Vermont mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Vermont lien deadline
Filing deadline
The Notice of Mechanic's Lien is recorded with the clerk of the town where the project sits, within 180 days measured from the date payment became due for the last labor or materials - not from the last day of work itself.
Notice prerequisites
No notice is required before work begins. If you did not contract directly with the owner, you must give the owner (or the owner's agent in charge of the property) written notice that you will claim a lien; your lien covers only the contract balance the owner still owes when that notice is received, so send it as early as possible. All claimants, including contractors hired by the owner, must then record a written notice of lien with the town clerk within 180 days after payment for the last labor or materials became due; it must state the payment due date if known.
Service on the owner
Written notice of the lien claim goes to the owner or its agent; the same notice is filed with the town clerk. The statute is a memorandum/notice system rather than a separate service-then-file sequence. For a claimant who did not contract with the owner, the lien only reaches whatever the owner still owes on the prime contract when it receives the written notice (9 V.S.A. § 1921(b)).
Enforcement
Within 180 days of filing the notice (or of payment coming due, if later) the claimant must both file a foreclosure complaint AND actually obtain and record a court-approved prejudgment Writ of Attachment on the realty - filing suit alone is insufficient (Filter Equipment v. IBM). After judgment, a certified copy must be recorded with the town clerk within 5 months, after which the claimant forecloses like a defaulted mortgagee.
9 V.S.A. 1921-1925; V.R.C.P. 4.1 (attachment); 12 V.S.A. 3291.
9 V.S.A. ch. 51 — Miscellaneous Liens — published by the Vermont 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 Secretary of Transportation. Not the contractor, not the surety. 19 V.S.A. § 10(9).
- When — 90 days after the STATE accepts the project — not from your last work. § 10(9).
- How — None prescribed — file with the Secretary.
- If late — It is the condition on the whole claim.
- Sue by — 1 year after you file the claim. § 10(9).
Is there a bond at all?
No fixed statutory threshold on the AOT bond; the amount is discretionary -- 'The surety bond shall be in such sum as the Agency shall direct' (19 V.S.A. Sec. 10(9)). There is a discretionary WAIVER floor at the bottom: 'The Secretary may, if the Secretary determines that it is in the best interests of the State, accept other good and sufficient surety in lieu of a bond and, in cases involving contracts for $100,000.00 or less, may waive the requirement of a surety bond.' So on an AOT contract of $100,000 or less there may be no bond at all.
Who can claim on it
On the AOT bond, extremely broad and with no tier language: the bond is 'for the benefit of labor, materialmen, and others' and is 'conditioned for the payment, settlement, liquidation, and discharge of the claims of all creditors for material, merchandise, labor, rent, hire of vehicles, power shovels, rollers, concrete mixers, tools, and other appliances, professional services, premiums, and other services used or employed in carrying out the terms of the contract between the contractor and the State' (19 V.S.A. Sec. 10(9)). The bond also secures State and municipal taxes and contributions to the Vermont Commissioner of Labor accruing during performance.
What notice you owe
Every claimant, regardless of privity. 19 V.S.A. Sec. 10(9): 'in order to obtain the benefit of the security, the claimant shall file with the Secretary a sworn statement of the claimant's claim.' There is no privity distinction and no exemption for a first-tier subcontractor.
Who it goes to
The Secretary of Transportation. The filing is with the Secretary -- not with the prime contractor and not with the surety.
By when
90 days, and it runs from the STATE's acceptance of the project, not from the claimant's own last work: 'within 90 days after the final acceptance of the project by the State or within 90 days from the time the taxes or contributions to the Vermont Commissioner of Labor are due and payable.' The second branch applies only to the tax and Labor-contribution claims.
How it must be served
None prescribed. The statute says only 'file with the Secretary.' No mail method, no service rule, no proof-of-delivery requirement appears in the text.
What it has to say
'a sworn statement of the claimant's claim.' Nothing further is enumerated -- no itemization, no statement of account, no offsets language. Effectively: no contents prescribed beyond the sworn statement.
If the notice is late, or never given
It is the condition on the whole claim: the sworn statement is what the claimant must do 'in order to obtain the benefit of the security.' Miss it and there is no bond claim; the claimant is left to its contract remedies against whoever hired it.
When the suit clock starts
The date the claim was FILED with the Secretary -- not from last work and not from acceptance: 'within one year after the filing of the claim.'
How long you have to sue
One year from filing the claim. 19 V.S.A. Sec. 10(9): '... and, within one year after the filing of the claim, shall bring a petition in the Superior Court in the name of the Secretary, with notice and summons to the principal, surety, and the Secretary, to enforce the claim or intervene in a petition already filed.'
Where suit is brought
The Superior Court. Note the unusual procedural posture: the petition is brought 'in the name of the Secretary,' with notice and summons to the principal, the surety AND the Secretary, and the claimant may either file its own petition or 'intervene in a petition already filed.' No county venue is prescribed in the subsection.
The trap
The 90 days runs from the State's final acceptance of the whole project, so a supplier who finished early and was stiffed can sit for a year with no clock running and then have only 90 days once acceptance happens -- and on any Vermont job that is not an AOT transportation project there is likely no statutory bond claim at all, so the first question is whether a bond was voluntarily required by the bid documents.
The act itself
NONE. Vermont has no general Little Miller Act. There is no statute of general application requiring a payment bond on state building work or on municipal public work. The only Vermont statute that both requires a payment-type surety bond and prescribes a claim procedure is 19 V.S.A. Sec. 10(9), and it reaches only Agency of Transportation projects.
Where this comes from
19 V.S.A. Sec. 10(9) (Agency of Transportation; additional surety bond for the benefit of labor, materialmen and others). For contrast: 29 V.S.A. Sec. 161 governs State building projects and contains NO bond requirement.
9 V.S.A. ch. 51 — Miscellaneous Liens — published by the Vermont General Assembly.
Statutory summary as of 29 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Vermont.