Kansas mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Kansas lien deadline
Filing deadline
Verified lien statement filed with the Clerk of the District Court (not the register of deeds) of the county where the property lies: original contractors (direct owner privity) have 4 months from last furnishing under K.S.A. 60-1102; subcontractors, suppliers, and others have only 3 months under 60-1103. Contents: owner name, claimant name/address for service, property description, and a reasonably itemized statement of the claim (attached written instrument or promissory note may substitute).
Notice prerequisites
Nothing on commercial or multifamily work. Residential: a subcontractor or supplier must mail the owner a statutory Warning Statement (not needed if the claim is $250 or less), but only if the property is (1) an existing home of one or two families that the owner lives in and does not use commercially, or (2) being built as an individual owner's own principal residence. On a new one- or two-family home, anyone who wants to keep lien rights after the home is sold, including a contractor hired directly by the owner, must file a Notice of Intent to Perform with the clerk of the district court before the deed to the buyer is recorded. Without the warning statement (or a signed owner statement that it was given), a subcontractor or supplier has no lien on qualifying residential property. Without a Notice of Intent to Perform on a new residence, the lien is lost once a deed to a good-faith purchaser is recorded; that notice expires 18 months after filing unless a lien is filed, and after full payment the claimant must file a release of it.
Service on the owner
Subcontractor-tier liens must be served after filing by personal service, restricted mail, or posting on the premises if the owner's address is unknown; service on any one co-owner suffices. The statute is silent on serving a prime contractor's lien.
Enforcement
Foreclosure suit within 1 year of filing the lien statement (or within 1 year of maturity if a promissory note was attached in lieu of itemization); all record lienholders/encumbrancers are necessary parties, and the original contractor is a necessary party to a sub's suit; other claims (e.g., contract) may be joined; no lis pendens requirement mentioned; courts may stay trial to let others file liens on ongoing construction.
K.S.A. 60-1101 through 60-1111, esp. 60-1102, 60-1103, 60-1103a, 60-1103b, 60-1105
K.S.A. ch. 60, art. 11 — Liens for Labor and Material — published by the Kansas Office of the Revisor of Statutes.
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 — Nobody — Kansas prescribes no notice.
- When — There is no notice clock.
- How — Not applicable.
- If late — Nothing, because nothing is owed.
- Sue by — SIX MONTHS from completion — the shortest in the country. K.S.A. 60-1111.
Is there a bond at all?
K.S.A. 60-1111(a): 'Except as provided in this section, whenever any public official, under the laws of the state, enters into contract in any sum exceeding $100,000 with any person or persons for the purpose of making any public improvements, or constructing any public building or making repairs on the same, such officer shall take, from the party contracted with, a bond to the state of Kansas with good and sufficient sureties in a sum not less than the sum total in the contract, conditioned that such contractor or the subcontractor of such contractor shall pay all indebtedness incurred for labor furnished, materials, equipment or supplies, used or consumed in connection with or in or about the construction of such public building or in making such public improvements.' So: above $100,000 the bond is mandatory, in a penal sum of not less than the full contract amount, and the obligee is THE STATE OF KANSAS regardless of which public body let the contract. At or below $100,000 the section imposes nothing.
Who can claim on it
K.S.A. 60-1111(b): 'Any person to whom there is due any sum for labor or material furnished, as stated in subsection (a), or such person's assigns, may bring an action on such bond for the recovery of such indebtedness.' There is NO tier limitation and NO privity requirement in the text. The boundary is drawn instead by the bond's condition in subsection (a), which covers 'all indebtedness incurred for labor furnished, materials, equipment or supplies, used or consumed in connection with or in or about the construction' by 'such contractor OR THE SUBCONTRACTOR of such contractor' - so the claimant must trace the debt to the prime or to a subcontractor of the prime, and must show the labor, materials, equipment or supplies were used or consumed on the work. Note that equipment and supplies are expressly named, which is broader than many states. Assigns are expressly given the right of action.
What notice you owe
NO ONE. K.S.A. 60-1111 prescribes NO claimant notice of any kind, at any tier, to anyone - not to the contractor, not to the surety, not to the public official. There is no preliminary notice, no notice of nonpayment, no notice of intent to claim, and no filing requirement of any kind imposed on the claimant. A remote supplier who has never spoken to the prime owes exactly the same as a first-tier subcontractor: nothing.
How it must be served
None prescribed - there is no notice, so no method exists.
What it has to say
No contents prescribed - there is no notice.
If the notice is late, or never given
Nothing, because there is nothing to miss. The Kansas claim is destroyed only by the limitation period, which is the sole clock in the section.
When the suit clock starts
K.S.A. 60-1111(b) - 'the completion of such public improvements or public buildings.' The trigger is the COMPLETION OF THE PROJECT, not the claimant's last day of work, not acceptance by the public body, and not the date the debt matured. The statute does not define completion and does not require anyone to record or announce it.
How long you have to sue
SIX MONTHS. 'but no action shall be brought on such bond after six months from the completion of such public improvements or public buildings.' This is one of the shortest limitation periods on public work in the country and it is the only deadline in the Kansas scheme.
Where suit is brought
Not prescribed in K.S.A. 60-1111 - no court, no venue clause. What the section does fix is where the BOND lives: 'The bond required under subsection (a) shall be filed with the clerk of the district court of the county in which such public improvement is to be made.' That is where the claimant obtains a copy; there is no Miller Act style certified-copy-on-affidavit procedure.
The trap
Kansas gives the claimant no notice to miss and then only SIX MONTHS from completion of the public improvement - a project event, undefined by the statute, that nobody must announce and that can long precede or follow the claimant's own last day - so a supplier who finished early, or who is still negotiating with the contractor, is barred by a clock it was never told had started.
The act itself
No popular name. Kansas has no free-standing public works bond act; the requirement sits as a single section inside the mechanic's lien article of the Code of Civil Procedure, and its principal statutory function is to DISPLACE the lien rather than to build a claim procedure.
Where this comes from
K.S.A. 60-1111, 'Public works bond', in Article 11 (Liens) of Chapter 60. Companion: K.S.A. 60-1112 (certificate of deposit in lieu of a surety bond on state contracts let under K.S.A. 75-3739 or 75-3741).
K.S.A. ch. 60, art. 11 — Liens for Labor and Material — published by the Kansas Office of the Revisor of Statutes.
Statutory summary as of 29 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Kansas.