveying the property without paying the lien or posting a bond. If you have not filed a lien (or do not meet the requirements to file a lien) but you do have a contract with the owner for the work you performed, then you can always proceed to court, which can be a lengthy and very costly process.

At Northwest Lien, we help you avoid all the guesswork, high legal fees, and uncertainty around filing this very important document. Being experts in Northwest lien laws, we find the legal description, legal owner, mail out to all parties involved and keep accurate records. Northwest Lien also keeps you informed of all important deadlines.

Not just anyone can walk into the recording office and file a lien. Clouding someone’s title and potentially forcing foreclosure is serious business, so many state laws impose some requirements that you need to be aware of before you start work on the property.

You are qualified to file a mechanic’s lien in Washington if you furnished labor, professional services, materials, or equipment for the improvement of real property. Washington law defines qualifying improvements as 1) Constructing, altering, repairing, remodeling, demolishing, clearing, grading, or filling in, of, to, or upon any real property or street or road in front of or adjoining the same; 2) planting of trees, vines, shrubs, plants, hedges, or lawns, or providing other landscaping materials on any real property; and 3) providing professional services upon real property or in preparation for or in conjunction with the intended activities in 1) or 2). You are not qualified to file a mechanic’s lien in Washington if you are a supplier to a supplier. You must also have the appropriate Washington state contractor’s license for the work you completed.

At Northwest Lien, we help you avoid all the guesswork, high legal fees, and uncertainty around filing this very important document. We find the legal description, legal owner, mail out to all parties involved and keep accurate records. Get more details on who can file a lien in Washington. If you’re ready to file your mechanic’s lien, you can do so right here on our site. Click here to get started.

If you provided labor, professional services, equipment or any other form of service to a construction project in Washington, you may be able to file a mechanic’s lien against the property in order to secure payment for your services. Mechanics’ liens have many names including “construction lien”, “mechanic’s liens” and “laborer liens”. They are all referencing the same document.

In essence, mechanics’ liens work by attaching themselves to the land itself or the construction project, and restrict the owner(s) from selling, refinancing or transferring the property without first satisfying the lien. As with any legal document, there are countless details, statutes, and laws that must be understood and abided by to deem the lien “lawful” and enforceable. Furthermore, these requirements can differ state by state. Fortunately, Northwest Lien is here to help make a previously very complicated process, simple. Read our step-by-step process on how to file a mechanic’s lien in Washington.

If you’ve done your homework, reviewed our state-specific date deadlines and believe you are entitled to file a lien, you may do so online right here on our website. Simply click on the File Now button and follow the steps so that we can properly file the document for you with the appropriate county based on their requirements. If you’re unsure of anything, our staff is ready to assist – simply give us a call or send a note on the “Contact Us” section.

Filing pre-lien documents are the best way to ensure your lien rights are protected. A pre-lien document, also known as a Notice of Intent, Preliminary Notice, Prelien Notice, Notice to Owner, Notice of Furnishing, or Notice on Bond are required in Northwest states prior to filing a Lien for payment. Notices of intent to lien also inform your customer that you are working on the project and that you are serious about receiving your payment promptly and in full. Our clients who send these documents at the start of every project are the most successful with getting paid without needing to file a lien. Read more on the process of submitting a Washington Notice of Intent.

More about the Notice:
The notice serves as a “heads-up” to your customer about your right to file a lien and what a lien entails. With limited exceptions, this notice is required even if you don’t expect to file a lien. Because filing a lien is such a powerful tool, the law says the owner must be aware that if he or she doesn’t pay bills, or if his or her contractor doesn’t pay the subs or suppliers, a lien can be filed against the property. The notice is most important in the latter situation—the homeowner usually pays the general and assumes those payments are making their way down the chain to the subs and suppliers. Notice language generally advises the homeowner on how to avoid liens by writing checks to more than one party, obtaining lien waivers upon payment, or using an escrow agent. There are three types of notice documents, two of which are used by general contractors and the other by subcontractors and suppliers. Northwest Lien has a chart, available on this website, detailing the notice process and which forms you need. General contractors should focus on the first row, subs and suppliers on the second. The most notable exception to notice requirements is if you are contracting directly with the property owner. However, the safest approach is to provide notice for all construction projects before you start work and include lien provisions in your underlying contracts.

Assuming that you can file a lien and have properly filed notice, there is one last step to secure your claim. The Claim of Lien announces to the public that you remain unpaid for labor or materials and you have the right to force a sale of the owner’s property in order to receive payment. To make this announcement, you must fill out the Claim of Lien within ninety (90) days of the last date you were performing labor or providing materials on the owner’s property. From the moment you fill out this lien form and record it in the county where the property is located, the lien will show up on any title report obtained on the property. Because no one will buy or lend against the property with an encumbrance on the title, the owner will have to pay you or set aside an amount of no less than one and one-half times the amount of the dollar amount claimed before he or she can sell or refinance the property. Not only do you need to file the Claim of Lien with the county auditor, you must also send a copy of the form to the owner by certified or registered mail within fourteen (14) days of the time that the lien is filed for recording. Your lien will survive for eight months after recording unless before the eight months is up, you choose to bring a lawsuit to foreclose on the lien or file a Release of Lien or Conditional Release of Lien. Learn more about Washington lien deadlines.

No other document in the construction industry is as powerful at securing payment than Liens. They create the best chance for you to get paid. At Northwest Lien, we have an excellent track record of securing payment for our customers who file a lien. Last year alone, we helped our clients secure over $2 million in collections.

That said, in the rare event that your lien is not immediately satisfied, there are other strategies for prompting payment available (that do not involve going to court). Learn more about enforcing a mechanic’s lien in Washington.

A bond claim in the construction context is a notice against a prime contractor’s surety company that a claimant is owed money on a project. If a general contractor is the “first guarantor” of payment to its subcontractors and suppliers on a construction project, then the bonding company acts as a “second guarantor.”

In Washington, you are required to provide the owner with a “Notice of Intent” if you did not contract directly with the owner. Learn more about sending preliminary notice in Washington state.

If you contracted directly with the owner, you are required to provide the owner a “Model Disclosure Statement” when your work involves the repairing, altering or building of 4 or fewer residential units on residential property and the bid price is $1,000 or more, or when the work to be done is on a commercial building and the bid price is between $1,000 – 60,000. Learn how to submit a Model Disclosure Statement in Washington.

Note that if you are only furnishing labor, you need not send a Washington notice (though a Model Disclosure statement will still be required if you contracted directly with the owner). However, if there is any material component to the contract or furnishing, preliminary notice is required to protect your full mechanic’s lien rights. In the circumstance when you are providing labor and materials, it may be possible to file a lien for the labor portion of the work (and exclude the materials cost) without a preliminary notice … however, it is a best practice to avoid this need. As you can see, there are a few nuances associated with notice requirements in Washington.

As a best practice, Northwest Lien recommends to all our clients to send notices prior to entering into any new project. It is an inexpensive way to protect your lien rights should you have problems getting paid down the road.

If you did not contract directly with the owner, the Notice of Intent can be sent at any time, but it only protects your rights to claim a lien for a limited period of time prior to delivery of the notice.

To fully preserve your lien rights, the Notice to Owner must be delivered within 60 days of the date labor or materials were first furnished to the property for all commercial cases, and on a remodel, alteration, or repair of an owner-occupied single-family residence.

If your work was the new construction of a single-family home, the Notice to Owner should be delivered within 10 days of first providing labor or materials to the project.

If you contracted directly with the Owner, the “Model Disclosure Statement” must be delivered prior to the initiation of work. The statement must be signed by the Owner, and you must retain a copy of the signed document for at least three years

If you miss the required date and deliver the Notice late, all is not necessarily lost. A late notice in all commercial cases, and on a remodel, alteration, or repair of an owner-occupied single-family residence will protect your lien rights for 60 days prior to the date the Notice was delivered. In the case of a new construction of a single-family home, a late notice will protect your lien rights for the 10 days preceding the delivery of the notice.

If you contracted directly with the owner, a Model Disclosure Statement must be delivered to, and signed by, the owner.

If you are delivering a Notice of Intent, it may either be sent to the owner via certified or registered mail, or personally delivered to, or served on, the owner. If the notice is personally delivered or served to the owner, a signed receipt from the owner or an affidavit of service is required.

Northwest Lien handles this process from start to finish for our clients. Simply order the notice right here on our site and we notify you when the document has been filed and recorded.

If sent by registered or certified mail, the notice is considered delivered 3 days after mailing, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays.