Missouri mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Missouri lien deadline
Filing deadline
Mechanic's Lien Statement filed with the clerk of the circuit court (not the recorder) in the county of the property - each county if the land spans more than one - within 6 months of the last labor/material furnished under the contract (punch-list/warranty work doesn't extend the date). Rental-equipment suppliers get only 60 days from removal of the last equipment. The statement needs a just and true account: primes on lump-sum contracts may state a total, but subs/suppliers (and non-fixed-price primes) must itemize in enough detail for the owner to verify; new-residential liens must attach the Notice of Rights, contracts, invoices, and account.
Notice prerequisites
Layered notices. (1) Primes must give the statutory warning-language Notice to Owner before accepting any payment (ideally at contract signing and on every invoice); omission bars the lien, and fraudulent omission is a class B misdemeanor. (2) On remodel/repair of owner-occupied residential (4 units or fewer), subs/suppliers have no lien unless the owner signed the statutory Consent of Owner (10-pt bold), which must be attached to the lien when it is filed; the owner's full payment to the GC otherwise defeats their liens. (3) New-residential regime (post-2010): if the owner records a 45-day Notice of Intended Sale, every claimant at every tier must record a notarized Notice of Rights at least 5 days before the intended transfer or forfeit lien rights. (4) Equipment-rental companies have a lien only on commercial property, only for claims over $5,000, and only if they give the owner written notice within 15 business days after the equipment is first used on the property.
Service on the owner
Everyone except the original contractor must serve the owner a Notice of Intent to File Mechanic's Lien at least 10 days before filing, stating the amount and who owes it, served by someone competent to testify with an affidavit of service (recording it is prudent; recorder filing substitutes if the owner is out-of-county or evading). Practical effect: subs really have 6 months minus 10 days. Design professionals skip the owner notices, but their sub-consultants do not.
Enforcement
Suit in the county of filing within 6 months after the lien statement is filed, then prosecuted without unnecessary delay (including diligent service) or deemed abandoned. Contract-chain parties are necessary parties, and once one claimant files an equitable mechanics-lien action naming other record claimants, all others must join that single suit.
Mo. Rev. Stat. ch. 429 (esp. 429.010, 429.012, 429.013, 429.015, 429.070, 429.080, 429.100, 429.170); little Miller Act ch. 107
Mo. Rev. Stat. ch. 429 — published by the Missouri 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 — The bonded prime contractor. Not the surety, not the public entity.
- When — 90 days from your last supply — and this binds REMOTE SUPPLIERS only. § 107.170.
- How — None prescribed — written notice to the contractor.
- If late — For a remote supplier, total. For everyone else there is no notice to miss.
- Sue by — § 107.170 sets NO limitation period at all. Read below before assuming you have time.
Is there a bond at all?
107.170.2: the duty attaches to contracts 'for public works exempt from attachment and execution under section 513.455, the cost of which is estimated to exceed fifty thousand dollars'. Definitions in subsection 1 cover 'Public entity' - 'this state; any county, city, town, township, municipality, school district, or other political subdivision of this state' - and 'Public works' - 'the erection, construction, alteration, repair or improvement of any building, road, street, public utility or other public facility owned by the public entity'. Subsection 6 removes the requirement where a consent meeting the requirements of section 513.455 has been executed and recorded; subsection 7 waives it for a lessee/agent/designee where the contractor already furnishes a complying bond. AMOUNT: 'a bond with good and sufficient sureties, IN AN AMOUNT FIXED BY THE PUBLIC ENTITY.' There is no statutory minimum penal sum and no percentage - the bond can lawfully be far smaller than the contract.
Who can claim on it
The bond 'shall be conditioned for the payment of any and all materials, incorporated, consumed or used in connection with the construction of such work; all insurance premiums, both for compensation, and for all other kinds of insurance, on said work; and for all labor performed in such work WHETHER BY A SUBCONTRACTOR, A SUPPLIER AT ANY TIER, OR OTHERWISE.' So coverage reaches every tier, expressly. Subsection 8 adds that 'The providing of a bond under this section shall preclude the filing of a mechanic's lien' by subcontractors or suppliers - the bond is the exclusive remedy, which is why blowing it is fatal.
What notice you owe
ALMOST NOBODY - and that is the finding. Section 107.170 imposes no notice on a subcontractor of any tier, on a laborer, or on a supplier to the prime or to a FIRST-tier subcontractor. It imposes a notice on exactly one class, 'remote suppliers': 'Remote suppliers shall not be entitled to recovery under the bond required by this section, unless such suppliers shall have given written notice to the contractor that it has not been paid within ninety days of the time the supplier last supplied materials on the public works project. For purposes of this provision, a \'remote supplier\' is any material supplier to a public works project having a contract with a second, or lower, tier subcontractor, or with another material supplier of any tier.' Note the definition is limited to MATERIAL SUPPLIERS - a labor-only sub-subcontractor at the second tier is not a 'remote supplier' and owes nothing.
Who it goes to
The contractor (the bonded prime). Not the surety, not the public entity.
By when
90 days, running from the remote supplier's last supply: 'within ninety days of the time the supplier last supplied materials on the public works project.' Read the object carefully - the statute says last supplied materials ON THE PROJECT, not last supplied to its own customer.
How it must be served
None prescribed. The statute says only 'written notice to the contractor'; it specifies no mail class, no service method and no address. Certified mail with return receipt is prudence, not compliance.
What it has to say
One item only: 'that it has not been paid'. The statute prescribes no amount, no dates, no identification of the party that ordered the materials and no project description.
If the notice is late, or never given
For a remote supplier, total: it 'shall not be entitled to recovery under the bond'. For every other claimant there is no notice TO MISS - which is not the same as nothing to lose, because the suit limitation in Sec. 107.170 still runs and is then the only clock you have.
How long you have to sue
Section 107.170 contains NO limitations period at all - no subsection of it sets any deadline for suit on the bond. In practice the outer limit is the general civil limitation on a written obligation, Mo. Rev. Stat. 516.110(1), 'An action upon any writing, whether sealed or unsealed, for the payment of money or property' - ten years. Whether a court would apply 516.110 to a public works payment bond is not settled by the statute; confirm with a Missouri lawyer before relying on it.
Where suit is brought
Not prescribed in 107.170.
The trap
'Missouri requires no notice' is right for a subcontractor at any tier and even for a supplier to a first-tier sub, but dead wrong for a material supplier whose customer is a second-or-lower-tier subcontractor or another supplier - that claimant is a statutory 'remote supplier' and gets nothing without a 90-day written notice to the prime, and it has no fallback because subsection 8 forecloses a mechanic's lien.
The act itself
No popular name; the public works contractor's bond statute.
Where this comes from
Mo. Rev. Stat. s. 107.170 ('Bond - public works contractor - definitions - amount of bond - defense of employees from suit, exceptions - nongovernmental services, bond not required - bond precludes filing of mechanic's lien'), in Chapter 107. Eight subsections; the whole payment-bond regime sits in subsection 2.
Mo. Rev. Stat. ch. 429 — published by the Missouri Revisor of Statutes.
Statutory summary as of 29 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Missouri.