Alaska mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Alaska lien deadline
Based on the general 120-day period from last furnishing. Exceptions apply — treat this as a planning estimate, not legal advice.
Filing deadline
Claim of Lien must be recorded in the recorder's office for the recording district where the land lies (both districts if it straddles two) within 120 days after the claimant completes its contract or last furnishes labor/materials/services/equipment. If the owner records a valid Notice of Completion, the window collapses to 15 days from that recording unless the claimant recorded a Notice of Right to Lien in time or gave one and did not get the required advance warning. The window is never longer than 120 days — AS 34.35.068(b)(2) preserves the full (a) period, and no provision extends it. THE ESCAPE HATCH IS IN (b)(2)(A) AND IS WORTH KNOWING BEFORE YOU NEED IT: a claimant caught by the fifteen-day rule can keep the full 120 days by RECORDING A NOTICE OF RIGHT TO LIEN WITHIN THOSE FIFTEEN DAYS. ⚠ AND A DEFECTIVE CLAIM IS NOT A HARMLESS ONE. AS 34.35.070(f): ‘A violation of the provisions of this section places the violator in the position of GUARANTOR regarding another person who suffers damages that are proximately caused by the violation.’ A claim of lien that omits one of the seven required items in AS 34.35.070(c) is not merely unenforceable — it can make the claimant answerable for what the defect costs somebody else. Get the seven items right.
Notice prerequisites
No notice is mandatory before work begins, but an optional Notice of Right to Lien (given to owner/agent by certified mail or personal delivery, ideally before furnishing anything; may also be recorded) is strongly advisable: it creates a presumption the owner knew of and consented to the work, requires anyone who receives it but is not actually the lender to tell you so in writing within 10 days, and guarantees advance warning (5 days) before the owner records a Notice of Completion that would shrink the filing window.
Service on the owner
The Claim of Lien itself need not be served on anyone - recording alone perfects it. The optional Notice of Right to Lien is 'given' by certified mail return-receipt or personal delivery with signed receipt to the owner or the owner's agent.
Enforcement
The recorded lien lives only 6 months; suit to foreclose must be filed within that period (district court up to $50,000, superior court above) in the judicial district where the property lies, and a notice of pendency (lis pendens) must be recorded when suit is filed. One extension notice recorded within the first 6 months buys up to 6 more months. All parties with interests in the land (found via a title litigation report) must be joined.
Alaska Stat. secs. 34.35.050-34.35.120 (esp. AS 34.35.068, .070, .071, .080)
Alaska Statutes, AS 34.35 — published by the Alaska State 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 prime contractor who furnished the bond. Not the surety, not the agency.
- When — 90 days from YOUR last day on the job. AS 36.25.020.
- How — Registered mail to the contractor. AS 36.25.020.
- If late — The whole claim, if you are not in privity with the prime.
- Sue by — 1 year after final settlement of the contract.
Is there a bond at all?
$100,000. AS 36.25.010(a): required 'before a contract exceeding $100,000 for the construction, alteration, or repair of a public building or public work of the state or a political subdivision of the state is awarded to a general or specialty contractor.' The payment bond's penal sum is graduated rather than flat: one-half the total amount payable for contracts up to $1,000,000; 40 percent for contracts of $1,000,001 to $5,000,000; and $2,500,000 for contracts over $5,000,000.
Who can claim on it
AS 36.25.020(a): 'A person who furnishes labor or material in the prosecution of the work provided for in the contract for which a payment bond is furnished under AS 36.25.010.' Subsection (b) is where the chain stops — it extends the right to 'a person having direct contractual relationships with a subcontractor but no contractual relationship express or implied with the contractor furnishing the payment bond.' A claimant one further tier out (a supplier to a supplier) is not described anywhere in the section.
What notice you owe
Only the claimant described in (b): direct contract with a subcontractor, no contract express or implied with the prime. A claimant in privity with the prime owes no notice at all and simply proceeds under (a).
Who it goes to
The contractor — meaning the prime who furnished the payment bond. Not the surety, and not the contracting agency.
By when
90 days, running from LAST furnishing: 'within 90 days from the last date on which the person performed labor or furnished material for which the claim is made.'
How it must be served
'served by mailing it by registered mail, postage prepaid, in an envelope addressed to the contractor at any place where the contractor maintains an office or conducts business, or the contractor's residence, or in any manner in which a peace officer is authorized to serve summons.'
What it has to say
'The notice must state with substantial accuracy the amount claimed and the name of the person to whom the material was furnished or for whom the labor was performed.'
If the notice is late, or never given
The whole claim, for a claimant who needs subsection (b). The notice is not a formality layered on an existing right — it is the condition on which the non-privity claimant 'has a right of action on the payment bond' in the first place.
When the suit clock starts
The date of final settlement of the contract. Not the claimant's last furnishing.
How long you have to sue
One year. 'A suit may not be started after the expiration of one year after the date of final settlement of the contract.' Separately, subsection (a) bars suit until 90 days have expired after the claimant's own last labor or material.
Where suit is brought
'A suit brought under this section shall be brought in the name of the state or the political subdivision of the state for the use of the person suing in the court with jurisdiction.' The state or political subdivision 'is not liable for costs or expenses of the suit.' The suit is also made subject to AS 08.18.151 (contractor registration).
The trap
The same '90 days' means opposite things in adjacent subsections — in (a) it is a waiting period you must let elapse before you may sue, in (b) it is the deadline by which a non-privity claimant must have served the prime — and neither of them is the clock that ends the claim, because the one-year limit in (c) runs from final settlement of the prime contract, an event the claimant has no way to observe and cannot compute from its own last day of work.
The act itself
No popular name. AS 36.25 is headed 'Contractors' Bonds'; practitioners call it Alaska's Little Miller Act.
Where this comes from
Alaska Stat. §§ 36.25.010–36.25.025. Bond requirement at § 36.25.010; the claimant's rights, notice and suit at § 36.25.020.
Alaska Statutes, AS 34.35 — published by the Alaska State Legislature.
Statutory summary as of 29 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Alaska.