Ohio mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Ohio lien deadline
Based on the general 75-day period from last furnishing. Exceptions apply — treat this as a planning estimate, not legal advice.
Filing deadline
Affidavit of Lien recorded with the county recorder of each county holding the property: 60 days from last labor/materials on residential (1-2 family or condo unit) projects, 120 days for oil and gas wells, 75 days for all other private work. Public (non-federal) jobs: serve the lien on the public authority within 120 days of last furnishing, then record within 30 days; it attaches only to unspent project funds. Deadlines are strict; punch-list, warranty and manufactured extra work do not extend them. Common-carrier deliveries count from delivery to the carrier, not the site.
Notice prerequisites
Owner-side: before work starts the private owner must record a Notice of Commencement (affidavit form) with each county recorder; public authorities keep one on file. Claimant-side: subs and materialmen not contracting with the owner must serve a Notice of Furnishing within 21 days of their first furnishing on the contracting owner/designee (and on the original contractor if not in privity with it). A late notice only reaches work back 21 days before service. Exceptions: no notice is needed on home construction contracts, when no notice of commencement was recorded, or from laborers. If you ask the owner or designee in writing for the notice of commencement and do not receive it within 10 days, your 21 days does not start until it is actually served on you.
Service on the owner
After recording, a copy of the Affidavit of Lien must be served on the contracting owner (or designee) within 30 days of filing - failure is fatal; if statutory service is impossible, post it conspicuously on the property between days 31 and 41. Service follows filing.
Enforcement
The lien lives 6 years from recording; foreclosure must be filed within that window, which cannot be extended or renewed - even being named in another party's foreclosure does not preserve it.
Ohio Rev. Code ch. 1311 (esp. sec. 1311.011, 1311.04, 1311.05, 1311.06, 1311.07, 1311.19, 1311.021)
Ohio Rev. Code ch. 1311 — Liens — published by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission.
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 — Notice of furnishing: the prime contractor. Statement of claim: the sureties. R.C. 1311.261, 153.56.
- When — Notice of furnishing: 21 days from FIRST furnishing. Statement to sureties: 90 days after completion.
- How — No method prescribed for the statement to the sureties — 153.56(A) says only ‘furnish’.
- If late — NOT the whole claim for the notice of furnishing — it truncates forward. Most write-ups get this wrong.
- Sue by — 1 year from acceptance, minus a 60-day dead zone after your statement. R.C. 153.56.
Is there a bond at all?
None by dollar amount. R.C. 153.54(A) requires 'each person bidding for a contract with the state or any political subdivision, district, institution, or other agency thereof, excluding therefrom the department of transportation, for any public improvement' to file a BID GUARANTY, and the payment obligation rides on whichever form the bidder chose. If the bidder filed a 153.54(A)(1) bond, it is 'for the full amount of the bid' and is already conditioned to 'pay all lawful claims of subcontractors, material suppliers, and laborers'; the form is at 153.571. If the bidder instead filed a certified check, cashier's check or letter of credit under 153.54(A)(2) - equal to ten per cent of the bid - then on entering the contract 'the bidder, at the time the contract is entered to, shall file a bond for the amount of the contract' with the same payment condition; the form is at 153.57. Either way the undertaking 'is for the benefit of any subcontractor, material supplier, or laborer having a just claim, as well as for the state, political subdivision, district, institution, or agency.' Exclusions: contracts described in R.C. 9.334 or 153.693, and the Department of Transportation entirely.
Who can claim on it
BOND: R.C. 153.56(A) - 'Any person to whom any money is due for labor or work performed or materials furnished in a public improvement as provided in section 153.54 of the Revised Code'. The bond condition itself names 'any subcontractor, material supplier, or laborer having a just claim'. PUBLIC FUNDS: R.C. 1311.26 - 'Any subcontractor, material supplier, or laborer who is performing or has performed labor or work or is furnishing or has furnished material for any public improvement provided for in a contract between the public authority and a principal contractor, and under a contract between the subcontractor, material supplier, or laborer and a principal contractor or subcontractor'. The definitions in 1311.25 govern both and are deliberately wide: 'subcontractor' is 'any person who undertakes to construct, alter, erect, improve, repair, demolish, remove, dig, or drill any part of any public improvement under a contract with any person other than the public authority' - which reaches down past the second tier; 'material supplier' is 'any person by whom any materials are furnished in furtherance of a public improvement'; 'materials' expressly includes 'any gasoline, lubricating oil, petroleum products, powder, dynamite, blasting supplies and other explosives, tools, equipment, or machinery furnished in furtherance of a public improvement.' Neither scheme cuts the chain by tier.
What notice you owe
THREE different writings with three different populations - this is where Ohio claims are lost. (1) NOTICE OF FURNISHING: owed by a subcontractor or material supplier NOT in direct privity of contract with the principal contractor. For the PUBLIC FUNDS claim, 1311.261(A)(1) imposes it on every such claimant with no dollar qualifier. For the BOND claim, 153.56(C) imposes it only on such a claimant 'supplying labor or materials that cost more than thirty thousand dollars'. 1311.261(F): 'No laborer must serve a notice in accordance with this section to preserve lien rights'. (2) STATEMENT OF THE AMOUNT DUE to the sureties: owed by EVERY bond claimant, privity or not - 153.56(A). (3) AFFIDAVIT to the public authority: owed by every claimant pursuing the funds claim - 1311.26.
Who it goes to
(1) Notice of furnishing: 'the principal contractor whose contract with the public authority is the contract under which the subcontractor or material supplier is performing labor or work or furnishing materials' (1311.261(A)(1)). For the funds claim the public authority must ALSO receive a copy plus proof - 1311.28 bars it from detaining anything 'unless the claimant has provided to the public authority a copy of the notice of furnishing and a sworn statement as to the date the notice of furnishing was served to the principal contractor'. (2) Statement of the amount due: 'the sureties on the bond' (153.56(A)) - not the principal contractor and not the public authority. (3) Affidavit: the public authority, and specifically 'the representative of the public authority named in the notice of commencement' (1311.26).
By when
(1) NOTICE OF FURNISHING - 21 days from FIRST furnishing: 'within twenty-one days after the date that the subcontractor or material supplier first performed labor or work or furnished materials on the site of the public improvement' (1311.261(A)(1)). (2) STATEMENT TO SURETIES - 90 days from a compound event: 'at any time after performing the labor or work or furnishing the materials, but not later than ninety days after the completion of the contract by the principal contractor or design-build firm AND the acceptance of the public improvement for which the bond was provided by the duly authorized board or officer' (153.56(A)). Both limbs must occur; the clock starts on the later of them. (3) AFFIDAVIT - 120 days from LAST furnishing: 'at any time, not to exceed one hundred twenty days from the performance of the last labor or work or furnishing of the last material' (1311.26).
How it must be served
No method is prescribed for the statement to the sureties - 153.56(A) says only 'furnish'. The notice of furnishing and the affidavit are to be 'served', with no method specified in 1311.261 or 1311.26 themselves; R.C. 1311.19 governs service of the separate notice to commence suit under 1311.311 and proof of that service 'may be made by affidavit filed with the public authority or clerk or agent thereof'. For the funds claim, keep proof of the notice-of-furnishing service date, because 1311.28 requires a sworn statement of it before any money is detained.
What it has to say
(1) Notice of furnishing: prescribed form, reproduced in noticeForm. (2) Statement to sureties: 'a statement of the amount due to the person' - nothing further enumerated in 153.56(A). (3) Affidavit under 1311.26: 'the amount due and unpaid for the labor and work performed and material furnished, when the last of the labor or work was performed and when the last of the material was furnished with all credits and setoffs thereon, and the post-office address of the claimant.' 1311.26 also permits collective laborer affidavits: 'One or more laborers may authorize an agent to prepare, execute, file, and serve the affidavit ... provided that the affidavit separately itemizes the claim of each laborer and may set forth claims for wages that are contractually due but are unpaid.'
The form the statute prescribes
"Notice of Furnishing (For use in connection with public improvements) To: ____________________________________________ (Name of principal contractor) ________________________________________________ (Address of principal contractor) The undersigned notifies you that the undersigned has furnished or performed or will furnish or perform (describe labor, work, or materials) for the improvement of real property identified as (property description or address) under order given by (name of subcontractor or material supplier). The labor, work, or materials were first furnished or performed or will be furnished or performed on (date). _______________________________________________________ (Signature of subcontractor or material supplier) _______________________________________________________ (Address of subcontractor or material supplier) _______________________________________________________ (Date)."
If the notice is late, or never given
NOT the whole claim for the notice of furnishing - and this is the rule most write-ups get wrong. A late notice of furnishing truncates recovery forward rather than destroying it. R.C. 1311.261(A)(2): a claimant may serve it more than 21 days after first furnishing, but then 'shall have the rights of sections 1311.25 to 1311.32 of the Revised Code with regard to only amounts owed for labor and work performed and materials furnished during and after the twenty-one days immediately preceding service of the notice of furnishing.' R.C. 153.56(D) applies the identical truncation to the BOND claim. So a claimant that discovers the omission mid-job should serve at once and preserve everything from 21 days before service onward. By contrast the 90-day statement to the sureties and the 120-day affidavit are hard conditions with no partial-recovery rule. There is also a damages remedy for being kept in the dark: 1311.261(C) and (D) oblige each principal contractor and each subcontractor, on the date of contracting, to give its subcontractor or supplier in writing the name and address of the public authority and of the principal contractor, and 1311.261(E) provides that if that failure 'results in the loss of rights under this section, the affected person may bring an action in any court of common pleas ... against the person who failed to furnish the information for any damages resulting from the loss of rights'.
The small-claim floor
$30,000 - but it is a floor on the NOTICE DUTY, not on the claim. R.C. 153.56(C): the notice of furnishing is a precondition to the bond claim only for 'a subcontractor or materials supplier supplying labor or materials that cost more than thirty thousand dollars, who is not in direct privity of contract with the principal contractor or design-build firm'. A non-privity claimant at or below $30,000 still has a bond claim and still owes the 90-day statement to the sureties. Note the asymmetry: no equivalent floor appears in 1311.261 for the public funds claim, so the same small supplier that owes no notice of furnishing for bond purposes does owe one to reach the funds.
When the suit clock starts
BOND: acceptance of the public improvement. R.C. 153.56(B) - the action must be 'commenced, notwithstanding section 2305.12 of the Revised Code, not later than one year from the date of acceptance of the public improvement for which the bond was provided'. There is also a mandatory pre-suit wait: 'A suit shall not be brought against sureties on the bond until after sixty days after the furnishing of the statement described in division (A) of this section.' PUBLIC FUNDS: there is no independent limitation period; instead the clock is switched on by the other side. R.C. 1311.311 lets 'Any public authority or any principal contractor or subcontractor who receives a copy of the affidavit' notify the claimant to commence suit, and 'If the claimant fails to commence suit within sixty days after the date of the service of the notice, the affidavit filed pursuant to section 1311.26 of the Revised Code is void and the funds are to be released to the principal contractor.'
How long you have to sue
BOND: 1 year from the date of acceptance of the public improvement, minus a 60-day dead zone after the statement to the sureties during which no suit may be brought. PUBLIC FUNDS: 60 days from service of a notice to commence suit, if one is served; otherwise the affidavit stands against the detained funds. The funds claim can also be extinguished by bonding around it - 1311.311 makes the affidavit void and the funds wholly discharged if the principal contractor or a subcontractor or interested party gives the notice to commence suit and files with the public authority 'a bond in the amount equal to one and one-half of the claim in favor of the claimant, executed by sufficient surety, approved in writing by the public authority, and conditioned upon the payment of any judgment upon the claim, plus costs.'
Where suit is brought
PUBLIC FUNDS: R.C. 1311.32 - 'Either of these actions shall be brought in the county in which the public property involved is situated, except that actions against state officers shall be brought only in Franklin county.' The same section gives the court the job of resolving 'all disputes concerning whether the affidavit filed pursuant to section 1311.26 of the Revised Code has been perfected and concerning priorities'. BOND: 153.56(B) directs that the action on the bond be brought 'in the person's own name upon the bond, as provided in sections 2307.06 and 2307.07 of the Revised Code' but prescribes no venue of its own.
The trap
R.C. 153.54 is the BID GUARANTY section and reading it alone tells a claimant nothing about its own deadline - the claim is made by the 153.56 statement to the SURETIES within 90 days after the prime completes the contract and the owner accepts the improvement, and a subcontractor who serves only the 1311.26 affidavit on the public authority has made no bond claim at all.
The act itself
No popular name, and Ohio splits the remedy in two. There are TWO SEPARATE SCHEMES and they are not alternatives to each other in the ordinary sense: (1) the CONTRACT BOND required by R.C. 153.54 and enforced under R.C. 153.56 - the true payment bond claim, against the surety; and (2) the PUBLIC FUNDS CLAIM under R.C. 1311.25 to 1311.32 - an affidavit served on the public authority that forces it to detain undisbursed contract funds. Neither is a lien on the property; Ohio public property takes no mechanics lien. A subcontractor typically pursues BOTH, because the funds claim is worthless once the authority has paid the prime out, and the bond claim is the only one that reaches a solvent third party.
Where this comes from
BOND: R.C. 153.54 (bid guaranty and contract bond), 153.56 (suit on bond; statement to sureties; notice of furnishing), 153.57 and 153.571 (verbatim bond forms). PUBLIC FUNDS: R.C. 1311.25 (definitions), 1311.26 (affidavit to the public authority), 1311.261 (notice of furnishing and its prescribed form), 1311.28 (detention of funds), 1311.311 (notice to commence suit; bond to discharge), 1311.32 (enforcement and venue).
Ohio Rev. Code ch. 1311 — Liens — published by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission.
Statutory summary as of 29 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Ohio.