Georgia mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Georgia lien deadline
Based on the general 90-day period from last furnishing. Exceptions apply — treat this as a planning estimate, not legal advice.
Filing deadline
Claim of Lien must be recorded with the clerk of superior court of the county where the property sits within 90 days (a day-count, not three months) after the claimant's last furnishing of labor, services, materials, or equipment; no residential/commercial distinction; deadline cannot be extended by agreement and a premature filing is invalid; lien must contain a 12-point bold 395-day expiration statement and a Notice of Contest advisory or it is void — § 44-14-367 prescribes that sentence verbatim — ‘This claim of lien expires and is void 395 days from the date of filing of the claim of lien if no notice of commencement of lien action is filed in that time period.’ — in at least 12 point bold font, and says failure to include it ‘shall invalidate the lien and prevent it from being filed’, and § 44-14-361.1(a)(2) says the absence of either the expiration statement or the right-to-contest notice invalidates the lien. What the lien may cover: § 44-14-361(b) reaches work and materials furnished in an EASEMENT OR PUBLIC RIGHT OF WAY adjoining the property where that work benefits the property and is within the scope of the owner’s contract; § 44-14-361(d) adds interest under § 7-4-2 or § 7-4-16; and § 44-14-361.1(e) caps the aggregate of all liens at the contract price of the improvements.
Notice prerequisites
No notice is mandatory before starting work, but three early notices matter. (1) Preliminary Notice of Lien Rights: optional; filed with the superior court clerk within 30 days of first furnishing; non-contractors must mail a copy to the contractor or owner within 7 days of filing; it protects inchoate rights against dissolution via the GC's final-payment affidavit and must be cancelled within 10 days of receiving final payment. (2) Notice of Commencement of Improvement: filed by owner/GC within 15 days of physical commencement and posted on site; its filing changes which perfection track applies. (3) Notice to Contractor: if a Notice of Commencement was properly filed, every claimant lacking privity with the GC (except design professionals) must serve written notice on the GC and owner by registered/certified mail or statutory overnight delivery within the later of 30 days after the Notice of Commencement filing or 30 days after first furnishing, or lien rights are lost — and § 44-14-361.5(a) names the paragraphs it binds, (a)(1), (2) and (6) through (9) of § 44-14-361, so registered architects, foresters, land surveyors, professional engineers and interior designers owe NO notice to contractor. ⚠ AND THERE IS A WAY TO MAKE THE NOTICE DUTY DISAPPEAR ALTOGETHER, which nobody uses: under § 44-14-361.5(b) the contractor must give a copy of the notice of commencement to any subcontractor, materialman or person who asks for it IN WRITING, and ‘failure to give a copy of the notice of commencement within ten calendar days of receipt of the written request ... shall render the provision of this Code section inapplicable to the subcontractor, materialman, or person making the request.’ Ask in writing, keep proof, and a contractor who stalls for ten days has excused you from the notice to contractor entirely. § 44-14-361.5(d) does the same where no notice of commencement was filed at all.
Service on the owner
Within 2 business days after recording, the claimant must send a copy of the lien by registered/certified mail or statutory overnight delivery to the owner (and to the GC if a Notice of Commencement was filed, or as owner's agent if the owner's address is unknown); filing comes first, service follows. Where a notice of commencement is on file, the copy to the contractor goes to the address shown ON THAT NOTICE (§ 44-14-361.1(a)(2)); where the owner is an entity registered with the Secretary of State, sending to the entity or its registered agent satisfies the requirement. ⚠ AND ONE THING THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE LIEN AND KILLS MORE GEORGIA CLAIMS THAN THE LIEN RULES DO. If you sign an interim waiver and release in exchange for a progress payment, § 44-14-366(g)(2)(C) makes that waiver CONCLUSIVELY EFFECTIVE ninety days after you executed it — whether or not the money ever arrived — unless before the ninety days run you file an AFFIDAVIT OF NONPAYMENT, in the statutory form, in the county where the property is located. Signing a waiver for a check that never clears and then waiting is how a Georgia claimant waives a claim it still has. (§ 44-14-366(b) is the good news on the other side: a waiver signed IN ADVANCE of furnishing labor, services or materials is ‘null, void, and unenforceable’.)
Enforcement
Suit on the underlying debt against the primary debtor must be started within 365 days of lien filing (arbitration counts); within 30 days of filing that action a sworn Notice of Commencement of Action must be recorded with the clerk, functioning as Georgia's lis-pendens-style filing, and strict compliance is required. Lien foreclosure against the owner can follow later, except claimants in direct privity with the owner (or excused from the debt action) must foreclose within the 365 days; the lien self-expires 395 days after filing absent the notice.
O.C.G.A. § 44-14-360 et seq., esp. §§ 44-14-361, 44-14-361.1, 44-14-361.5
Official Code of Georgia Annotated — Public Access — published by LexisNexis, for the Georgia General Assembly. This state publishes no code on its own servers; this is the free public access it points to.
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, in both branches. Not the surety, not the public entity.
- When — No notice of commencement: 90 days from your last work. One filed: 30 days. Read below.
- How — A form is prescribed for the 90-day branch only. §§ 13-10-63(a)(1) / 36-91-93(a)(1).
- If late — The whole claim.
- Sue by — 1 year from completion AND acceptance by the public authority.
Is there a bond at all?
$100,000, identically in both regimes. Sec. 13-10-60: 'Except as otherwise provided in Title 32, payment bonds shall be required for all state public works construction contracts with an estimated contract amount greater than $100,000.00; provided, however, that the state may require a payment bond for public works construction contracts that are estimated at $100,000.00 or less.' Sec. 36-91-90 IS NOT QUITE THE SAME SENTENCE, and the difference is at the front: it carries NO Title 32 clause at all, and instead reaches public works construction contracts 'SUBJECT TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF THIS CHAPTER' with the same $100,000.00 threshold, reading 'a governmental entity' for 'the state' throughout. Both add: 'No public works construction contract requiring a payment bond shall be valid for any purpose unless the contractor gives such payment bond; provided, however, that in lieu of such payment bond, the state [governmental entity], in its discretion, may accept a cashier's check, certified check, or cash for the use and protection of all subcontractors and all persons supplying labor, materials, machinery, and equipment in the prosecution of work provided in the contract. The payment bond or other security accepted in lieu of a payment bond shall be in the amount of at least the total amount payable by the terms of the initial contract and shall be increased if requested by the state [governmental entity] as the contract amount is increased.' Note the Title 32 carve-out in the state regime - Department of Transportation work is governed elsewhere.
Who can claim on it
Secs. 13-10-63(a) and 36-91-93(a): 'Every person entitled to the protection of the payment bond or security deposit required to be given' - which Secs. 13-10-60 / 36-91-90 identify as 'all subcontractors and all persons supplying labor, materials, machinery, and equipment in the prosecution of work provided in the contract.' The notice provisos then address only 'any person having a direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor but no contractual relationship, express or implied, with the contractor,' which is where the chain effectively stops - the statute writes no rule at all for a claimant whose own customer is a sub-subcontractor. How Georgia courts treat that claimant is not answered by the text. ONE WORDING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO REGIMES CAN DECIDE WHETHER YOU ARE PROTECTED AT ALL, and it appears where no bond was taken. Sec. 13-10-61 (state) makes the public body liable to 'all subcontractors and to all persons supplying LABOR, MATERIALS, MACHINERY, OR EQUIPMENT'; Sec. 36-91-91 (county, city and other governmental entities) makes it liable to 'all subcontractors and to all persons furnishing LABOR, SKILL, TOOLS, MACHINERY, OR MATERIALS.' SKILL and TOOLS are named only on the local side; EQUIPMENT only on the state side. If what you furnished was a service, or tools rather than goods, you are named expressly on a county or municipal job and you are arguing by analogy on a state one - so say what you furnished in the words your regime uses.
What notice you owe
A claimant IN PRIVITY with the contractor owes NOTHING. A claimant having a direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor but none with the contractor owes a notice - but WHICH notice, and on WHICH clock, flips entirely on whether the contractor filed a notice of commencement. (A) CONTRACTOR DID NOT COMPLY with the notice of commencement requirements: Secs. 13-10-63(a)(1) / 36-91-93(a)(1) - written notice to the contractor 'within 90 days from the day on which such person did or performed the last of the labor or furnished the last of the material or machinery or equipment for which such claim is made.' (B) CONTRACTOR DID FILE the notice of commencement under Secs. 13-10-62(a) / 36-91-92(a): Secs. 13-10-63(a)(2) / 36-91-93(a)(2) - a 'notice to contractor' 'within 30 days from the filing of the notice of commencement or 30 days following the first delivery of labor, material, machinery, or equipment, whichever is later.' TWO SWITCHES CAN FLIP IT BACK: Secs. 13-10-62(a) / 36-91-92(a) provide that if the claimant makes a written request for a copy of the notice of commencement and the contractor fails to supply it within ten calendar days, paragraph (a)(1) becomes 'inapplicable to such subcontractor, materialman, or person making the request'; and Secs. 13-10-62(b) / 36-91-92(b) provide that 'The failure to file a notice of commencement shall render the notice to contractor requirements of paragraph (2) of subsection (a)... inapplicable.'
Who it goes to
The CONTRACTOR (the prime), in both branches. Not the surety, and not the public entity. Do not confuse this with the notice of commencement, which is filed by the CONTRACTOR - posted 'on the public works construction site' and filed 'with the clerk of the superior court in the county in which the site is located' - and which the claimant merely reads. IF YOU CANNOT FIND THE BOND, THE STATUTE GIVES YOU A RIGHT TO A COPY OF IT. Sec. 13-10-64 directs the official who has custody of the bond or security deposit to furnish, to ANY person who applies, 'a copy of the bond or security deposit agreement and the contract for which it was given', certified by that official. The price of asking is an affidavit: the applicant must state 'that he or she has supplied labor or materials for such work and that payment therefor has not been made or that he or she is being sued on any such bond or security deposit.' The certified copy is more than information - it 'shall be primary evidence of the bond or security deposit and contract and shall be admitted in evidence without further proof.' Fees are set by the official but are capped: 'in no case shall the fee fixed exceed the fees which the clerks of the superior courts are permitted to charge for similar copies.' Note that you get the CONTRACT as well as the bond, which is often the harder document to obtain.
By when
Branch (A), no notice of commencement: 90 days from the claimant's own LAST labor, material, machinery or equipment. Branch (B), notice of commencement filed: 30 days from the LATER of (i) the filing of the notice of commencement and (ii) the claimant's FIRST delivery of labor, material, machinery or equipment. The two branches run in opposite directions - one from the end of the claimant's work, one from the beginning.
How it must be served
Prescribed for the branch (A) 90-day notice only, Secs. 13-10-63(a)(1) / 36-91-93(a)(1): THE TWO REGIMES WORD THIS DIFFERENTLY. STATE, Sec. 13-10-63(a)(1): 'The notice to the contractor may be served by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, postage prepaid, duly addressed to the contractor, at any place at which the contractor maintains an office or conducts his or her business or at his or her residence, by depositing such notice in any post office or branch post office or any letter box under the control of the United States Postal Service; alternatively, notice may be served in any manner in which the sheriffs of this state are authorized by law to serve summons or process.' LOCAL, Sec. 36-91-93(a)(1), is the same three methods in a different sentence: 'registered or certified mail, postage prepaid, or statutory overnight delivery, duly addressed to the contractor' - the modifier sits on a different limb, and if you are quoting the statute on a county or city job, quote that one. NO method whatsoever is prescribed for the branch (B) 30-day notice to contractor - the statute says only 'give to the contractor a written notice setting forth' the four items. Best practice is to use the branch (A) methods for both.
What it has to say
Branch (A): 'stating with substantial accuracy the amount claimed and the name of the party to whom the material was furnished or supplied or for whom the labor was performed or done.' Branch (B), four enumerated items: '(A) The name, address, and telephone number of the person providing labor, material, machinery, or equipment; (B) The name and address of each person at whose instance the labor, material, machinery, or equipment is being furnished; (C) The name and the location of the public works construction site; and (D) A description of the labor, material, machinery, or equipment being provided and, if known, the contract price or anticipated value of the labor, material, machinery, or equipment to be provided or the amount claimed to be due, if any.'
If the notice is late, or never given
The whole claim. Both branches are framed as the condition on which the non-privity claimant 'shall have the right of action upon the payment bond or security deposit' - without the correct notice there is no right of action at all. Neither section contains any saving clause for defective, late or prejudice-free notice.
When the suit clock starts
NOT the claimant's own work. Secs. 13-10-65 / 36-91-95: 'No action can be instituted on the payment bonds or security deposits after one year from the completion of the contract and the acceptance of the public works construction by the proper public authorities.' Both events - completion of the PRIME contract and acceptance by the public authority - and neither is under the claimant's control or reliably knowable. There is also a floor at the other end: under Secs. 13-10-63(a) / 36-91-93(a) the right to bring the action does not arise until 'the expiration of a period of 90 days after the day on which the last of the labor was done or performed by such person or the material or equipment or machinery was furnished or supplied by such person for which such claim is made, or when he or she has completed his or her subcontract for which claim is made' - though subsection (b) of each adds that 'Nothing contained in this Code section shall limit the right of action... to the 90 day period.'
How long you have to sue
1 year from completion of the contract AND acceptance of the public works construction by the proper public authorities.
Where suit is brought
No court and no venue are prescribed. What IS prescribed is the caption: Secs. 13-10-63(c) / 13-10-65 - 'Every action instituted under this Code section shall be brought in the name of the claimant without making the state or the agency or authority of the state for which the work was done or was to be done a party to such action'; Secs. 36-91-93(c) / 36-91-95 say the same with 'the governmental entity.' Georgia is the mirror image of Illinois and the older D.C. rule here: the public body must NOT be named.
The trap
Whether you owe a notice 90 days after you FINISH or a notice 30 days after you START flips entirely on whether the prime filed a notice of commencement with the superior court clerk, so a supplier who never checks that index can lose the claim before its first invoice is even past due.
The act itself
No popular name. Georgia runs TWO parallel payment bond regimes - one for state work and one for local-government work - and which one applies turns on the owner, not the project type. They are close, but they are NOT word-for-word identical. FOUR DIVERGENCES, one of which decides who may claim. (1) WHO IS PROTECTED WHERE NO BOND WAS TAKEN: Sec. 13-10-61 names persons supplying 'labor, materials, machinery, or equipment'; Sec. 36-91-91 names persons furnishing 'labor, SKILL, TOOLS, machinery, or materials.' Skill and tools appear only on the local side; equipment only on the state side. A firm that furnished services or tools rather than goods is expressly named against a county or city and is not against the state. (2) SERVICE OF THE 90-DAY NOTICE: Sec. 13-10-63(a)(1) reads 'registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, postage prepaid'; Sec. 36-91-93(a)(1) reads 'registered or certified mail, postage prepaid, or statutory overnight delivery.' Same three methods, different sentence - quote whichever regime you are in. (3) THRESHOLD PREAMBLE: Sec. 13-10-60 opens 'Except as otherwise provided in Title 32', carving out Department of Transportation work; Sec. 36-91-90 has no Title 32 clause and instead reaches contracts 'subject to the requirements of this chapter.' (4) Sec. 13-10-66 (acceptance of electronic signatures and corporate seals on bonds, added by Ga. L. 2021, p. 459, Sec. 1-2/SB 169, effective 4 May 2021) HAS NO LOCAL COUNTERPART - Title 36 Part 4 ends at Sec. 36-91-95.
Where this comes from
STATE work: O.C.G.A. Secs. 13-10-60 through 13-10-66 (Title 13, ch. 10, art. 1, pt. 4, 'Payment Bonds'). COUNTY, MUNICIPAL and other local governmental entity work: O.C.G.A. Secs. 36-91-90 through 36-91-95 (Title 36, ch. 91, art. 3, pt. 4, 'Payment Bonds'). O.C.G.A. Sec. 13-10-1 is NOT a bond provision - it is a one-line definition: 'As used in this article, the term "state" means the state of Georgia, any agency of the state, and any state authority.'
Official Code of Georgia Annotated — Public Access — published by LexisNexis, for the Georgia General Assembly.
Statutory summary as of 2 August 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Georgia.