Whether you’re a contractor fighting to get paid or a property owner defending against an invalid lien — Texas lien law is strict, deadlines are unforgiving, and the right attorney makes all the difference.
In Texas, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and laborers can file mechanic’s liens when they are not paid for construction work. Bond claims serve a similar purpose on projects where payment bonds replace lien rights.
Mechanic’s liens and bond claims can be filed by:
For contractors and suppliers not in direct contract with property owners, we prepare and send required preliminary notices (often called “first notice” or “second notice”) that preserve lien rights under Texas law.
These notices must be sent by specific deadlines, often the 15th day of the second or third month after work begins. Missing them can permanently waive your right to a lien, regardless of how much you’re owed.
We draft and file mechanic’s and materialman’s lien affidavits with county property records within statutory deadlines, including all information required by Texas Property Code Chapter 53.
A lien affidavit that’s missing required information or filed even one day late can be declared invalid. We make sure yours is bulletproof.
On public projects or private projects with payment bonds, we prepare and serve bond claims on sureties within required timeframes to preserve payment rights.
On public projects in Texas where mechanic’s liens can’t be filed against government property, a bond claim is your primary remedy and the deadlines are just as strict.
When property owners or general contractors refuse to pay, we file lawsuits to foreclose mechanic’s liens, force judicial sales of property, and obtain judgments for unpaid amounts plus attorneys’ fees and interest.
Under Texas law, a successful lien claimant may recover not just the unpaid amount but also attorneys’ fees and interest making litigation a viable option even for mid-size claims.
We represent property owners defending against invalid or inflated lien claims, negotiating lien releases, bonding off liens during litigation, and obtaining court orders removing improper liens from property records.
A lien filed against your property doesn’t have to stay there while you fight it. In many cases, we can bond off the lien, removing it from your title immediately while the dispute is resolved, so your project financing and closing timeline stay on track.
We represent both sides of the lien relationship. Contractors and suppliers fighting to protect their payment rights, and property owners defending against invalid, inflated, or improperly filed claims. This dual perspective makes us better at both. We know exactly what the other side is planning because we’ve been on both sides of these disputes.
Texas law allows contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, laborers, architects, engineers, surveyors, and other parties who furnish labor, materials, or services for property improvements to file mechanic’s liens. However, parties not in direct contract with the property owner must send preliminary notice to the owner to preserve lien rights. Requirements vary depending on whether the project is residential or commercial.
Texas requires mechanic’s lien affidavits to be filed by the 15th day of the third month after the last month in which work was performed or materials were delivered. For example, if your last work was on April 20th, you must file the lien by July 15th. Missing this deadline means you lose your lien rights. Different deadlines apply to preliminary notices and lien enforcement lawsuits.
A preliminary notice (sometimes called a “first notice” for subcontractors or “second notice” for suppliers) is a document sent to property owners informing them that you are providing labor or materials on their property. Subcontractors, sub-subcontractors, and suppliers not in direct contract with the owner must send preliminary notice to preserve lien rights. General contractors in direct contract with owners do not need to send preliminary notices.
Yes. Texas law allows subcontractors and suppliers to file liens even if you paid the general contractor in full. This is called “double payment” risk. To protect yourself, you should require general contractors to provide lien waivers from subcontractors and suppliers before making final payments. If a subcontractor files a lien after you’ve paid the general contractor, you may have claims against the contractor for breach of contract.
You can remove a mechanic’s lien by paying the claimed amount, negotiating a settlement and obtaining a release, or filing a lawsuit to have the lien declared invalid and removed. Texas also allows property owners to “bond off” a lien by posting a bond equal to the lien amount, which removes the lien from the property but preserves the claimant’s right to sue on the bond. We handle all methods of lien removal.
If you don’t pay or bond off a mechanic’s lien, the lien claimant can file a lawsuit to foreclose the lien. If the claimant wins, the court can order your property sold at a judicial foreclosure sale to pay the debt. Lien foreclosure lawsuits must be filed within specific deadlines (generally two years for most liens, one year for residential construction liens).
Payment bonds are insurance policies that guarantee payment to contractors and suppliers on construction projects. Public projects and some private projects require payment bonds that replace mechanic’s lien rights. Instead of filing a lien against property, claimants file claims against the payment bond. Bond claims have strict notice and timing requirements under Texas law and federal law (Miller Act for federal projects).
Fees vary depending on services needed. Filing a simple mechanic’s lien affidavit typically costs less than filing and prosecuting a lien foreclosure lawsuit. Lien defense and release negotiations vary by complexity. Many construction contracts and Texas Property Code provisions allow recovery of attorneys’ fees by the prevailing party in lien litigation, which affects the economics of pursuing or defending claims.
The deadlines for filing a mechanic’s lien in Texas differ depending on whether you have a direct contract with the property owner or whether you’re a subcontractor, supplier, or other downstream party and getting these deadlines wrong can forfeit your right to lien entirely.
For original contractors, those with a direct contract with the property owner, a mechanic’s lien affidavit must generally be filed by the 15th day of the fourth month after the month in which the work was completed or the contract was terminated.
For subcontractors and suppliers who do not have a direct contract with the owner, the deadline is earlier: the 15th day of the fourth month after the month in which the claimant last provided labor or materials for residential projects, and the 15th day of the third month for commercial projects. Subcontractors also have mandatory preliminary notice requirements that must be satisfied before the lien is filed, specifically, monthly notices to both the owner and the original contractor that must be sent by the 15th day of the month following each month in which labor or materials were furnished.
These deadlines run from specific triggering events and are strictly enforced. A lien filed even one day late is generally invalid. Because the notice and filing requirements interact with each other and depend on the type of project, the type of claimant, and the calendar of work performed, tracking them carefully from the start of a project is considerably more straightforward than trying to reconstruct the timeline after a payment dispute arises.
Yes, and this is one of the more immediate practical consequences of a recorded mechanic’s lien for property owners.
When a mechanic’s lien is filed against a property and recorded in the county property records, it becomes part of the public title history of that property. Title companies conduct searches of those records as part of every sale and refinance transaction. A recorded lien will appear in that search, and title companies will typically require the lien to be resolved, either paid off with a recorded release, bonded off, or otherwise addressed, before they will issue a title insurance policy and allow the transaction to close.
For a sale, this means a lien that surfaces during the title search can delay or disrupt closing. The seller may be required to pay the lien from sale proceeds, negotiate a resolution with the lien claimant, or post a bond before the transaction can move forward. For a refinance, lenders generally require clear title as a condition of the loan, so a recorded lien can stall the process in the same way.
The complicating factor in Texas is that not all valid lien rights are visible in the public records at the time of closing. As discussed elsewhere on this page, subcontractors and suppliers who have provided labor or materials but not yet been paid may still have time remaining to file a lien after a closing occurs. This is one reason transactions involving recent construction or renovation work benefit from closer attention during the title review phase.
Bonding off a mechanic’s lien is a process under Texas law that allows a property owner, or in some cases a contractor, to remove a mechanic’s lien from the property’s title by substituting a surety bond in its place. Once the bond is in place and the lien has been transferred to the bond, the property is released from the lien and title can proceed as though the lien were no longer attached.
The practical effect is that the underlying dispute over whether the lien is valid and how much is owed doesn’t have to be resolved before a sale or refinance can close. The lien claimant’s right to recover isn’t extinguished, it’s redirected from the property itself to the bond. If the claimant ultimately prevails in their claim, they recover from the bond rather than from the property.
To bond off a lien in Texas, the owner files a bond with the county clerk in the county where the property is located. The bond amount is set by statute. Generally one and a half times the amount of the lien claim. The bond must be issued by a surety company authorized to do business in Texas, and specific notice requirements apply once the bond is filed.
Bonding off is particularly useful when a lien dispute is contested and may take time to resolve but a sale, a refinance, or a construction loan draw needs to move forward in the meantime. It separates the title issue from the payment dispute so that both can be addressed on their own timeline.
Yes, but the rules that apply to residential projects are more restrictive than those for commercial projects, and the differences are significant enough that they affect both the process and the likelihood of a valid lien.
For residential construction (defined under Texas law as projects involving a structure with five or fewer units intended for residential use) the Texas Property Code imposes additional requirements on lien claimants that do not apply to commercial projects. One of the most important is the homestead protection. Under the Texas Constitution, a contractor generally cannot file a valid mechanic’s lien against a homeowner’s homestead unless the contract for the work was signed by both spouses, was for work to be performed on the homestead, and met specific statutory requirements. A contract that doesn’t satisfy these requirements may not support a valid lien even if the work was performed and not paid for.
For subcontractors and suppliers on residential projects, the notice requirements and filing deadlines described elsewhere in this FAQ apply, and they are strictly enforced. The residential context also adds complexity around what disclosures and notices must be provided to homeowners before and during the project.
The practical takeaway for contractors and suppliers is that residential projects require careful attention to the statutory requirements from the start — not just at the point when a payment dispute arises. The homestead protections that exist under Texas law were specifically designed to protect homeowners, and the lien statutes reflect that purpose.
When a contractor files for bankruptcy, an automatic stay goes into effect that generally halts most collection actions against the contractor including lawsuits seeking payment. However, the automatic stay does not automatically extinguish a mechanic’s lien that has already been filed against a property, and it does not necessarily prevent a lien claimant from filing a new lien against the property if the statutory deadline hasn’t passed.
For property owners, a contractor’s bankruptcy complicates the picture in several ways. The bankruptcy proceeding may affect how and when disputes over the lien can be pursued, since certain actions related to the contractor’s assets and liabilities will be subject to the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction. Resolving or removing the lien from the property may require involvement in the bankruptcy proceeding or, in some cases, relief from the automatic stay before certain actions can be taken.
For subcontractors and suppliers who are owed money by a bankrupt contractor, the lien against the property may still represent a path to recovery, separate from any claim against the contractor directly. A valid lien gives the claimant rights against the property itself, which can be a meaningful distinction when the contractor has few assets to satisfy a judgment. Whether and how to pursue that path depends on the status of the lien, the timeline, and the specifics of the bankruptcy proceeding.
Contractor bankruptcy is one of the more complex scenarios in construction law because it involves the intersection of federal bankruptcy law and Texas lien law. The two bodies of law operate on different tracks and interact in ways that aren’t always intuitive.
Our goal is to help people in the best way possible. this is a basic principle in every case and cause for success. contact us today for a free consultation.Â
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