Mississippi mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Mississippi 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 Construction Lien filed — § 85-7-405(1)(b) says where, and it is not the land records: ‘the office of the clerk of the CHANCERY COURT of the county where the property is located’ — within 90 days after the claimant's last work or material furnishing (courts are expected to borrow federal Miller Act reasoning on what counts as last furnishing). The statute's mandatory recitals must appear or the lien is invalid — § 85-7-405(1)(b) prescribes BOTH verbatim, the 180-day expiration statement and the NOTICE TO OWNER OF PROPERTY that the owner may contest, and says ‘the absence of the statement or notice shall invalidate the lien’. And do not stop at filing: no later than TWO BUSINESS DAYS after the claim of lien is filed of record, send a true and accurate copy by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery to the owner, or to the contractor as the owner's agent if the owner's address cannot be found. Liens may later be amended up or down. Regime dates from the April 11, 2014 rewrite (85-7-401 et seq.), which first extended rights below owner-privity parties down to the 2nd tier.
Notice prerequisites
Only second-tier claimants (sub-subcontractors and suppliers to subcontractors) must act early: a written Notice of Lien Rights to the prime contractor (or to the owner if there is no prime) within 30 days of first work or delivery, stating the claimant, its customer, the project, the work/materials, and contract price. Suppliers selling on open account are advised to notice each sale. On single-family residential jobs, non-privity claimants must instead send the owner a Pre-Lien Notice at least 10 days before filing a lien.
Service on the owner
A copy of the filed lien must be sent to the owner within 2 business days of filing by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery (§ 85-7-405(1)(b)), and also to the prime contractor if the claimant is not the prime; service follows filing.
Enforcement
Within 180 days of the lien filing the claimant must bring a Payment Action against its contract counterparty (best practice: combine it with a Lien Action against the owner in one suit) or the lien is void; a Notice of Payment and Lien Action goes in the lis pendens records at commencement, with copies to owner and prime. An owner/prime/sub can file a Notice of Contest of Lien that compresses the suit deadline to 90 days (the statutory form says 60 - a known internal conflict). Suit is excused only where a judgment against the counterparty is unobtainable (bankruptcy, death, or unmatured pay-if-paid condition).
Miss. Code Ann. sections 85-7-401 to 85-7-433 (2014 act; esp. 85-7-403, 85-7-405, 85-7-407, 85-7-409, 85-7-413, 85-7-415, 85-7-419, 85-7-421, 85-7-423, 85-7-431)
Mississippi Code — Public Access — published by LexisNexis, for the Mississippi Legislature. This state publishes no code on its own servers; this is the free public access it points to.
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 contractor OR the surety — either one is enough. Mississippi is unusual. § 31-5-51.
- When — 90 days from your last furnishing. § 31-5-51.
- How — Personal delivery or certified mail, return receipt requested. § 31-5-51.
- If late — The right of action exists only if the notice was given.
- Sue by — 1 year from your last work. § 31-5-51.
Is there a bond at all?
There is NO dollar threshold in 31-5-51(1). It opens: 'Any person entering into a formal contract with the state or any county, city or political subdivision thereof, or other public authority for the construction, alteration, or repair of any public building or public work, before entering into such contract, shall furnish to such public body, except as provided in subsection (5) ...' - i.e. a bond is required on every formal public construction contract. The '$25,000' that circulates in practice guides comes from subsection (5), which is an OWNER ELECTION, not an automatic exemption: 'Whenever a contract is less than Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) the owners may elect to make a lump sum payment at the completion of the job. Lump sum payments will not be made until completion and acceptance by the governing agency. In such a case a performance bond or payment bond will not be required.' So on a sub-$25,000 job a bond may or may not exist depending on what the owner elected. Amounts: performance bond 'in an amount not less than the amount of the contract'; payment bond 'conditioned for the prompt payment of all persons supplying labor or material used in the prosecution of the work under said contract, for the use of each such person, in an amount not less than the amount of the contract.' IF THE SURETY IS NOT ON THE UNITED STATES TREASURY LIST, THE PUBLIC BODY STANDS IN ITS PLACE. § 31-5-51(1)(c) allows only a surety company 'authorized to do business in the State of Mississippi and listed on the United States Treasury Department's list of acceptable sureties', or a personal surety who has deposited cash or certificates of deposit with the State Treasurer in an amount not less than the contract. And § 31-5-51(6) supplies the remedy where that was ignored: 'If the surety is not listed on the United States Treasury Department's list of acceptable sureties, THE PUBLIC BODY for which the public work is being performed SHALL BE LIABLE TO THE EXTENT THAT THE SURETY WOULD BE LIABLE.' That is a substitute defendant with public money behind it - check the surety against the Treasury list before you conclude a worthless bond leaves you with nothing.
Who can claim on it
31-5-51: 'Every person who has furnished labor or material used in the prosecution of the work provided for in such contract, in respect of which a payment bond is furnished ...' plus, expressly, 'Any person having direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor but no contractual relationship express or implied with the contractor furnishing said payment bond'. AND THEN THE STATUTE CLOSES THE CLASS EXPRESSLY, which is unusual and which decides eligibility rather than merely describing it. § 31-5-51(4): 'THE ONLY PERSONS PROTECTED by such payment bond, subject to the notice provisions of this section are: (a) Subcontractors and material suppliers of the contractor; (b) Sub-subcontractors and material suppliers of those subcontractors named in subsection (4)(a) of this section; and (c) Laborers who have performed work on the project site.' Count the tiers. The bond reaches you if you contracted with the PRIME, or with a FIRST-TIER SUBCONTRACTOR, or if you are a laborer who worked on site. It does NOT reach a supplier to a sub-subcontractor, or a supplier's supplier: those people are outside an exhaustive list, not merely unmentioned by it. Work out which tier you are on before you spend anything on this claim.
What notice you owe
Only 'Any person having direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor but no contractual relationship express or implied with the contractor furnishing said payment bond'. A claimant in privity with the prime owes no notice. BUT every claimant, privity or not, faces a substantive precondition to suit that reads like a notice trap: it must be a person 'who has not been paid in full therefor before the expiration of a period of ninety (90) days after the date on which the last of the labor was performed by him or the last of the materials was furnished by him and for which such claim is made, PROVIDED THE SAME HAS BEEN APPROVED, WHERE REQUIRED, BY THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY OR ITS ARCHITECT OR ENGINEERS, or such approval is being withheld as a result of unreasonable acts of the contractor'.
Who it goes to
The contractor OR the surety - Mississippi is unusual in allowing either: 'Such notice shall be given in writing by the claimant to the contractor or surety at any place where the contractor or surety maintains an office or conducts business.' Nothing is filed with the public body.
By when
90 days from LAST FURNISHING: 'within ninety (90) days from the date on which such person did or performed the last of the labor or furnished or supplied the last of the material for which such claim is made'.
How it must be served
Either personal delivery or certified mail, return receipt requested: 'Such notice may be personally delivered by the claimant to the contractor or surety, or it may be mailed by certified mail, return receipt requested, postage prepaid, to the contractor or surety.' Note 'may' - these are the two safe harbors, and the address is 'any place where the contractor or surety maintains an office or conducts business'.
What it has to say
'stating with substantial accuracy the amount claimed and the name of the party to whom the material was furnished or supplied or for whom the labor was done or performed.' Two items.
If the notice is late, or never given
The non-privity claimant 'shall have a right of action upon the said payment bond UPON GIVING written notice' - the right of action exists only if the notice was given, so missing it destroys the entire claim for that claimant. It costs a privity claimant nothing, because that claimant owes no notice.
When the suit clock starts
Payment bond: the day the claimant last performed labor or supplied material. (31-5-53 sets a different trigger for the performance bond: one year after the obligee made final payment on the contract, or, if the contract is abandoned by the general contractor as bond principal or terminated by the obligee, one year after the earlier of the abandonment or termination.)
How long you have to sue
One year - suit on the payment bond must be 'commenced within one (1) year after the day on which the last of the labor was performed or material was supplied'.
Where suit is brought
31-5-53: suit 'shall be brought in the county in which the contract or some part thereof was performed or in the county in which service of process may be obtained upon either the principal or the surety.' Attorney's fees may be awarded under 31-5-57.
The trap
SERVED, NOT FILED - nothing goes to the public body, and the notice may be sent to the contractor OR the surety, but the claim itself is conditioned on the work having been 'approved, where required, by the public authority or its architect or engineers', so a claimant whose pay application was never approved by the design professional can serve a perfect 90-day notice and still be met with a defense that no claim had yet accrued - and § 31-5-51(2) adds a second brake on the same claim, because 'if the amount claimed in such action is subject to contractual provisions or conditions, between the parties involved in such action, THE ACTION SHALL BE ABATED pending the performance of such provisions and the fulfillment of such conditions', so a dispute-resolution clause in your own subcontract can hold the bond suit still while the one-year clock in § 31-5-53(b) keeps running.
The act itself
No popular name; the bond article of the public works chapter.
Where this comes from
Miss. Code Ann. ss. 31-5-51 through 31-5-57 ('Bonds Securing Public Construction Contracts'), inside Title 31, Chapter 5 (Public Works Contracts). Key sections: 31-5-51 (bonds required; persons entitled to sue; notice), 31-5-52 (design-build and CM-at-risk), 31-5-53 (time for bringing suit; venue), 31-5-55 (persons entitled to copies of contract and bond), 31-5-57 (attorney's fees).
Mississippi Code — Public Access — published by LexisNexis, for the Mississippi Legislature.
Statutory summary as of 31 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Mississippi.