Some of the ways states diverge:
- Notice requirements. Several states require a "preliminary notice" or "notice of intent to lien" sent to the property owner before you can ever file a lien — sometimes within days of starting work. Miss that window, and you may lose your lien rights entirely, regardless of how legitimate your claim is.
- Filing deadlines. The window to actually file a lien after completing work ranges anywhere from 60 to 120+ days depending on the state. Some states count from the last day you worked on the project; others count from the last delivery of materials. Get the date wrong, and the filing can be thrown out.
- Who's covered. Some states extend lien rights broadly to subcontractors and material suppliers. Others require a direct contract with the property owner, which can leave subcontractors and dealers exposed if they were hired by a general contractor or installer rather than the homeowner directly.
- Enforcement timelines. Filing the lien isn't the end of the process — most states require you to actually file a lawsuit to foreclose on the lien within a set window (often 6-12 months) or the lien expires and becomes worthless.
- Bond claims vs. property liens. On public projects, mechanics liens generally don't apply at all — you're dealing with payment bond claims instead, which have their own separate notice and filing rules.
Why this matters so much in solar specifically: Solar dealers and installers often operate across multiple states, sometimes under a parent company's brand while running the actual contract and installation work through a local entity. That means the same company can be simultaneously navigating a strict 60-day preliminary notice state, a 90-day filing state with no preliminary notice requirement, and a state where liens don't attach at all without direct privity with the homeowner — all at once, on projects running in parallel.
What happens when you get it wrong. I've seen contractors lose five- and six-figure claims not because the underlying debt wasn't real or the work wasn't done, but because a preliminary notice went out three days late, or a filing was submitted in the wrong county, or nobody realized the foreclosure deadline had already passed. Courts are largely unsympathetic here — mechanics lien statutes are interpreted strictly, and "we didn't know the deadline" is not a defense.
This becomes especially critical when the party who owes you money goes bankrupt. In a bankruptcy proceeding, whether you hold a properly perfected lien is often the single biggest factor in whether you get paid at all, or end up as an unsecured creditor waiting in line behind everyone else. A lien filed one day late, in the wrong form, or without the required prior notice can be worthless in exactly the moment you need it most.
The takeaway: If your business does work in more than one state — or even just one state you're not deeply familiar with — don't assume your standard process works everywhere. Know the specific notice deadlines, filing windows, and enforcement requirements for every state you operate in, before you need to use them. By the time you're trying to figure this out during a payment dispute or a customer's bankruptcy, it's usually too late to fix a missed deadline.
Want to talk through your state's lien requirements or your current exposure? Reach out.
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