Mail any preliminary notice or mechanic lien. Get court-ready proof, automatically.
Lien statutes do not stop at telling you what to send and by when. They tell you how to send it, who has to receive it, and what proof you have to keep. NLB Mailing handles all three. Upload a document, choose First Class or Certified Mail, and click send. The Certificate of Mailing and Certificate of Delivery come back time-stamped, merged with a copy of what you sent, and archived for the day a deadline is challenged.
How it works
From your desk to the mailbox in four steps
- 1
Upload
Upload one document or a thousand, straight from your computer or the National Lien & Bond platform. Preliminary notices, Section 24 notices, mechanic's liens, demands, anything that has to go in the mail.
- 2
Send
Choose USPS First Class, Certified Mail, or Priority Express, enter who it goes to, and click send. No documents to print, no envelopes to stuff, no trips to the post office.
- 3
Track
Track every mailing in real time from one place. See exactly when your document was mailed, delivered, and signed for, without calling the post office or chasing a green card.
- 4
Verify
Time-stamped proof of mailing and delivery is merged with a copy of the document you sent and archived in your account. Share a verified mailing with a client or opposing party in one click.
What the statutes require
Service is an element of the claim, not a formality
A preliminary notice, a Notice to Owner, and a recorded mechanic's lien are all conditioned on service. The mechanics lien acts name the class of mail, name the parties who have to receive it, and require you to prove both. Miss any one of the three and the claim can fail on service while the debt sits there undisputed.
The right method
Lien statutes name the class of mail. Certified or registered mail with a return receipt is the usual floor, and some states let you substitute a tracked carrier or personal service. Ordinary first class mail, dropped in a box with a stamp, satisfies almost none of them on its own.
The right party
Owner of record, the owner's agent or architect, the lending agency, the general contractor, the occupant. Every act names its own list, and the list changes with your tier on the job. A perfect notice mailed to the wrong party is the same as no notice at all.
Proof you can still produce in two years
The certificate, receipt, or affidavit is what you attach to the claim and what you hand the court. Suit to foreclose comes a year or two after the mailing, and the proof has to survive the gap between them intact and findable.
The postmark is the whole case
In most states, service is complete when the document goes into the mail, not when it lands. Illinois completes service under 770 ILCS 60/24 the moment the notice is placed with the delivery service or in the mail. Florida treats a Notice to Owner mailed inside the 40 day window as served on the date of mailing, and keeps it served even if the envelope comes back refused or unclaimed.
That rule is generous and it is a trap. A notice mailed on day 89 is timely, but only if you can prove the day it was mailed. A stamp proves nothing. A certificate of mailing carrying USPS postmarked postage proves the date, and that is the difference between arguing about your calendar and putting the date in front of the court.
State by state
Every state writes the mailing rule a little differently
Six examples of what the acts actually say about how a notice or lien has to travel and what proof you have to hold onto. The pattern repeats across all fifty states, and NLB Mailing produces the same record no matter which one your job is in.
Illinois
Section 24 notice
Registered or certified mail with return receipt requested, a nationally recognized delivery company with tracking, or personal service. Service is complete when the notice is placed with the delivery service or in the mail, so the mailing record is what fixes the date.
770 ILCS 60/24
California
Claim of mechanics lien
Served on the owner by registered mail, certified mail, or first class mail evidenced by a certificate of mailing, with a proof of service affidavit showing the date, place, and manner. Fail to serve it and the lien is unenforceable as a matter of law.
Cal. Civ. Code § 8416
Florida
Notice to Owner
Registered, Global Express Guaranteed, or certified mail. Mailed inside the 40 day window and backed by a mail log or USPS tracking, service is effective on the date of mailing, and it stays effective even if the notice comes back refused or unclaimed.
Fla. Stat. § 713.18
Arizona
Preliminary Twenty Day Notice
Proof is a signed acknowledgment of receipt, or, if none comes back, an affidavit of mailing with the certificate of mailing attached for first class, or the certified or registered receipt attached.
A.R.S. § 33-992.02
Georgia
Notice to Contractor
Registered or certified mail, or statutory overnight delivery, sent to the owner or the owner's agent and to the contractor at the addresses set out in the notice of commencement.
O.C.G.A. § 44-14-361.5
Washington
Notice of Right to Claim Lien
Certified or registered mail, or personal service with evidence of delivery, to the owner or reputed owner and to the prime contractor.
RCW 60.04.031
These summaries describe service and proof requirements in general terms. They are not legal advice and do not cover every project type, claimant tier, or exception. National Lien & Bond is not a law firm. For advice on a specific project, we will connect you with an attorney in the state where the work was performed.
Why it works
Built for deadlines, priced for volume
Stop losing hours to printing, stuffing, and the post office. Send one notice or a whole project's worth from a single screen, and let the proof generate itself. Every send is statute-ready service with the kind of proof that decides whether a lien survives a challenge.
You could save
up to 60%
in lost productivity, postage rates, and mailing services.
- No stamps and no postage meter
- No documents to print
- No envelopes to stuff
- No trips to the post office
- First Class, Certified, and Priority Express from one screen
- One archive for every mailing on every project
Proof of mailing
Auto-generated proof, the moment it ships
Every send produces a Certificate of Mailing with USPS postmarked electronic postage, merged with a copy of your document and ready to download. No firm mailing book, no rubber stamp, no green card to lose.
This is the document that answers the states completing service at mailing, and it is what states like California and Arizona want attached to the proof of service in the first place.
- USPS postmarked electronic postage
- Merged with a copy of what you sent
- Fixes the date service was complete
- Downloadable and archived by project
Proof of delivery
Electronic and physical proof it arrived
Certificates of Delivery with USPS Certified Mail return receipts are merged with copies of your mailed documents and ready to download, so you can prove the right party received it and when.
Certified mail with a return receipt is the class most lien acts are written around. Where a file warrants the stronger record, you can require a recipient signature instead of the electronic receipt.
- USPS Certified Mail return receipts
- Recipient and delivery date on the record
- Signature capture where the file calls for it
- Share with clients or opposing parties in a click
Certificate of service
The document that answers the challenge
When a lien gets attacked, the attack is usually on service. No notice, wrong party, late mailing, nothing in the file. A Certificate of Service ties the mailing to the parties served and states the date, the address, and the manner, which is exactly what a statute like California Civil Code section 8416 asks a proof of service affidavit to show.
It is issued by the platform that carried the mail, not typed up after the fact by the party who benefits from it. That is what makes it hard to argue with.
Proof that holds up
Every certificate is hashed, encrypted, and tamper-proof. It is not a static PDF you hope nobody questions. It is a live record an authorized party can verify, online, on its own.
The whole record
A certificate covers the entire mailing: who sent it, who received it, what was enclosed, and when each step happened.
Real time
When a new event is added to the record, NLB Mailing issues a fresh hashed certificate and retires the old one, so the proof is always current.
Verifiable
Authorized parties can confirm a certificate's status and authenticity online through the Digital Evidence Archive.
Records
The proof is still there when the fight starts
Nobody challenges a notice the week you mail it. They challenge it when you sue. Suit to foreclose runs a year or two out from the last day of work in most states, and by then the person who stuffed the envelope may not work there anymore.
Mailing history and certificates are merged with copies of the documents they cover and held in your account, searchable by project and by party. You pull the record instead of going looking for it.
- Every mailing on every project in one archive
- Certificate merged with the document it proves
- Searchable by project, party, and date
- Downloadable and shareable in a click
What you can send
Every document on a construction file that has a date attached to it
If missing the mailing date would cost you the claim, it belongs in NLB Mailing.
Preliminary notices
Twenty day notices, notices of furnishing, notices of right to claim lien, and the other front-end notices a state conditions your lien rights on.
Notices to Owner
The owner-side notice that puts the party holding the money on record that you are on the job and unpaid.
Section 24 and intent notices
Illinois Section 24 notices and the notices of intent other states require before a lien can be recorded.
Mechanic's liens
Recorded claims for lien served on the owner, the lender, or the general contractor where the act requires service after recording.
Bond claim notices
Miller Act and Little Miller Act notices to the surety and the prime, where the clock runs on the date you sent it.
Demands and collection letters
Section 34 demands, notices to commence suit, and payment demands where you need the date on the record.
What is actually carrying your mail
The detail behind the certificates, for the people who want to know before they trust a deadline to it.
Online postal service
Send USPS First Class, Certified Mail, Priority Mail, and Priority Express from your desk. Pick the class that matches what the statute asks for, enter the recipients, and send.
Certified Mail with an electronic return receipt is the default, because it is the class most lien statutes are written around. Where the act or a cautious file calls for a physical signature, you can step up to Certified Mail with signature instead.
Approved postal provider
NLB Mailing sends through a USPS-approved postal provider that is also recognized by the U.S. Courts as an approved bankruptcy notice provider under Fed. R. Bankr. P. 2002(g)(4) and 9001(9).
That matters for one reason. The postage is real USPS postage and the postmark is a real USPS postmark, so a certificate coming out of NLB Mailing is evidence of a mailing that actually happened, not a screenshot of your own software.
Certificates of mailing, delivery, and service
Every send produces a Certificate of Mailing carrying USPS postmarked electronic postage. Certified sends add a Certificate of Delivery with the return receipt. A Certificate of Service ties the mailing to the parties served and states the date, the address, and the manner.
Each certificate is merged with a copy of the document that went out, so the proof and the thing it proves never get separated.
Records management
Mailing history and certificates are merged with copies of your mailed documents and held in your account, searchable by project and by party, and downloadable whenever you need them.
No firm mailing book, no banker's box, no green card taped to a file copy. When a mailing from two years ago gets questioned, you pull it up instead of going looking for it.
Security
Documents are transmitted over encrypted connections, and every certificate is hashed, so an alteration to the record is detectable rather than invisible.
Access is scoped to your account and to the parties you choose to share a mailing with. Nothing about your projects is public by default.
Why proof of service wins lien cases
Most lien statutes require you to serve notices a specific way and keep proof that you did. A missing or defective proof of service can sink an otherwise valid lien, no matter how good the claim is. NLB Mailing makes service compliant and your proof admissible, so the deadline you met is the deadline you can prove.
Send your next notice by certified mail
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