FAQ: Does A Mechanic Lien Cloud Title Forever?
On April 12, 2011
By Scott Wolfe Jr
Short Answer: No, a mechanic lien will only last for a certain proscribed period of time. Once that time has passed, the lien holder must file a lawsuit to foreclose upon the lien. If the lawsuit is filed, the lien will stay active until the suit is concluded. If the lawsuit is not filed, the lien expires forever.
Long Answer: Filing a mechanic’s lien can be quite a chore. In many cases, filing a construction lien comes only after you’ve delivered the proper notices, then filed the lien in accordance with strict statutory requirements, and then served the filed lien upon interested parties like the property owner.
After all this hard work, you may think the job is over and that you’ve done everything you need to do to protect your right to get paid. Unfortunately, you haven’t.
Folks who don’t file mechanic liens often are very surprised to learn that a mechanic lien will expire, and in some cases, it will expire fast (in California, for example, a lien expires 90 days after its filed).
In a minority of states, parties can file one or two “lien extension.” However, in most cases, the only way to keep your mechanic lien active is to file a lawsuit to foreclose upon the lien. The filing of a foreclosure suit will keep the lien effective until the conclusion of the suit.
Here are some older posts on the Construction Lien Blog with additional information:
- Can I File An Extension To A Mechanic’s Lien?
- How Long Will A Mechanic’s Lien Cause Havoc? Not Very
- What Happens After You File A Mechanics Lien?




Comments (5)
Trackbacks






[...] Answer: A few weeks ago we published a FAQ that addresses this issue just a bit: Does A Mechanic’s Lien Cloud Title Forever? You wouldn’t believe how many people contact me thinking that their mechanic’s lien [...]
[...] A lot of times, the filing of a mechanics lien alone will be enough to turn things around and get payment. If you remain unpaid, however, you’ll need to move to the final step, as the mechanic lien will not tie up the property forever. [...]
[...] Mechanic liens in Florida (or elsewhere) do not remain effective and encumbering against a property forever (See: Does A Mechanic’s Lien Cloud Title Forever?). [...]
[...] liens expire. They do NOT stay on the property forever. Sometimes, they expire very quickly. However, you can file a suit to enforce your lien, and the [...]
[...] where the mechanics lien lasts forever. It’s a mechanics lien law rule, therefore, that these documents do not cloud title forever. To the contrary, mechanics liens [...]