Oklahoma mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Oklahoma 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
Original contractors: 4 months from last furnishing; subcontractors/suppliers/equipment lessors: 90 days (note - 90 days, not 3 months); oil and gas well liens: 180 days. File the verified Lien Statement with the county clerk where the land lies. Punch-list and repair return trips do not extend the clock; acceptance date is irrelevant.
Notice prerequisites
No notice before starting work, but lower-tier claimants (everyone except the original contractor) must serve a Pre-Lien Notice on both the owner and the original contractor when the property is occupied as a dwelling by an owner (any amount), or when the aggregate claim is $10,000 or more, unless the job is a residential project of four or fewer units, none of them owner-occupied. Serve before filing the lien and no later than 75 days after last furnishing; one notice covers the whole project. Rental residential projects of 4 or fewer units are exempt. A compliance affidavit must accompany the lien filing (false affidavit = misdemeanor), and if the GC ignores a written request for the owner's name/address for 5 days, the owner-notice requirement drops away.
Service on the owner
The claimant does not serve the recorded lien - the county clerk mails notice of the lien to the owner by certified mail within 5 business days of filing. The claimant's own service duty is the pre-lien notice stage.
Enforcement
Foreclosure suit in the district court of the property's county within 1 year of filing the Lien Statement; after a year the lien is cancelled automatically by statute. All other recorded lienholders must be joined; prevailing party recovers attorney fees. No lis pendens requirement mentioned.
Okla. Stat. tit. 42, sec. 141-178 (esp. 142, 142.6, 143, 147.1, 152-153, 172, 176-177); oil and gas liens sec. 144-146
Okla. Stat. tit. 42 — Liens — published by the Oklahoma Legislature.
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 contractor AND the surety. 61 O.S. § 2(B).
- When — 90 days from your own last furnishing. § 2(B)(1).
- How — Registered or certified mail. § 2(B).
- If late — The whole claim, for a claimant not in privity.
- Sue by — 1 year by default, extendable to 2 in a way no other state has — read below.
Is there a bond at all?
'Prior to an award of a contract exceeding One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000.00) for construction or repair of a public or private building, structure, or improvement on public real property, the person that receives the award shall furnish a bond with good and sufficient sureties payable to the state in a sum not less than the total sum of the contract' (61 O.S. § 1(A), as amended by Laws 2022, c. 238, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2022). The bond is a single combined instrument: it 'shall ensure the proper and prompt completion of the work in accordance with the contract and shall ensure that the contractor shall pay all indebtedness the contractor incurs for the contractor's subcontractors and all suppliers of labor, material, rental of machinery or equipment, and repair of and parts for equipment the contract requires the contractor to furnish' (§ 1(B)). NOTE the threshold moved: before Nov. 1, 2022 it was Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00), and the pre-2022 text also allowed an irrevocable letter of credit in lieu of a bond and, for contracts at or below the threshold, an affidavit of payment of indebtedness. Both alternatives were stripped out of § 1 in 2022. Charts still showing $50,000, a letter of credit, or an 'affidavit' option are quoting repealed language.
Who can claim on it
Very broad, and with NO tier cut-off for ordinary contracts. § 61-2(A): 'Any person to whom there is due any sum for labor, material or repair to machinery or equipment, furnished as stated in Section 1 of this title, the heirs or assigns of such person, may file a claim or bring an action on the bond for the recovery of the indebtedness.' § 61-2(B)(1) then confers the bond right on 'Any person having direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor, REGARDLESS OF TIER, performing work on the contract, but no contractual relationship express or implied with the contractor furnishing the payment bond' (emphasis added; the words 'regardless of tier' were inserted by Laws 2019, c. 407, § 1). Oklahoma therefore protects the fourth- and fifth-tier supplier that the Miller Act and most Little Miller Acts cut off at the second tier. The one exception is § 61-2(B)(2): 'With regard to an at-risk construction management contract under which the at-risk construction manager or a trade contractor under either an agency or an at-risk construction management contract is required to furnish a payment bond, only persons having a direct contractual relationship with the party furnishing the payment bond shall have a right of action upon the payment bond in the same manner as set forth in subsection A of this section.' On CM-at-risk and trade-contractor bonds the chain therefore stops dead at first tier.
What notice you owe
Only a claimant with 'direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor, regardless of tier, performing work on the contract, but no contractual relationship express or implied with the contractor furnishing the payment bond' (§ 61-2(B)(1)). A claimant in privity with the bonded prime owes no notice at all and proceeds directly under § 61-2(A). On a CM-at-risk or trade-contractor bond, § 61-2(B)(2) limits recovery to first-tier claimants who likewise owe no notice.
Who it goes to
TWO recipients, not one: 'the contractor and surety on the payment bond'. The statute is explicit that service is by mail to the contractor 'together with a copy thereof to the surety or sureties on the payment bond' (§ 61-2(B)(1)). Nothing is served on the public awarding agency.
By when
Ninety (90) days, running from the CLAIMANT'S OWN 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 or parts for which the claim is made' (§ 61-2(B)(1)). It does not run from completion or acceptance of the project.
How it must be served
'The notice shall be served by mailing the same by registered or certified mail, postage prepaid, in an envelope addressed to the contractor at any place the contractor maintains an office or conducts business, together with a copy thereof to the surety or sureties on the payment bond' (§ 61-2(B)(1)). Registered or certified mail only; no personal-service alternative is offered, and no address is prescribed for the surety.
What it has to say
Two enumerated items: the notice must state 'with substantial accuracy the amount claimed and the name of the party to whom the material or parts were furnished or supplied or for whom the labor was done or performed' (§ 61-2(B)(1)). Nothing else is prescribed - no project description, no dates, no itemization.
If the notice is late, or never given
The whole claim, for the non-privity claimant. § 61-2(B)(1) says such a person 'shall have a right of action upon the payment bond ONLY upon giving written notice' - the notice is a condition precedent to the existence of the right, not a procedural step. A privity claimant loses nothing because it owes nothing.
The small-claim floor
Contracts of One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000.00) or less: no bond is required at all, because § 61-1(A) is triggered only by 'a contract exceeding One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000.00)'. There is no separate dollar floor on the size of an individual claim.
When the suit clock starts
The claimant's own last furnishing: 'the day on which the last of the labor was performed or material or parts furnished for which the claim is made' (§ 61-2(A)).
How long you have to sue
One (1) year as the default, with a conditional extension to two (2) years that has no analogue in most states: 'no action shall be brought on the bond after one (1) year from the day on which the last of the labor was performed or material or parts furnished for which the claim is made UNLESS a prior claim has been filed within one (1) year from the day on which the labor was performed or material or parts furnished, in which case, no action shall be brought on the bond after two (2) years from the day on which the last of the labor was performed or material or parts furnished for which the claim is made' (§ 61-2(A)). The word used is 'filed', and § 61-2(A) opens by saying a claimant 'may file a claim or bring an action on the bond' - filing a claim is treated as a distinct act from suing.
Where suit is brought
Not prescribed. Sections 61-1 and 61-2 name no court and no venue; the bond is 'payable to the state' (§ 61-1(A)) and is 'filed in the office of the agency, institution, department, commission, municipality or government instrumentality' that let the contract, which 'shall furnish a copy thereof to any person claiming any rights thereunder' (§ 61-2(A)). General Oklahoma venue rules govern.
The trap
The 90-day notice must be mailed to the surety as well as to the prime - Oklahoma is one of the few states that requires both - and the only thing that turns the one-year suit deadline into two years is a 'claim' 'filed' inside the first year, a step § 61-2(A) never tells you where or how to take.
The act itself
No popular name. The bond itself is the 'statutory bond' of Okla. Stat. tit. 61, §§ 1-2 ('Public Buildings and Public Works'), which long predates the Miller Act (R.L. 1910, §§ 3881-3882). The competitive-bidding overlay is the Public Competitive Bidding Act of 1974, 61 O.S. §§ 101-138. Oklahoma tracks the Miller Act on the 90-day notice but departs from it sharply on tier and on the limitation period.
Where this comes from
Okla. Stat. tit. 61, § 1 (bond required; threshold; conditions) and § 61-2 (filing of bond; right of action; the 90-day notice; the one/two-year limitation; DOT and Turnpike Authority additions). Public Competitive Bidding Act at 61 O.S. §§ 101-138.
Okla. Stat. tit. 42 — Liens — published by the Oklahoma Legislature.
Statutory summary as of 29 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Oklahoma.