New Hampshire mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
New Hampshire 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
No recorded claim of lien exists. The lien is perfected only by court attachment: the claimant sues (breach of contract) and petitions ex parte for an attachment to secure the mechanic's lien, swearing to the contract, the unpaid amount, furnishing within the past 120 days, a reasonable land description, and (for subs) the owner notice. The granted petition plus a Writ of Attachment must then be recorded in the registry of deeds no later than 120 consecutive days (not 4 months) after the claimant's last contract-required furnishing (warranty/remedial work doesn't count; open-account suppliers with a full-needs contract measure from last delivery; multi-lot single contracts run from the last furnishing on any lot).
Notice prerequisites
No notice is required from a contractor hired directly by the owner. A subcontractor or supplier must give the owner written notice that it will claim a lien. Without that notice there is no lien (RSA 447:5). Give it before you start work to protect the full amount. If it is given later, the lien covers only what is still due, or later becomes due, to the party that hired you at the time the owner receives the notice (RSA 447:6). After giving notice, send the owner a written account of your work at least every 30 days (RSA 447:8).
Service on the owner
The attachment issues ex parte, so the owner is served with the suit papers and attachment afterward and may demand a prompt hearing (typically within two weeks) to contest timeliness, description, sub's notice, amount, or waiver. On lender-posted jobsites, lien claimants should notify the construction lender in writing within 15 business days after the later of the posting or the date they begin furnishing labor or materials, though omission alone does not void the lien.
Enforcement
Suit and perfection are the same act, so the effective deadline to sue is the same 120 days from last furnishing. The attachment then secures the eventual contract judgment, satisfied by set-off of the real estate or sheriff's sale; no separate lis pendens step is described.
N.H. RSA ch. 447 (esp. 447:2, 447:5-447:12-b, 447:14-16); RSA 511, 511-A (attachment); RSA 529
N.H. RSA ch. 447 — Liens for Labor and Materials — published by the New Hampshire General Court.
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 — Not the contractor and not the surety — a FILING with a public office. Which office depends on who contracted. RSA 447:17.
- When — 90 days after the OWNER’S completion and acceptance — not from your last work. RSA 447:17.
- How — None prescribed — file.
- If late — The whole claim. The filing is the price of admission to the bond.
- Sue by — 1 year after you file the statement of claim.
Is there a bond at all?
'Officers, public boards, agents or other persons who contract in behalf of the state or any political subdivision thereof for the construction, repair or rebuilding of public buildings, public highways, bridges or other public works shall if said contract involves an expenditure of $75,000 in behalf of the state or $125,000 in behalf of a political subdivision, and may if it involves an expenditure of less amount, obtain as a condition precedent to the execution of the contract, sufficient security, by bond or otherwise, in an amount equal to at least 100 percent of the contract price, or of the estimated cost of the work if no aggregate price is agreed upon' (RSA 447:16). Two thresholds, not one: $75,000 for state work, $125,000 for a political subdivision. Note also 'by bond or otherwise' - the security need not be a surety bond, so a claimant should confirm what was actually posted before drafting anything captioned as a bond claim.
Who can claim on it
RSA 447:17 opens the bond to 'any person, firm or corporation having any claim for labor performed, materials, machinery, tools, or equipment furnished as aforesaid.' The 'as aforesaid' refers back to the RSA 447:16 condition, which is broad: payment 'by the contractors and subcontractors for all labor performed or furnished, for all equipment hired, including trucks, for all material used and for fuels, lubricants, power, tools, hardware and supplies purchased by said principal and used in carrying out said contract, and for labor and parts furnished upon the order of said contractor for the repair of equipment used in carrying out said contract.' The statute states NO tier limit and no privity requirement - it does not say where the chain stops. Note the unusual coverage of hired equipment including trucks, of fuels/lubricants/power, and of repair labor and parts ordered by the contractor.
What notice you owe
EVERY claimant, without exception. There is no privity carve-out. A first-tier subcontractor in direct contract with the prime owes exactly the same RSA 447:17 filing as a remote supplier. This is the sharpest departure from the Miller Act pattern and the point at which reasoning by analogy from other states goes wrong.
Who it goes to
Not the contractor and not the surety - a FILING with a public office, and which office depends on who contracted: 'file in the office of the secretary of state, if the state is a contracting party, or with the department of transportation, if the state is a party to said contract by or through said department, or with the department of administrative services, if the state is a party to said contract by or through said department, or in the office of the clerk of the superior court for the county within which the contract shall be principally performed, if any political subdivision of the state is a contracting party' (RSA 447:17). The claimant does not notify the principal or surety; the statute puts that duty on the receiving office - 'a copy of which shall forthwith be sent by mail by the office where it is filed to the principal and surety.'
By when
90 days, running from the OWNER'S COMPLETION AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE PROJECT, not from the claimant's last furnishing: 'within 90 days after the completion and acceptance of the project by the contracting party' (RSA 447:17). RSA 447:15 uses the identical trigger for the companion lien on public funds. Because the clock starts on an event the claimant does not control and may not learn of, a claimant who finished work a year earlier may still be timely - and one who assumes the deadline ran from its own last day may file far too early to no effect, or may sit on rights it still has.
How it must be served
None prescribed for the claimant. RSA 447:17 says only 'file', and the sole mailing obligation in the statute runs the other way - the office where the claim is filed sends the copy to principal and surety. No certified or registered mail requirement is imposed on the claimant.
What it has to say
'a statement of the claim' - nothing further is enumerated. RSA 447:17 prescribes no contents at all. The nearest thing to a content specification appears later, in RSA 447:18, which requires the PETITION to contain 'an allegation of the nature and subject matter of the claim or contract or indebtedness relied upon, of the execution and delivery of the bond, and of the facts showing compliance by the claimant with the provisions of RSA 447:17 and this section relative to the filing of said claim.' Draft the statement of claim so that those allegations can later be made truthfully about it.
If the notice is late, or never given
The whole claim. RSA 447:17 is framed as the price of admission: 'To obtain the benefit of the bond, any person, firm or corporation having any claim ... shall, within 90 days ... file ... a statement of the claim.' No partial recovery, no forward truncation.
When the suit clock starts
The date the claimant FILED its RSA 447:17 statement of claim - not completion, not acceptance, not last furnishing. RSA 447:18: 'Said claimant shall, within one year after filing such claim, file a petition ... to enforce his claim or intervene in a petition already filed.'
How long you have to sue
1 year after filing the statement of claim. Because the filing date is set by the claimant, the claimant effectively sets its own suit deadline - filing the statement of claim on day 1 after acceptance rather than day 89 moves the litigation deadline nearly three months earlier.
Where suit is brought
'the superior court for the county within which the contract shall be principally performed', by petition to enforce the claim or by intervention in a petition already filed, 'with copy to the principal and surety, and such further notice as the court may order' (RSA 447:18). The proceeding is collective, not individual: 'The court shall examine all claims which have been duly filed in accordance herewith, and fix a date for hearing thereon, with notice to all creditors who have filed claims as herein provided, and to the principal and surety or sureties, and find the respective amounts due such party claimants and their rights to participate in the security and make such orders and decrees as justice may require.' The court may compel the official holding the filed claims to attend with them or to furnish copies.
The trap
Every claimant owes the RSA 447:17 filing - including the prime's own first-tier subs who would owe nothing in a Miller Act state - and it is filed with the Secretary of State, DOT, DAS or the superior court clerk within 90 days of the OWNER'S completion and acceptance, not mailed to the contractor within 90 days of the claimant's last day on the job.
The act itself
No popular name, and it is NOT a Miller Act analogue - do not reason from the federal model here. The bond sections sit inside RSA chapter 447, 'Liens for Labor and Materials', and they borrow that chapter's filing-and-petition machinery rather than the Miller Act's notice-to-the-prime machinery.
Where this comes from
RSA 447:16 (Bond Required), RSA 447:17 (Notice), RSA 447:18 (Petition and Hearing). Companion remedy on the public funds at RSA 447:15 (State Work). RSA 447:16-a was repealed by 1981, 4:6, eff. March 6, 1981; the chapter ends at RSA 447:18 and there is no RSA 447:19.
N.H. RSA ch. 447 — Liens for Labor and Materials — published by the New Hampshire General Court.
Statutory summary as of 29 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in New Hampshire.