Alabama mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Alabama lien deadline
Filing deadline
Verified Statement of Lien is recorded in the Probate Office of the county where the property sits (every county if it spans several). Deadlines vary by claimant class: laborers 30 days from last labor; original contractors (including full-price lienors) 6 months from maturity of the debt; all other claimants 4 months from last work or materials furnished. No residential/commercial distinction. § 35-11-213 SETS THE CONTENTS AND IS UNUSUALLY FORGIVING ABOUT THEM: the statement carries the amount of the demand AFTER ALL JUST CREDITS HAVE BEEN GIVEN, a description of the property such that it ‘may be located or identified’, and the name of the owner or proprietor — and ‘no error in the amount of the demand or in the name of the owner or proprietor, shall affect the lien.’ AND THE DESCRIPTION RULE RUNS YOUR WAY, which is worth knowing before you pay for a title search: in a city or town, ‘a description by house number, name of street, and name of city or town’ is EXPRESSLY SUFFICIENT. (Arkansas is the opposite — there a street address is expressly not a correct description. Do not carry a habit from one state into the other.) What is not forgiving is the filing itself: ‘Unless such statement is so filed the lien shall be lost.’ The statutory specimen form in § 35-11-213 is permissive — the statement ‘may be in the following form, which shall be deemed sufficient’ — so a modern form carrying the same content is good; the specimen still prints ‘19__’ for the year.
Notice prerequisites
No notice is mandatory before starting work, but a materialman without a direct owner contract may send a pre-furnishing Notice to Owner to gain a 'full price' lien; if the owner does not object before the materials are used, an implied contract for the full price arises. Everyone except an original contractor must give the owner some statutory notice (either the advance notice or an Unpaid Balance notice) before recording a lien statement.
Service on the owner
The owner must receive the statutory notice (advance full-price notice or Unpaid Balance notice) before the lien statement is filed; the Unpaid Balance notice has no fixed deadline other than preceding the filing and must state the amount owed, for what, and by whom.
Enforcement
Suit to enforce must be brought within 6 months after the entire secured debt matures (i.e., becomes contractually due), in the circuit court of the county where the property lies; separate suits are needed for property spanning counties. Owner and, for unpaid-balance liens, the general contractor are necessary parties; parties not joined are not bound. No lis pendens requirement noted.
Ala. Code secs. 35-11-210 through 35-11-234
Code of Alabama 1975 — Title 35, Ch. 11, Art. 5, Div. 8 — published by the Alabama Legislature.
Work on Public Property
No mechanics lien attaches to public property in any state. On a government job the remedy is the prime contractor’s payment bond, and it runs on its own act with its own deadlines — not the lien deadlines above.
- Who — The SURETY, and only the surety. Nothing goes to the awarding body. § 39-1-1(b).
- When — No deadline runs backward from your work. § 39-1-1.
- How — Registered or certified mail to any of the surety’s offices. § 39-1-1(b).
- If late — Nothing is lost by serving late. The danger is suing EARLY — 45 days must pass after your notice.
- Sue by — 1 year from final settlement of the contract. § 39-1-1(b).
Is there a bond at all?
$100,000. § 39-1-1(e): 'This section shall not require the taking of a bond to secure contracts in an amount less than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000).' Raised from $50,000 by Act 2023-497 (2023). § 39-1-1(g) then switches off the whole notice-of-completion machinery in subsection (f) for 'contractors performing contracts of less than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) in amount.'
Who can claim on it
§ 39-1-1(b): 'Any person that has furnished labor, materials, or supplies for or in the prosecution of a public work and payment has not been made may institute a civil action upon the payment bond.' The statute states no tier limit and no privity requirement — it does not on its face stop the chain anywhere. Where Alabama case law cuts off remote suppliers is not answered by the text; if you are more than one tier below the prime, take advice before relying on the bond alone.
What notice you owe
EVERY claimant, in privity or not. § 39-1-1(b) conditions all civil actions on the bond on written notice to the surety, so unlike most Little Miller Acts Alabama does not excuse the first-tier subcontractor who dealt directly with the prime.
Who it goes to
The surety, and only the surety — 'written notice to the surety of the amount claimed to be due and the nature of the claim.' No notice to the awarding authority and none to the contractor is required by the section. Separately, § 39-1-1(c) lets any person with a right of action obtain, on written application to the awarding authority, a promptly furnished certified copy of the bond and the contract.
By when
There is no number of days measured from furnishing. The famous '45 days' runs FORWARD from service of the notice as a waiting period before suit, not backward from a deadline: 'a civil action shall not be instituted on the bond until 45 days after written notice to the surety.' The only outside limit on the notice is the one-year suit period it sits inside.
How it must be served
Registered or certified mail, postage prepaid, addressed to the surety at any of its places of business OR OFFICES, is DEEMED SUFFICIENT by the section — a statutory safe harbor, not the exclusive method. Any means that in fact gives the surety the notice will do; this is the one you can prove.
What it has to say
The amount claimed to be due and the nature of the claim. Nothing else is enumerated.
If the notice is late, or never given
Nothing is forfeited by serving late, because the notice carries no deadline of its own — what is forfeited is by suing early: an action filed before the 45 days run is premature. Serving also has affirmative value: if the surety or contractor fails to pay the claim in full within 45 days of the mailing, the claimant 'may recover from the contractor and surety, in addition to the amount of the claim, a reasonable attorney fee based on the result, together with interest on the claim from the date of the notice.'
When the suit clock starts
The date of final settlement of the contract — not the claimant's last furnishing, and not the date of the notice.
How long you have to sue
One year. 'The civil action shall be commenced not later than one year from the date of final settlement of the contract.'
Where suit is brought
§ 39-1-1(c): the claimant may bring a civil action in the claimant's name on the bond against the contractor and the surety, or either of them, in the county in which the work is to be or has been performed, or in any other county where venue is otherwise allowed by law.
The trap
The '45-day notice' is not a 45-day deadline: § 39-1-1(b) makes 45 days a waiting period that runs forward from whenever you serve — the deadline that actually kills the claim is the separate one year measured from final settlement of the contract, a date set by the contractor's own published notice of completion (three weeks' publication, then no settlement for 30 more days) rather than by anything the claimant can observe.
The act itself
No popular name. The payment-bond right lives in the Public Works chapter and is usually just called Alabama's Little Miller Act or the public works bond statute.
Where this comes from
Ala. Code § 39-1-1 (Title 39, ch. 1). The whole regime — performance bond, payment bond, civil action, notice of completion, final settlement — is in this one section.
Code of Alabama 1975 — Title 35, Ch. 11, Art. 5, Div. 8 — published by the Alabama Legislature.
Statutory summary as of 30 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Alabama.