How Long Do You Have to Enforce a Mechanics Lien in Washington?

8 Calendar Months, Measured From Recording

A Washington lien does not bind the property longer than 8 calendar months after the claim is recorded unless the claimant files an action to foreclose within that period. RCW 60.04.141.

The anchor is the recording date, not last furnishing. That is a meaningful difference from the states that run enforcement from the furnishing date, and it means the enforcement window opens the day you record. Calendar it then.

Calendar months, not 240 days. Count month to month from the recording date.

The 90-Day Service Requirement

Filing alone does not preserve the lien. The claimant must also serve the owner of the property within 90 days after filing the action. RCW 60.04.141. Fail either step, the filing or the service, and the lien stops binding the property.

This is where otherwise diligent claimants lose. Suit gets filed at month seven, the owner is hard to locate, and service slips past the 90 days while everyone assumes the deadline was already met.

Two Variations Worth Knowing

Where the lien claim states credit terms, the 8 months runs from the expiration of that stated credit rather than from recording. If you extended credit and said so in the claim, your window is later than the face of the recording date suggests.

The period is tolled by the owner's bankruptcy.

Public Projects Run on Different Clocks

None of this applies to public work, where no lien attaches to the property. There the claimant files a bond claim notice with the public body within 30 days from completion of the contract with acceptance by the public body, and gives a retained-funds lien notice within 45 days of completion of the contract work, then forecloses against the fund within 4 months of filing that claim.