Pennsylvania mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Pennsylvania lien deadline
Filing deadline
Contractors and subs alike file the claim with the Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of each county holding the project within 6 months after completing their own work. Strictly enforced - courts cannot extend the period or accept substantial compliance, and returning after a long gap to do token work does not revive rights. Claims under $500 are not lienable — § 1301(a) requires the amount to EXCEED five hundred dollars, apart from amounts apportioned under § 1306(b); single contracts covering multiple separate improvements must be apportioned into separate claims. The § 1301(b) residential bar is narrow. A subcontractor loses the lien only where ALL THREE are true: (1) the owner or tenant paid the FULL contract price to the contractor; (2) the property is or is intended to be the residence of the owner or of the owner’s tenant; and (3) it is a single TOWNHOUSE or a building of ONE OR TWO dwelling units. A townhouse means a single-family unit in a group of three or more attached units, each running foundation to roof with a yard or public way on at least two sides. A three-unit building, or a house the owner has not paid out in full, is not within the bar. § 1504 also limits amendment after the six months run: no amendment may substitute a different property, substitute a different party contracted with, or increase the aggregate amount of the claim.
Notice prerequisites
No universal pre-work notice, but two subcontractor traps: (1) on 'searchable projects' ($1.5M+ cost) where the owner filed a Notice of Commencement in the online State Construction Notices Directory, a sub must file a Notice of Furnishing in the Directory within 45 days of first performing work or first providing materials at the job site. The duty arises only where the Notice of Commencement was both FILED AND POSTED in accordance with § 1501.3(a). And the sanction is not automatic: § 1501.3(c) reads ‘A subcontractor that fails to SUBSTANTIALLY COMPLY with this section forfeits the right to file a lien claim’ — substantial compliance, not strict, so a late or imperfect filing is an argument rather than a certainty. Do not tell a claimant it is finished on this ground without advice; (2) every subcontractor must serve the owner a Formal Notice of Intention to file a claim at least 30 days before filing the lien, stating, under § 1501(c), six things: the claimant’s name, the name of the person contracted with, the amount claimed to be due, the general nature and character of the labor or materials, the date of completion of the work, and a description sufficient to identify the property. § 1501(b.1) excepts the notice where the claim is filed pursuant to a rule under § 1506. AND NOTE THE TWO SERVICE RULES ARE DIFFERENT, which is easy to get backwards: this notice of INTENTION may be served by FIRST CLASS, registered or certified MAIL on the owner or agent, or by an adult as a writ of summons in assumpsit, or by posting (§ 1501(d)). The later notice of FILING may not be mailed at all — § 1502(c) allows only service by an adult as a writ of summons, or posting.
Service on the owner
After filing, serve a written Notice of Filing of a Claim on the owner within 1 month (sheriff service as for a summons in assumpsit, or posting on the improvement if that fails), and file an Affidavit of Service with the court within 20 days of service. Missing either step is grounds to strike the lien, even if the sheriff caused the delay.
Enforcement
Complaint to obtain judgment on the lien within 2 years of filing the claim — § 1701(b), ‘unless the time be extended IN WRITING BY THE OWNER’, which is the only extension the section allows — and the action must be pushed to verdict within 5 years. The owner can force the pace: a rule to file the claim within 30 days after a sub's work completes, or a rule to file the complaint within 20 days, each forfeiting rights if ignored.
49 P.S. sec. 1101 et seq. (esp. 1201, 1301, 1303, 1401-1402, 1501-1502, 1510); Contractor and Subcontractor Payment Act, 73 P.S. sec. 501 et seq.
Mechanics’ Lien Law of 1963, Act of Aug. 24, 1963, P.L. 1175, No. 497 — published by the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
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 prime contractor who gave the bond, and nobody else. 8 P.S. § 194(b).
- When — 90 days from your own last furnishing. § 194(b).
- How — Registered or certified mail, or the broader alternative in § 194 — read below.
- If late — The whole claim, for a claimant not in privity. Nothing is lost by a claimant in privity.
- Sue by — 1 year. 42 Pa.C.S. § 5523(3).
Is there a bond at all?
TWO different thresholds, and which applies depends on who the owner is. (i) Section 3(a): 'Before any contract exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000) for the construction, reconstruction, alteration or repair of any public building or other public work or public improvement, including highway work, of any contracting body is awarded to any prime contractor, such contractor shall furnish to the contracting body the following bonds' - a performance bond at 100% and, under § 3(a)(2), 'A payment bond at one hundred percent of the contract amount.' (ii) Section 3.1(a), for local contracting bodies: 'Before any contract exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for the construction, reconstruction, alteration or repair of any public building or other public work or public improvement, including highway work, of any contracting body is awarded to any prime contractor, such contractor shall furnish to the contracting body the following financial security' - and § 3.1(a)(2) is 'A payment bond, Federal or Commonwealth chartered lending institution irrevocable letter of credit or restrictive or escrow account in such lending institution, equal to one hundred percent of the contract amount.' Section 3.1(d) defines the bodies to which it applies: 'any county, school district, intermediate unit, area vocational-technical school, city, borough, incorporated town, township, home-rule municipality and any authority formed under the act of May 2, 1945 (P.L.382, No.164), known as the "Municipality Authorities Act of 1945."' Section 3.1(e) settles the conflict: 'For the contracting body as defined in subsection (d), the provisions of this section supersede the provisions of section 3 of this act.' So on Commonwealth work the trigger is $5,000 and the security must be a bond; on county, city, borough, township, school district and municipal authority work the trigger is $10,000 and the 'security' may lawfully be a letter of credit or an escrow account with no surety in it at all.
Who can claim on it
Claimants supplying labor or materials to the prime or to any of the prime's subcontractors - the chain stops at the second tier. Section 3(a)(2) (and § 3.1(a)(2) in identical words): the payment bond 'shall be solely for the protection of claimants supplying labor or materials to the prime contractor to whom the contract was awarded, or to any of his subcontractors, in the prosecution of the work provided for in such contract, and shall be conditioned for the prompt payment of all such material furnished or labor supplied or performed in the prosecution of the work. "Labor or materials" shall include public utility services and reasonable rentals of equipment, but only for periods when the equipment rented is actually used at the site.' Section 4(b) confirms the cut-off by addressing only 'Any claimant who has a direct contractual relationship with any subcontractor of the prime contractor who gave such payment bond'. Section 2 defines 'Claimant' as to entity type only - it 'includes any individual, firm, partnership, association or corporation' - and says nothing about tier. Section 2 also defines 'Contracting body' expansively (Commonwealth officers, boards, agencies and institutions, any State-aided institution, and every county, city, district, municipal corporation, municipality, municipal authority, political subdivision, school district, educational institution, borough, incorporated town, township, poor district, county institution district, other incorporated district or other public instrumentality with authority to contract for such work) and 'State-aided institution' as 'any institution which receives State funds directly or indirectly for the construction, reconstruction, alteration or repair of its buildings, works or improvements, including highway work'. Section 5 removes the component-part defense: 'This act shall apply whether or not the material furnished or labor performed enters into and becomes a component part of the public building or other public work or public improvement, including highway work.'
What notice you owe
Only the non-privity claimant. Section 4(b): 'Any claimant who has a direct contractual relationship with any subcontractor of the prime contractor who gave such payment bond or other financial security but has no contractual relationship, express or implied, with such prime contractor may bring an action on the payment bond or other financial security only if he has given written notice to such contractor...'. A claimant in privity with the prime proceeds under § 4(a) and owes no notice whatever.
Who it goes to
'such contractor' - the PRIME CONTRACTOR who gave the bond, and nobody else. The act does not require notice to the surety, to the contracting body, or to the subcontractor the claimant dealt with. (Separately, § 6 lets any person who has furnished labor or material, on affidavit, obtain a certified copy of the bond from the contracting body - that is a discovery right, not a notice obligation.)
By when
Ninety (90) days from the CLAIMANT'S OWN last furnishing: 'within ninety days from the date on which the claimant performed the last of the labor or furnished the last of the materials for which he claims payment' (§ 4(b)). Not from completion, acceptance or final payment.
How it must be served
Two alternatives, and the second is broader than most states allow: 'Notice shall be served by registered or certified mail, postage prepaid, in an envelope addressed to such contractor at any place where his office is regularly maintained for the transaction of business or served in any manner in which legal process may be served in the manner now or hereafter provided by law for the service of a summons, except that such service need not be made by a public officer.' (§ 4(b)). So personal service in the manner of a summons is expressly authorized, and may be effected by a private person.
What it has to say
Two enumerated items: the notice must state 'with substantial accuracy the amount claimed and the name of the person for whom the work was performed or to whom the material was furnished' (§ 4(b)). Nothing more is prescribed.
If the notice is late, or never given
The whole claim, for the non-privity claimant - § 4(b) permits the action 'only if he has given written notice'. Nothing is lost by a claimant in privity, who owes no notice.
The small-claim floor
Commonwealth and State-aided work: contracts of $5,000 or less need no bond (§ 3(a)). Local contracting bodies within § 3.1(d): contracts of $10,000 or less need no financial security, but § 3.1(f) preserves the option - 'In the case of contracts of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or less, nothing in this section shall be construed as preventing a contracting body, prior to awarding a contract ... from requiring a prime contractor to furnish financial security in accordance with subsection (a).' There is no dollar floor on an individual claim.
When the suit clock starts
The Bond Law itself says nothing about when the suit clock starts. Section 4(a) contains only a WAITING period, not a limitation: the claimant may sue if he 'has not been paid in full therefor before the expiration of ninety days after the day on which such claimant performed the last of such labor or furnished the last of such materials for which he claims payments'. The one-year limitation comes from the Judicial Code, 42 Pa.C.S. § 5523: 'The following actions and proceedings must be commenced within one year: ... (3) An action upon any payment or performance bond.'
How long you have to sue
One (1) year, under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5523(3). Note the sequencing this creates: the claimant may not sue until 90 days after his last furnishing, and (on the reading Pennsylvania practitioners apply) must sue within one year of that same last furnishing - a usable window of about nine months. What the one year runs FROM is not stated in § 5523.
Where suit is brought
No venue provision anywhere in Act 385 of 1967. Section 4(a) prescribes only the form of the action: the claimant 'may bring an action on such payment bond or other financial security in his own name, in assumpsit, to recover any amount due him for such labor or material, and may prosecute such action to final judgment and have execution on the judgment.' Suit is in the claimant's own name - the contracting body is not a nominal plaintiff, unlike Oregon or South Dakota.
The trap
The Bond Law contains no statute of limitations at all, so the one-year deadline has to be found in 42 Pa.C.S. § 5523(3) of the Judicial Code; and on county, city, borough, township, school-district and municipal-authority work section 3.1 supersedes section 3, raising the trigger to $10,000 and permitting an irrevocable letter of credit or escrow account instead of a bond, so the claimant may be pursuing 'other financial security' with no surety to notify.
The act itself
Public Works Contractors' Bond Law of 1967, Act of Dec. 20, 1967, P.L. 869, No. 385. Section 1 of the act: 'This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Public Works Contractors' Bond Law of 1967."'
Where this comes from
8 P.S. §§ 191-202, i.e. Act 385 of 1967 §§ 1-6: § 1 (short title) = 8 P.S. § 191; § 2 (definitions) = 8 P.S. § 192; § 3 (bonds required) = 8 P.S. § 193; § 3.1 (alternative financial security for LOCAL contracting bodies, added 1990s, amended Dec. 20, 2000, P.L.965, No.131 and Oct. 29, 2020, P.L.727, No.86) = 8 P.S. § 193.1; § 4 (actions on payment bond; the 90-day notice; amended Dec. 17, 2001, P.L.917, No.106) = 8 P.S. § 194; § 5 = 8 P.S. § 195; § 6 (certified copies of bonds) = 8 P.S. § 196. THE LIMITATION PERIOD IS NOT IN THE BOND LAW - it is 42 Pa.C.S. § 5523(3).
Mechanics’ Lien Law of 1963, Act of Aug. 24, 1963, P.L. 1175, No. 497 — published by the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Statutory summary as of 29 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Pennsylvania.