Kentucky mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Kentucky lien deadline
Filing deadline
Private projects: Statement of Lien filed with the county clerk of the county where the improvement sits within 6 months after the claimant's last furnishing; strictly enforced (rare equitable tolling, e.g., clerk wrongly rejects a filing); trivial or bad-faith repairs and warranty work do not extend the date, though genuine punch-list contract work can. The lien is capped in the aggregate at the ORIGINAL CONTRACTOR'S CONTRACT PRICE, with pro rata distribution among lienholders if the claims exceed it (KRS 376.010(1)(d)). TENANT WORK, amended effective 29 June 2023: a lessee is NOT the owner's authorized agent unless the owner has designated the lessee in writing (KRS 376.010(1)(b)), so improvements ordered by a tenant reach only the tenant's interest unless the lessor agreed to them (KRS 376.010(3)(a)); where a lease expressly exempts the lessor's interest, the lessee must tell the contractor, and a knowing or willful failure to do so makes the contract VOIDABLE AT THE CONTRACTOR'S OPTION (KRS 376.010(3)(b)). Subsection (3) does not apply to leases entered into before 29 June 2023. Public projects: a lien on funds due the contractor, filed with the clerk of the county of the OWNER'S seat of government (for Commonwealth work, Frankfort — not the county where the work was done), and the period is the LATER of 60 days after the last day of the calendar month in which the claimant last furnished, or the date of substantial completion (KRS 376.230(1)). The anchor is the last day of the MONTH, not the claimant's last day. The sixty-day period was set by 2005 Ky. Acts ch. 104, sec. 1; sources stating thirty days describe pre-2005 law.
Notice prerequisites
Nothing before work starts, though anyone who has furnished or expects to furnish may file a statement with the county clerk to take priority over a mortgage or conveyance recorded afterwards — but note the cap: against that mortgage holder or purchaser the lien "shall not ... exceed the amount of the lien claimed or expected to be claimed as set forth in the statement" (KRS 376.010(2)(a)-(b)), so understating the figure in the early filing caps what you can assert. Subcontractors and suppliers on private jobs must, before recording their lien, send the owner a Notice of Intent to File Lien measured from LAST furnishing: within 75 days on owner-occupied single/double family dwellings (any amount); on other private work, 75 days for claims of less than $1,000 and 120 days for claims in excess of $1,000 (KRS 376.010(4)-(5)) — a claim of exactly $1,000 falls in neither phrase, so treat it as a 75-day claim. ⚠ ON AN OWNER-OCCUPIED DWELLING, TIMELINESS IS NOT ENOUGH: KRS 376.010(5)(d) denies the lien "to the extent that" the owner-occupant paid the contractor, subcontractor, architect or agent BEFORE receiving the notice. A notice mailed on day 74 is timely and may secure nothing. Send it as soon as the debt is fixed. Under KRS 376.010(5)(e) the contractor or subcontractor cannot be the owner's authorized agent for this notice, and under (5)(c) the residential notice replaces the subsection (4) notice rather than adding to it. On PUBLIC work there is a separate optional early filing: KRS 376.210(2) lets anyone "undertaking or expecting to furnish" file a statement of what it expects to furnish and at what price, and the lien for what is furnished afterwards "shall relate back and take effect from the date of the filing of the statement." It is optional and it does not replace the KRS 376.230 lien statement.
Service on the owner
A copy of the Statement of Lien must be mailed (regular mail; belt-and-suspenders practice adds certified) to the owner's last known address within 7 days of filing or the lien dissolves; on public jobs the county clerk transmits attested copies to the owner and contractor.
Enforcement
Private: the lien is "deemed dissolved" unless suit is brought within 12 months from the day of filing the Statement of Lien (KRS 376.090(1)); before suit the lien is unenforceable; no lis pendens requirement mentioned. One extension exists and only one: if the debtor whose property is liened DIES before the 12 months run, a further 6 months is allowed from the qualification of the personal representative. Comply with KRS 376.080 and the 12-month rule and the lien is good against any creditor of, or purchaser from, the owner (KRS 376.090(2)). Separately, KRS 376.070 obliges a contractor or architect to pay labor and material claims in full out of any payment it receives from the owner, pro rata if the payment is short — unless the claimants waived lien rights in writing. Public: six months from the filing of the claim in the county clerk's office (KRS 376.260(1)), BUT the contractor may cut that to thirty days — if it files a written protest with the public authority within 30 days of delivery of the attested copy, the authority mails the claimant notice of the protest, and under KRS 376.250(4) the claimant must both institute suit AND get summons served ON THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY OR ITS CHAIRMAN within 30 days after that notice is mailed, or the lien is automatically released and the funds paid to the contractor. Venue is the circuit court of the county where the property is located, except that property owned by a public university is sued in the county of the university's main campus (KRS 376.250(5)). If the contractor does not protest, the public authority pays the withheld amount to the claimant without suit, and that payment operates as a pro tanto release of the AUTHORITY from the contractor's claim (KRS 376.250(2)).
KRS 376.010 et seq., esp. §§ 376.010, 376.080, 376.090, 376.210-376.250; KRS 371.400-371.420
KRS ch. 376 — published by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission.
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 — Three separate acts: FILE with the county clerk, DELIVER an attested copy to the public authority, MAIL a copy to the contractor. All three. KRS 376.240.
- When — 60 days from your last furnishing or from substantial completion, whichever is later. KRS 376.230(1).
- How — Certified or registered mail to the contractor, with the receipt filed. KRS 376.240.
- If late — The whole lien is dissolved. KRS 376.230(1).
- Sue by — 6 months from filing — but only 30 days if the contractor files a protest. KRS 376.260, 376.250(4).
Is there a bond at all?
$100,000, in both bond statutes, with the bond at 100% of the original contract price. KRS 45A.190(2): 'When a construction contract is awarded in an amount in excess of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000), the following bonds shall be furnished to the Commonwealth, and shall be binding on the parties upon the award of the contract: (a) A performance bond... in an amount equal to one hundred percent (100%) of the contract price as it may be increased; and (b) A payment bond satisfactory to the Commonwealth executed by a surety company authorized to do business in the Commonwealth, or otherwise supplied, satisfactory to the Commonwealth, for the protection of all persons supplying labor and material to the contractor or his subcontractors, for the performance of the work provided for in the contract. The bond shall be in an amount equal to one hundred percent (100%) of the original contract price.' KRS 45A.435(1) is the same sentence with 'the local public agency' substituted for 'the Commonwealth'. THIS FIGURE IS RECENT: the 2020 code carried 'in excess of forty thousand dollars ($40,000)' in KRS 45A.190(2), and KRS 45A.435 was amended to $100,000 by 2019 Ky. Acts ch. 79, sec. 3, effective June 27, 2019. Any secondary source repeating $40,000 is out of date.
Who can claim on it
ON THE BOND: KRS 45A.190(2)(b) and KRS 45A.435(1)(b) both describe the payment bond as 'for the protection of all persons supplying labor and material to the contractor or his subcontractors, for the performance of the work provided for in the contract.' The chain stops in those words at suppliers of the CONTRACTOR or of ITS SUBCONTRACTORS - a supplier to a sub-subcontractor is outside the language. Neither statute confers a right of action; the claimant's standing on the bond is as a beneficiary of that description, and no statutory procedure attends it. ON THE FUND LIEN: KRS 376.210(1) - 'Any person, firm, or corporation who performs labor or furnishes materials or supplies for the construction, maintenance, or improvement of any canal, railroad, bridge, public highway, or other public improvement in this state by contract, express or implied, with the owner thereof or by subcontract thereunder shall have a lien thereon, and upon all the property and the franchises of the owner, except property owned by the state, a subdivision or agency thereof, or by any city, county, urban-county, or charter county government. If the property improved is owned by the state or by any subdivision or agency thereof, or by any city, county, urban-county, or charter county government, the person furnishing the labor, materials, or supplies shall have a lien on the funds due the contractor from the owner of the property improved.' The same subsection fixes the MEASURE, and it is the whole of what you furnished rather than some net figure: 'Except as provided in KRS 376.195, the lien shall be for the full contract price of the labor, materials, and supplies furnished, and shall be superior to all other liens thereafter created.' The KRS 376.195 exception is the equipment-rental cap described below. KRS 376.195 defines 'labor', 'materials' and 'supplies' broadly - supplies include small tools and equipment costing not more than fifty dollars per item, tires and tubes, repair parts, and 'the agreed or reasonable rental price of equipment and machinery used in performing the work', but equipment rental liens are capped at six months' rental and at sixty percent of the agreed value of the machinery, and supply liens are subordinated to labor and material liens.
What notice you owe
ON THE BOND: NO ONE OWES ANYTHING. Neither KRS 45A.190 nor KRS 45A.435 prescribes any notice, claim, filing, form, service method, or limitation period for a bond claimant. This is not an oversight to be filled by analogy to the Miller Act - the sections simply do not address claimants. ON THE FUND LIEN: EVERY CLAIMANT, at every tier, in privity or not, must file and serve. There is no privity exemption in KRS 376.230 or 376.240; a first-tier subcontractor must file exactly as a remote supplier must. THERE IS ALSO AN OPTIONAL EARLY FILING. KRS 376.210(2): 'Any person undertaking or expecting to furnish labor, materials, or supplies as provided in this section may acquire the lien herein provided by filing in the clerk's office of each county in which he has undertaken to furnish labor, materials, or supplies, except as provided in subsection (3), a statement in writing that he has undertaken and expects to furnish labor, materials, or supplies and the price at which they are to be furnished, and the lien for labor, material, or supplies furnished thereafter shall relate back and take effect from the date of the filing of the statement.' That is a filing you may make BEFORE or DURING the work rather than after it, and it dates your lien from the day you file it. On public work the 'except as provided in subsection (3)' clause sends it to the same office as the lien statement itself - the county clerk at the OWNER'S seat of government. The early filing matters because KRS 376.220(2) read with 376.240 pays a public fund in ORDER OF PERFECTION - first-perfected-first-paid rather than a pot shared out ratably. So filing under subsection (2) before you have finished - or before you have started - moves you AHEAD of every claimant who perfects later, and the lien relates back to that filing. If the fund runs dry, the people who filed after you get nothing and you are already in. On a job where the money looks thin or you know others are unpaid, consider making this filing.
Who it goes to
Fund lien, three separate acts, all required. (1) FILE the verified statement in the COUNTY CLERK'S OFFICE - and for public work the office is fixed: KRS 376.230(2), 'In all cases where a lien is claimed for labor, materials, or supplies furnished for the improvement of any bridge, public highway, or other public property owned by the state or by any county, charter county, urban-county, consolidated local government, or city, the statement of lien shall be filed only in the county clerk's office of the county in which the seat of government of the owner of the property is located' - the seat of government of the OWNER, which for state work means Frankfort, not the county where the work was done. (2) DELIVER an attested copy to the PUBLIC AUTHORITY that contracted for the improvement. (3) FILE WITH THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY 'a signed copy of a letter addressed to the contractor or subcontractor at his address given in the contract, with a post office receipt showing that an attested copy of the lien statement has been sent by the lien claimant to the contractor or subcontractor by certified mail, return receipt requested or by registered mail' (KRS 376.240). Only on completion of all three does the claimant have 'a lien superior to any lien subsequently perfected on any unpaid balance due the contractor under the contract of improvement.'
By when
Fund lien - KRS 376.230(1): the lien 'shall be dissolved unless the person who furnishes the labor, materials, or supplies shall, WHICHEVER IS LATER, within sixty (60) days after the last day of THE MONTH in which any labor, materials, or supplies were furnished, OR by the date of substantial completion, file in the county clerk's office... a statement in writing verified by affidavit.' Read the anchor carefully: it is not sixty days from the claimant's last day, it is sixty days from the LAST DAY OF THE CALENDAR MONTH in which the claimant last furnished - and the claimant gets the LATER of that date and the date of substantial completion. Bond - no period, because no notice is required.
How it must be served
Fund lien: filing with the county clerk (no mail method prescribed for the filing itself); delivery of the attested copy to the public authority (method not prescribed); and, to the contractor or subcontractor, 'by certified mail, return receipt requested or by registered mail', with the post office receipt then filed with the public authority (KRS 376.240). The receipt is not optional evidence - it is part of what must be filed for the lien to attach. Bond: none prescribed.
What it has to say
KRS 376.230(1) - 'a statement in writing verified by affidavit of the claimant or his or her authorized agent or attorney, setting forth the amount due for which the lien is claimed, the date on which labor, materials, or supplies were last furnished and the name of the canal, railroad, bridge, public highway, or other public improvement upon which it is claimed.' Three enumerated items and a verifying affidavit. THE FIRST OF THOSE THREE - THE AMOUNT - CARRIES ITS OWN LIABILITY. KRS 376.220(3): 'If any person files a statement asserting a lien against any contractor on any fund due the contractor, for an amount in excess of the amount actually due, the person filing the lien shall be liable to any person damaged thereby to the extent of such damage, including reasonable court costs and attorney's fees incurred by the injured parties. Any such claim for damages may be asserted and prosecuted in the county in which the lien statement was filed.' It is NOT a forfeiture clause - unlike C.R.S. 38-26-110, overstating does not by its terms cost you the lien. It is AFFIRMATIVE LIABILITY, running to anyone damaged, for their damages plus their court costs plus their attorney's fees. The section carries NO GOOD-FAITH SAFE HARBOR in its text - nothing like the one Colorado added to 38-26-110 in 2026 - and it has stood unamended since 1 October 1942. And note the venue: the damages claim is brought where the LIEN STATEMENT was filed, which on state work is the county of the Commonwealth's seat of government, not your county. Claim the amount actually due and be able to prove it. Bond: no contents prescribed.
If the notice is late, or never given
Fund lien - THE WHOLE LIEN: 'The lien provided for in KRS 376.210 shall be dissolved unless...' (KRS 376.230(1)). And the lien reaches only what is left: KRS 376.210(3), on public property 'the lien shall attach only to any unpaid balance due the contractor for the improvement from the time a copy of the statement, attested by the county clerk, is delivered to the owner or the owner's authorized agent with whom the contract for improving the public highway or other public property was made' - so a claimant who files after the public authority has paid the contractor out has a perfected lien on nothing. TWO FURTHER LIMITS ON WHAT THE LIEN IS WORTH, both in KRS 376.220. (1) THE AGGREGATE CAP: 'The liens provided for in KRS 376.210 shall not be for a greater amount in the aggregate than the contract price of the original contractor, and should the aggregate amount of liens exceed the price agreed upon between the original contractor and the owner there shall be a pro rata distribution of the original contract price among the lien-holders.' The ceiling is the ORIGINAL CONTRACTOR'S CONTRACT PRICE - not the balance still unpaid to that contractor, which is a smaller and more commonly quoted number. (2) AND THAT PRO RATA SHARING IS SWITCHED OFF ON PUBLIC WORK: KRS 376.220(2), 'On claims for labor, materials or supplies furnished for the improvement of any bridge, public highway or other public property owned by the state or by any county or city, the provisions of this section for a pro rata distribution of the original contract price among lien-holders shall not apply to liens on the unpaid balance due the contractors, except as provided in KRS 376.240.' Do not assume you will share the fund ratably with the other claimants. The exception pointed to, KRS 376.240, is the priority provision - it gives a claimant who completes all three perfecting acts 'a lien superior to any lien subsequently perfected'. Read together, those two sections distribute a Kentucky public fund IN ORDER OF PERFECTION rather than ratably. ON A KENTUCKY PUBLIC JOB, PERFECTING EARLY MATTERS. In most states a fund is shared out among whoever got there in time and racing buys you nothing - New York says so expressly, at Lien Law Sec. 25(4). Kentucky is the other kind. A claimant who completes all three perfecting acts outranks every claimant who completes them later, and a fund exhausted by earlier claimants leaves nothing for you no matter how good your claim is. THE OPTIONAL EARLY FILING IN KRS 376.210(2) lets a person UNDERTAKING OR EXPECTING to furnish acquire the lien by filing before the work is done, and the lien relates back to that filing. On a job where you can see the fund getting thin, or where you know other claimants are unpaid, that filing is the difference between a share and nothing. Complete all three perfecting acts as early as the statute allows. One item runs the claimant's way: KRS 376.230(3) - the county clerk's fees for filing the statement and attesting copies 'may be recovered by the lien claimant as costs from the party and out of the fund against which the claim is filed.' Bond - nothing, because nothing is required.
When the suit clock starts
Fund lien - two clocks, and the second can start before the first expires. (1) KRS 376.260: 'The proceedings shall be begun within six (6) months from the filing of the claim in the county clerk's office, except as provided in subsection (4) of KRS 376.250.' (2) The exception is the contractor's protest: under KRS 376.250(2) the contractor has thirty days from delivery of the attested copy to file with the public authority 'a written protest putting in issue the correctness of the amount due the lien claimant or the liability of the fund for payment thereof'; the public authority then 'shall promptly send written notice of the protest to the lien claimant by certified mail, return receipt requested' (376.250(3)), and the claimant's clock restarts from THE MAILING OF THAT NOTICE. Bond - nothing prescribed.
How long you have to sue
Fund lien - SIX MONTHS from the filing of the claim in the county clerk's office (KRS 376.260), BUT cut to THIRTY DAYS, and with a service requirement attached, if the contractor protests: KRS 376.250(4) - 'If suit is not instituted by the lien claimant for the enforcement of the lien and summons in the suit is not served on the public authority or its chairman within thirty (30) days after the written notice of the protest is mailed to the claimant, then the lien shall automatically be released and the funds withheld pursuant to the filing of the lien statement shall be released and promptly paid to the contractor.' Note that filing suit is not enough - SUMMONS MUST BE SERVED ON THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY inside the thirty days. If no protest is filed, KRS 376.250(2) is favorable: 'the amount withheld shall be paid by the public authority to the lien claimant and charged to the account of the contractor' without any suit at all. Bond - NO STATUTORY LIMITATION PERIOD EXISTS in the sections read, so the general contract limitation period governs; do not treat the absence of a stated deadline as an absence of a deadline.
Where suit is brought
KRS 376.250(5): 'All suits for the enforcement of these liens on public funds shall be instituted in the Circuit Court of the county in which is located the property on which the improvement is made, except where the property is owned by a public university. Where the property is owned by a public university, the suit shall be instituted in the Circuit Court of the county in which is located the main campus of the public university. This court shall have exclusive jurisdiction for the enforcement of liens asserted against the public funds due the contractors, subject to the same rights of appeal as in other civil cases.' KRS 376.260 adds that the lien 'shall be enforced by proper proceedings in equity, to which other lien-holders shall be made parties,' and that where the owner is the state or a local government that owner must be given notice of the action 'but that owner shall not be required to respond to or participate in the court action.'
The trap
Kentucky's live deadline is not on the bond at all: the fund lien dissolves sixty days after the LAST DAY OF THE MONTH in which the claimant last furnished (or at substantial completion, whichever is later) unless a verified statement is filed in the county clerk's office at the OWNER'S SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, and once the contractor files a written protest the claimant has only thirty days from the mailing of that protest notice to file suit AND get summons served on the public authority or the lien is automatically released. And on the way in, KRS 376.220(3) makes a claimant who files for more than is actually due liable to anyone damaged for their damages, court costs and attorney's fees, with no good-faith safe harbor written into the section, and no Kentucky decision supplies the limitation the text omits. Claim only the amount actually due and be able to prove it. Colorado forfeits an overstated claim but from 12 August has a good-faith safe harbor; Nevada requires the claim to be frivolous. Kentucky requires neither: it is plain liability to anyone damaged, and the section has stood unamended since 1 October 1942.
The act itself
KENTUCKY HAS NO LITTLE MILLER ACT, and the answer to 'what does the claimant file' is not a bond claim at all. Two procurement statutes require payment bonds on some public work, but NEITHER contains a claimant notice procedure, a claim procedure, a form, or a limitation period - they require the bond and stop. The statute that actually gives a public-works claimant a dated, enforceable remedy is the LIEN ON FUNDS DUE THE CONTRACTOR in KRS chapter 376, which is a filing in the county clerk's office and is the thing with the deadlines.
Where this comes from
BOND REQUIREMENT: KRS 45A.190 (Commonwealth/state agency construction contracts, in the state part of the Kentucky Model Procurement Code) and KRS 45A.435 (local public agencies, in the local part, KRS 45A.345 to 45A.460, which applies only where adopted - KRS 45A.343). REMEDY: KRS 376.195 (definitions), KRS 376.210 (lien for labor, material or supplies furnished on public improvement), KRS 376.212 (bond to discharge the lien), KRS 376.230 (lien dissolved unless statement timely filed with county clerk), KRS 376.240 (perfecting a lien on funds due contractor from public authority), KRS 376.250 (withholding, protest, and suit), KRS 376.260 (action to enforce lien; limitation).
KRS ch. 376 — published by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission.
Statutory summary as of 2 August 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Kentucky.