Filing deadline

Statement of Claim or Privilege recorded with the Recorder of Mortgages of the parish (each parish if the project spans several). If a Notice of Contract was timely filed: 30 days after the Notice of Termination for everyone except the GC, who gets 60 days. If no Notice of Contract: 60 days from Notice of Termination or, absent one, from substantial completion/abandonment (70 days for suppliers of movables on residential jobs). If a Notice of Contract was filed but no Notice of Termination ever is, outer limits apply: 6 months (non-GC) / 7 months (GC) after substantial completion. Contents: writing, signed (no notarization), reasonable identification of site (full legal description) and owner, amount/nature of obligation reasonably itemized. Public projects: sworn statement filed with the governing authority and recorded in parish mortgage records within 45 days of recorded acceptance or default.

Notice prerequisites

Layered. A prime contractor on a private contract over $25,000 must record a Notice of Contract (signed by owner and contractor, legal description, price, payment terms) BEFORE starting work or it loses its own lien; owner attaches a statutory payment bond to it to shield the property from sub/supplier liens. Equipment lessors must deliver a copy of the written lease to owner and contractor within 10 days of placing equipment on site. Suppliers to the contractor or a sub must send a certified-mail Notice of Non-Payment to the owner at least 10 days before liening; suppliers to subcontractors must notice both owner and GC within the earlier of the lien period or 75 days after the last day of the month of delivery. Design professionals hired by a contractor/sub (and their sub-consultants) must notify the owner within 30 days of engagement. Residential home-improvement contractors must give the owner a non-waivable Notice of Lien Rights at contracting (Residential Truth in Construction Act).

Service on the owner

Where a Notice of Contract was filed, a non-GC claimant must deliver a copy of its statement to the owner (at the address given in the Notice of Contract) within its own filing period (R.S. 9:4822(B) — no method prescribed; certified mail is best practice); sending the owner (and any surety) a certified-mail copy is prudent in every case. Lower-tier claimants in privity only with a subcontractor must additionally give certified-mail notice of claim to the GC within 30 days of the recorded Notice of Termination or forfeit recovery from the GC/surety.

Enforcement

Private: suit against the owner within 1 year after filing the Statement of Claim (anniversary-date filing is timely), and a Notice of Lis Pendens must be recorded in the mortgage records within the same year - essential to keep the lien alive; missing the owner suit does not kill timely claims against contractor/surety, and being named in a concursus counts as suit. Public: suit against contractor and/or surety within 1 year of registry of acceptance or default.

La. R.S. 9:4801-4855 (Private Works Act); La. R.S. 38:2241-2248 (Public Works Act)