Idaho mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Idaho 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 recorded with the county recorder where the property (or part of it) lies within 90 days (a day-count, not 3 months) after completion or cessation of the claimant's labor, services, or material furnishing; substantial completion controls, and trivial punch-list or warranty work does not extend the clock, though repairs demanded by a public inspector can; no residential/commercial deadline difference.
Notice prerequisites
No pre-work notice is required from any claimant. Exception for general contractors on residential work: before signing a contract over $2,000 with a homeowner or residential buyer, the general contractor must give the § 45-525 disclosure statement and get a signed acknowledgment of receipt. The general contractor's claim of lien must include proof of that disclosure and acknowledgment (Idaho Code § 45-507(3)(e)). Without it, the claim may be invalid. Failing to give the disclosure is also a violation of the Idaho Consumer Protection Act. The list of subcontractors and suppliers is due a reasonable time before closing or final payment. These rules do not apply to subcontractors' or suppliers' liens.
Service on the owner
Within 5 business days after recording, serve a copy of the recorded Claim of Lien itself (not a separate notice) on the owner or reputed owner. Either have it delivered personally by an officer authorized to serve process (such as a sheriff or process server), or send it by certified mail to the owner's last known address (I.C. § 45-507(5)); filing precedes service.
Enforcement
Foreclosure suit in district court of the county where the land lies within 6 months of recording the lien or it expires; the 6 months can restart from a payment on account or an endorsed extension of credit noted on the lien record; a foreclosure judgment lien lasts 5 years; no lis pendens requirement mentioned.
I.C. §§ 45-501 through 45-525, esp. §§ 45-507, 45-510, 45-512; I.C. § 45-525 (residential disclosure)
Idaho Code Title 45, Ch. 5 — published by the Idaho 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, and no one else.
- When — 90 days from your own last day. § 54-1927.
- How — Registered or certified mail. § 54-1927.
- If late — The whole claim, for a claimant not in privity.
- Sue by — 1 year — and you may not sue at all until 90 days have passed.
Is there a bond at all?
$50,000. Sec. 54-1926: 'Before any contract equal to or greater than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for the construction, alteration, or repair of any public building or public work or improvement of the state of Idaho, or of any county, city, town, municipal corporation, township, school district, public educational institution, or other political subdivision, public authority, or public instrumentality, or of any officer, board, commission, institution, or agency of the foregoing, is executed, the person to whom such contract was awarded shall furnish...' bonds. Note 'equal to or greater than' - a contract of exactly $50,000 IS covered. The payment bond is Sec. 54-1926(2): 'A payment bond in an amount to be fixed by the contracting body but in no event less than eighty-five percent (85%) of the contract amount, solely for the protection of persons supplying labor or materials, or renting, leasing, or otherwise supplying equipment to the contractor or his subcontractors in the prosecution of the work provided for in such contract.' EIGHTY-FIVE PER CENT, not 100 - Idaho's bond can be materially smaller than the contract.
Who can claim on it
Sec. 54-1927: 'Every claimant who has furnished labor or material or rented, leased, or otherwise supplied equipment in the prosecution of the work provided for in such contract in respect of which a payment bond is furnished under this act.' The bond's own protective class in Sec. 54-1926(2) is 'persons supplying labor or materials, or renting, leasing, or otherwise supplying equipment to the contractor or his subcontractors' - so the chain reaches suppliers to subcontractors and stops there; a supplier to a sub-subcontractor is outside the words. Idaho expressly protects EQUIPMENT RENTAL and lessors, which many Little Miller Acts omit. Where Idaho case law cuts off remote suppliers is not answered by the text.
What notice you owe
ONLY the claimant one tier removed from the prime. Sec. 54-1927: 'any such claimant having a direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor of the contractor but no contractual relationship expressed or implied with such contractor shall not have a right of action upon such payment bond unless he has given written notice to such contractor.' A claimant in privity with the prime owes NO notice. Note the narrowness: the proviso speaks of a claimant whose customer is 'a subcontractor of the contractor,' so a claimant whose customer is itself a sub-subcontractor is not addressed by the notice rule at all.
Who it goes to
The contractor - meaning the prime, the person who furnished the payment bond - and no one else. Not the surety, not the public body.
By when
90 days, running from the claimant's own last day: 'within ninety (90) days from the date on which such claimant performed the last of the labor or furnished or supplied the last of the material for which such claim is made.' Separately, and distinctly, Sec. 54-1927 imposes a 90-day WAITING period before the right to sue matures for every claimant: the right belongs to one 'who has not been paid in full therefor before the expiration of a period of ninety (90) days after the day on which the last of the labor was done or performed by him or material or equipment was furnished or supplied by him.' Two different 90s doing two different jobs.
How it must be served
Sec. 54-1927: 'Each notice shall be served by mailing the same by registered or certified mail, postage prepaid, in an envelope addressed to the contractor at any place he maintains an office or conducts his business or at his residence.' Registered or certified mail only - no alternative method of service is offered.
What it has to say
'stating with substantial accuracy the amount claimed and the name of the person to whom the material or equipment was furnished or supplied or for whom the labor was done or performed.' Nothing else is enumerated.
If the notice is late, or never given
The whole claim against the bond: the non-privity claimant 'shall not have a right of action upon such payment bond unless he has given written notice.' No saving clause for defective or unprejudicial notice appears in the section. Note that failing the notice does not touch the separate direct action against the public body under Sec. 54-1928, which carries no notice requirement.
When the suit clock starts
TWO DIFFERENT TRIGGERS DEPENDING ON WHO THE CLAIMANT IS. Sec. 54-1927: 'no such suit shall be commenced after the expiration of one (1) year from the date on which the claimant performed the last of the labor or furnished or supplied the last of the material or equipment for which such suit is brought, except, that if the claimant is a subcontractor of the contractor, no such suit shall be commenced after the expiration of one (1) year from the date on which final payment under the subcontract became due.' So: ordinary claimants run from their own last labor or material; a SUBCONTRACTOR of the prime runs from the date final payment under its subcontract became due.
How long you have to sue
1 year, plus a 90-day floor before suit may be brought at all.
Where suit is brought
Sec. 54-1927: 'Every suit instituted on the aforesaid payment bond shall be brought in appropriate court in any county in which the contract was to be performed and not elsewhere.' The words 'and not elsewhere' make the venue exclusive. Suit is brought by the claimant in its own right; the statute does not require the public body to be named.
The trap
A subcontractor's one-year suit clock does NOT run from its own last day on the job the way every other claimant's does - Sec. 54-1927 runs it from 'the date on which final payment under the subcontract became due,' a date fixed by the subcontract's payment terms that nobody diaries and that can fall well before the sub's last day back on site for punch work.
The act itself
Public Contracts Bond Act - and unusually, the statute says so itself. Idaho Code Sec. 54-1925: 'This act may be cited as the Public Contracts Bond Act.'
Where this comes from
Idaho Code Secs. 54-1925 through 54-1930 (Title 54, ch. 19). Sec. 54-1925 short title; Sec. 54-1926 bonds required; Sec. 54-1926A government obligations in lieu of surety bonds; Sec. 54-1927 claims, suit and limitation; Sec. 54-1928 liability of public body failing to obtain the bond; Sec. 54-1929 attorney's fees.
Idaho Code Title 45, Ch. 5 — published by the Idaho Legislature.
Statutory summary as of 29 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Idaho.