Washington Notice Requirements

The Notice of Right to Claim Lien Is a Look-Back, Not a Deadline

This is the most misunderstood rule in Washington lien practice. RCW 60.04.031(1) does not require the Notice of Right to Claim Lien to be served within any fixed number of days after work begins. The notice may be given at any time. What the statute does is limit what the notice protects.

On commercial and new residential work the notice protects lien rights only for professional services, materials, or equipment furnished after a date 60 days before the notice is mailed by certified or registered mail, or personally served, on the owner or reputed owner. For new construction of a single-family residence, the look-back shortens to 10 days. On repair or remodeling of an existing owner-occupied residence a different limit applies instead, covered below.

So a notice sent on day 100 of a commercial job does not kill the lien. It protects the last 60 days of furnishing and forfeits everything earlier. Send the notice when the contract is signed or the purchase order is accepted and the look-back never becomes an issue.

Compliance is a hard gate. Under RCW 60.04.031(6), a lien cannot be enforced unless the claimant complied with this section.

Who Receives the Notice, and How

The notice goes to the owner or reputed owner. On an owner-occupied single-family residence, it goes to the owner-occupier.

It must also go to the prime contractor where the prime has complied with RCW 19.27.095, 60.04.230, and 60.04.261, unless the claimant contracted directly with the prime. A claimant in direct contract with the prime does not separately notify the prime.

Delivery is by certified or registered mail to the owner, or by personal service with a signed receipt, written acknowledgment, or an affidavit of service.

Note the two different dates the statute uses. The 60-day and 10-day look-back periods are measured from the date the notice is mailed or personally served. "Received," which is the date that fixes the owner-occupied payment cap below, means actual receipt by personal service, or three days after mailing by registered or certified mail, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays. On a new single-family residence, where the whole window is 10 days, those three days are nearly a third of it.

Who Is Exempt

RCW 60.04.031(2) exempts three categories, not just prime contractors:

The subcontractor exemption is withdrawn on repair, alteration, or remodeling of an existing owner-occupied single-family residence. RCW 60.04.031(3)(b). On that project type the subcontractor must give the notice.

A material supplier is not a subcontractor for this purpose. A supplier whose contract runs directly to the prime is outside the exemption and generally must give the owner notice.

• A person contracting directly with the owner or the owner's common law agent
• A laborer whose lien claim is based solely on labor
• A subcontractor contracting directly with the prime contractor, subject to the owner-occupied residential exception below

Owner-Occupied Remodels: The Unpaid Balance Cap

On repair, alteration, or remodeling of an existing owner-occupied single-family residence or appurtenant garage, a claimant who did not contract directly with the owner-occupier is governed by a different limit. The lien may be satisfied only from amounts not yet paid to the prime contractor at the moment the owner receives the notice, whether or not those amounts are then due. RCW 60.04.031(3)(b).

That limit replaces the look-back rather than adding to it. Subsection (1) opens "except as otherwise provided in this section," and the statutory notice form in RCW 60.04.031(4) places the 60-day window under commercial and new residential property while telling the owner-occupier that claims are limited to what remains unpaid. So on this project type do not calculate a backward window at all. No Washington appellate decision has yet construed the interaction, so a claimant who serves at the start of the job is protected either way.

"Receives" carries the statutory meaning: actual receipt on personal service, or three days after mailing by registered or certified mail, excluding weekends and legal holidays. Those three days are the difference between reaching a draw and reaching nothing.

That makes timing commercially decisive rather than merely procedural. Notice arriving after the owner has paid the prime in full leaves nothing for the lien to reach, even for a claimant who was never paid and met every other deadline. This is the harshest rule in the chapter, and it is the one most often left out of summaries.

Contractor Registration (RCW 18.27.080)

Before any notice or deadline matters, the claimant has to be registered. RCW 18.27.080 bars a contractor from bringing or maintaining an action for compensation for work performed without alleging and proving it was a duly registered contractor, and an unregistered contractor has no lien to enforce.

Registration is checked at the time the work was performed, not at the time the lien is recorded. Registering after the fact does not repair a lien for work done while unregistered.

Contractor Disclosure Statement (RCW 18.27.114)

Washington imposes a separate disclosure requirement that operates as a prerequisite to a lien, and it is routinely missed. A contractor subject to RCW 18.27.114 may not bring or maintain a lien claim under ch. 60.04 on a covered contract without alleging and proving it delivered the model disclosure statement before starting work.

The residential trigger is repair, alteration, or construction of four or fewer residential units or accessory structures where the bid or contract price is $1,000 or more, with no upper limit. The commercial trigger is a commercial building at $1,000 or more but less than $60,000.

The contractor must obtain the customer's signature acknowledging receipt and retain the signed copy for three years. The section does not apply to public contracts under ch. 39.04, or to contractors contracting with other contractors.

Notice to a Construction Lender (RCW 60.04.221)

This notice targets the construction lender. It applies to interim or construction financing where there is no payment bond of at least 50 percent of the amount of construction financing. It is optional and is not a prerequisite to recording or foreclosing a lien.

A potential lien claimant unpaid five days after the date payment was required may give written notice within 35 days after that payment due date. It goes to the lender's administering office, with a copy to the owner and to the appropriate prime contractor.

On receipt, the lender must withhold the claimed amount from the next and later draws, but only to the extent undisbursed construction financing funds remain. The lender may instead obtain a sufficient payment bond.

If the lender does not comply, its mortgage or deed of trust is subordinated only to the extent of interim or construction funds wrongfully disbursed, capped at the amount stated in the notice plus court-fixed costs and reasonable attorney fees. This is not a blanket priority over the lender's whole security interest.

Public Works Notices

A person furnishing materials, supplies, or provisions to a subcontractor or the subcontractor's agent must deliver or mail notice to the prime contractor no later than 10 days after the first delivery to that subcontractor. RCW 39.08.065. Missing it bars an action on the bond for those items. The trigger is furnishing to a subcontractor, so it does not reach a supplier delivering directly to the prime.

For retained funds, RCW 60.28.015 follows the same look-back structure as the private notice. A person furnishing materials, supplies, or equipment may give the contractor notice at any time. It covers what was furnished during the 60 days preceding the notice, plus everything furnished after. Delivery is by registered or certified mail or personal service.