Minnesota mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Minnesota lien deadline
Based on the general 120-day period from last furnishing. Exceptions apply — treat this as a planning estimate, not legal advice.
Filing deadline
A verified Mechanic's Lien Statement must be BOTH recorded (county recorder for abstract land, registrar of titles for Torrens; both offices/counties if the parcel spans them) AND served within 120 days after the claimant's last contribution. Trivial, unauthorized, or clock-reviving work does not count as a last contribution. Statement must show first and last furnishing dates, amount, parties, property description, owner, and confirm the pre-lien notice was given.
Notice prerequisites
Two-track pre-lien notice. A GC that will use subs must embed statutory warning language (10-pt bold or typed caps) in its written owner contract, or deliver a separate General Contractor's Notice personally or by certified mail within 10 days of the agreement. Everyone without a direct owner contract must deliver a Lien Claimant's Notice within 45 days of first furnishing. Broad exemptions: non-agricultural commercial or partly nonresidential projects involving more than 5,000 usable sq ft (agricultural property is not exempt), wholly residential projects of more than four units, and contractors controlled by the same people as the owner. A GC that omits its required notice has no lien. A subcontractor or supplier that misses the 45-day notice generally loses the lien, but a good-faith effort to comply can preserve it unless the owner or another claimant proves it was harmed by the failure (Minn. Stat. § 514.011 subd. 2(b)). Even a timely 45-day notice does not protect against owner payments to the GC made before the notice arrived.
Service on the owner
The lien statement must be served personally or by US certified mail (first-class is insufficient) on the owner OR the owner's authorized agent OR the party who entered into the contract — the statute is disjunctive, so serving any one suffices and the owner is the safe default (Minn. Stat. § 514.08 subd. 1(2)) — within the same 120-day window; service and filing are parallel requirements, either can come first but both must be timely.
Enforcement
Foreclosure suit (or intervention/answer in an existing quiet-title or foreclosure action) in district court where the land lies within 1 year of the claimant's LAST CONTRIBUTION (not of recording); an expired lien is unenforceable and must be satisfied of record on demand. Prevailing claimants may recover reasonable attorney fees and interest.
Minn. Stat. ch. 514 (esp. 514.01, 514.02, 514.05, 514.06, 514.011, 514.08, 514.10, 514.12, 514.135)
Minn. Stat. ch. 514 — published by the Minnesota 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 — BOTH the surety AND the contractor. Minn. Stat. § 574.31.
- When — 120 days from your last furnishing. § 574.31, subd. 2.
- How — Personally or by certified mail. § 574.31.
- If late — Total bar. No partial forfeiture and no substantial compliance.
- Sue by — 1 year, extendable two ways under subd. 2(d) — read below.
Is there a bond at all?
574.26, subd. 2: 'Except as provided in sections 574.263 and 574.264 or if the amount of the contract is less than the amount in section 471.345, subdivision 3, a contract with a public body for the doing of any public work is not valid unless the contractor gives (1) a performance bond ... and (2) a payment bond ...'. Section 471.345, subd. 3 currently reads '$175,000'. So below $175,000 no bond is required and there may simply be nothing to claim against. Penalty (574.26, subd. 3): at least the contract price, except that for state contracts let by the commissioner of administration or the Department of Transportation those officials may set the penalty at not less than three-quarters of the contract price. Additional exemptions in subd. 1a: certain public-transit-bus manufacturers producing 100+ buses a year; certain MnDOT projects; and contracts for snow removal, ice removal, grading, or routine road maintenance on town roads.
Who can claim on it
574.26, subd. 2: the payment bond is 'for the use and benefit of all persons furnishing labor and materials engaged under, or to perform the contract, conditioned for the payment, as they become due, of all just claims for the labor and materials.' 'Labor and materials' is defined broadly in subd. 1(b)(2): 'work, skill, tools, machinery, materials, insurance premiums, equipment, supplies, or taxes under section 290.92, chapter 268, or 297A.' No tier cut-off is stated anywhere in the act; the gate is the notice, which everyone must clear. Attorneys' fees are recoverable: 'Reasonable attorneys' fees, costs, and disbursements may be awarded in an action to enforce claims under the act if the action is successfully maintained or successfully appealed.'
What notice you owe
EVERYONE. This is the point that most paraphrases get wrong. 574.31, subd. 2(a): 'In the event of a claim on a payment bond by a person furnishing labor and materials, no action shall be maintained on the payment bond unless, within 120 days ... the person serves written notice of claim ...'. There is NO privity exception - a first-tier subcontractor holding a contract directly with the bonded prime must serve the 120-day notice exactly like a third-tier supplier. The ONLY excuse is 574.31, subd. 2(b): 'If the contractor providing the payment bond fails to comply with the filing requirements of section 574.28 by failing to state both its address and the address of the surety providing the bond, then a claimant under the bond need not provide either the surety or the contractor written notice of its claim under paragraph (a).'
Who it goes to
Both the surety and the contractor: 'upon the surety that issued the bond and the contractor on whose behalf the bond was issued at their addresses as stated in the bond'. The statute adds that 'The addresses of the contractor and the surety listed on the bond must be addresses at which the companies are authorized to accept service of the notice of the claim', and that if an agent or attorney-in-fact is authorized to accept service that fact and the agent's address 'must be expressly stated in the bond'. Nothing is filed with the public body.
By when
120 days, running from the claimant's own LAST FURNISHING: 'within 120 days after completion, delivery, or provision by the person of its last item of labor and materials, for the public work'.
How it must be served
'personally or by certified mail'. The statute repeats it: 'For the purpose of this section, notice is sufficient if served personally or via certified mail to the addresses of the contractor and surety listed on the bond.'
What it has to say
'specifying the nature and amount of the claim and the date the claimant furnished its last item of labor and materials for the public work.' Three items. The statutory form additionally calls for a description of the public work, the name and address of the party that ordered the labor and materials, and a sworn verification.
The form the statute prescribes
NOTICE OF CLAIM ON PAYMENT BOND FOR PUBLIC WORK TO: ............................................................ (Surety that issued payment bond) and ............................................................. (The contractor on whose behalf the bond was issued) NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the undersigned claimant has a claim against the above-named surety for labor and materials furnished by the undersigned for the public work described as follows: .................................................................... (Description of the public work) The labor and materials were furnished under a contract or agreement with .................................................................... (Name and address of contractor or supplier requesting labor and materials from the claimant) The nature of the labor and materials furnished is as follows: .................................................................... The amount of the claim is: ......................................... The date the claimant last furnished labor and materials to this public work is the ...... day of ......................., ............ Claimant seeks payment of the claim according to the law. .............................................. Claimant .............................................. Address STATE OF .............................................. ss. COUNTY OF ........................................ ......................... being duly sworn on oath says that ......... is ......................... of the claimant named above and has knowledge of the claim and that the claim is correct, and no part of the claim has been paid. .............................................. Signed and sworn to before me on ........................................................... , by ........................................................... (Notary Seal) ................................................................ Notary Public
If the notice is late, or never given
Total bar: 'no action shall be maintained on the payment bond unless' the notice was served. There is no partial forfeiture and no substantial-compliance clause, though the form itself is only required to be 'substantially as follows'.
When the suit clock starts
574.31, subd. 2(c): 'within one year from the date of completion, delivery, or provision by the claimant of its last item of labor and materials for the public work STATED IN ITS NOTICE OF CLAIM.' Read that literally - the clock runs from the date the claimant itself wrote on its notice, not from the true date. Only where no notice was required (the 574.28 failure in paragraph (b)) does the statute switch to 'the actual date of completion, delivery, or provision by the claimant of its last item'.
How long you have to sue
One year, extendable two ways under subd. 2(d): '(1) written stipulation between the claimant and surety stating the extended deadline and executed by both parties before the expiration of one year from the actual date of completion ...; or (2) written notice extending by one year the deadline specified in paragraph (c) sent by the claimant to the surety via certified mail 90 days before the expiration of the deadline specified in paragraph (c), which notice is not objected to in a return written notice sent by the surety to the claimant via certified mail within 30 days after the surety's receipt of claimant's notice.' Also: 'If a claimant's payment is not yet contractually due within one year from the actual date of completion ..., the court shall continue and not dismiss the action until the payment is due.' Pro rata sharing applies if the bond is insufficient.
Where suit is brought
574.31 prescribes no court or venue. Other claimants 'may be admitted, on motion, as a party to the action, and the court shall determine the rights of all parties.'
The trap
Minnesota's 120-day notice is owed by EVERY claimant including a first-tier subcontractor in direct privity with the bonded prime - there is no Miller-Act privity exemption - and the one-year suit clock then runs from the last-furnishing date the claimant wrote on its own notice, so a wrong date on the form shortens the claimant's own limitations period.
The act itself
The 'Public Contractors' Performance and Payment Bond Act' - named in the statute itself: Minn. Stat. 574.26, subd. 1(a): 'Sections 574.26 to 574.32 constitute the Public Contractors' Performance and Payment Bond Act.'
Where this comes from
Minn. Stat. ss. 574.26 - 574.32. Bond requirement and exemptions: 574.26, subds. 1a, 2, 3. Contractor's filing of bond and addresses: 574.28. Notice of claim, limitations, extension: 574.31.
Minn. Stat. ch. 514 — published by the Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes.
Statutory summary as of 29 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Minnesota.