Indiana Mechanics Lien Deadlines: The 60- and 90-Day Split, the Personal-Residence Notice, and No-Lien Contracts

Indiana's mechanics lien law has a split that catches contractors who work across project types: the recording deadline is not one number. For work on a single- or double-family dwelling that the owner occupies, the lien notice must be recorded within 60 days. For all other projects — commercial, industrial, larger residential — the window is 90 days. A contractor used to the 90-day rule who records on day 75 of an owner-occupied home project has filed late, and the lien is gone.

The framework lives in the Indiana Code, Title 32, Article 28, Chapter 3 (Mechanic's Liens), with the persons-covered and contract rules in § 32-28-3-1 and the enforcement deadline in § 32-28-3-6. Three features define the Indiana timeline beyond the basic 60/90-day split: a separate pre-lien notice on owner-occupied residential work, Indiana's continued recognition of recorded "no-lien contracts," and a one-year enforcement clock that an owner can shorten. Verify the current text of Article 28, Chapter 3 before relying on any specific date.

Who Can Claim a Lien

Chapter 3 makes a mechanic's lien available to a broad set of parties who perform labor or furnish materials or machinery for the erection, alteration, repair, or removal of a structure or improvement. The procedure each follows turns on contractual position and on the project type:

Two questions therefore drive Indiana procedure: the claimant's contractual position, and whether the project is an owner-occupied dwelling. The second question changes the recording deadline and adds the pre-lien notice, so it has to be answered at the start of the job.

The Personal-Residence Pre-Lien Notice

On owner-occupied residential work, Indiana requires a pre-lien notice that is a condition precedent to having any lien at all. A claimant who furnishes labor or materials for the original construction, alteration, or repair of an owner-occupied single- or double-family dwelling must furnish the owner a written notice of the delivery of labor or materials and of the existence of lien rights, and must file a copy of that notice with the county recorder — within a statutory window measured from the claimant's first delivery of labor or materials.

The window depends on the nature of the residential work. For original construction of an owner-occupied single- or double-family dwelling, the notice is generally due within 60 days of the date labor or materials were first provided; for alteration or repair work on such a dwelling, the window is generally shorter — on the order of 30 days from first furnishing. Because the notice is a condition precedent, missing it does not merely weaken the claim — it forecloses the lien on that residential project.

The 60-Day and 90-Day Recording Windows

The core payload is the deadline to record the lien notice — the notice of intention to hold a mechanic's lien — and Indiana sets it on a two-track schedule:

The split is the trap. The recording deadline turns on the project type, and a contractor who carries a single mental default — "90 days" — into an owner-occupied home project will record a month late. Confirm which category the project falls in before calendaring anything, and when in doubt about whether a dwelling is owner-occupied, treat the shorter 60-day window as the operative deadline.

"Last furnishing" is the date the claimant last contributed substantive labor or materials. Minor follow-up — a small warranty callback, a punch-list return, a trip back for tools — generally does not reset the 60- or 90-day clock. A claimant who assumes a trivial return visit bought another recording window can find it already closed. Document the genuine last day of substantive work and count from it.

Where to File

The notice of intention to hold a mechanic's lien is recorded in the office of the county recorder of the county in which the property is located. The notice must contain the statutorily required content: the amount claimed; the name and address of the claimant; the name of the owner; and a description of the property — including the legal description and street address as applicable — sufficient to identify the real estate to which the lien attaches. The claimant must sign the notice.

Indiana also requires that the claimant send a copy of the recorded lien notice to the owner. Treat that transmittal as part of the recording task rather than an optional follow-up — the statute contemplates the owner being given notice of the recorded lien, and a claimant should preserve proof that the copy was sent.

Lien Priority

Indiana mechanics liens generally relate back so that liens for a single project share priority, and as a class they are measured from the commencement of the work or the recording structure the statute sets, rather than ranking strictly by individual recording date among lien claimants. A construction lender's mortgage recorded before the relevant point can take priority over the mechanics liens; a mortgage recorded afterward can be subordinate to them.

Indiana priority also has claimant-class features — for example, the treatment of laborers' or wage claims relative to other claimants — and the interaction between mechanics liens and prior mortgages can be fact-specific. Because the priority analysis turns on the specific recording sequence and claimant categories, verify the current priority rules under Article 28, Chapter 3 before relying on them rather than assuming a single bright-line date.

No-Lien Contracts

Indiana is one of the few states that still recognizes the "no-lien contract" — a contract provision stating that no lien may attach to the real estate. Indiana's history with no-lien contracts is long, and current law continues to permit them in a defined band of work, principally certain classes of residential construction. When a valid no-lien contract is in place, subcontractors, suppliers, and laborers on that project can be barred from claiming a mechanic's lien at all.

The protection for lower-tier parties is that a no-lien contract is effective against them only if it meets the statutory requirements — including that the contract be recorded in the county recorder's office within a short window after it is executed (on the order of a few days). A no-lien contract that is not properly recorded within that window generally is not effective to defeat subcontractor lien rights.

Enforcing the Lien

Recording the notice of intention perfects the lien; it does not collect the money. To enforce, the claimant must file a foreclosure action. Under § 32-28-3-6, the action to enforce the lien must be commenced within one year after the lien notice is recorded, and a lien not enforced within that year becomes void.

Indiana adds a feature that can compress that year. An owner or another party with an interest in the property may serve the lien claimant with a written notice to foreclose — sent by registered or certified mail to the address on the lien — that requires the claimant to file the foreclosure suit within a shortened period, on the order of 30 days after the notice is served. A claimant that ignores a properly served notice to foreclose can lose the lien well before the one-year period would otherwise expire. The foreclosure suit leads, if the claimant prevails, to a judgment and a sale of the property with proceeds distributed by priority; in practice many Indiana lien claims resolve through payment to clear title. Verify the current § 32-28-3-6 period and the notice-to-foreclose mechanics before calendaring them.

Lien Waivers

Lien waivers are a routine part of the Indiana payment process. Partial waivers exchanged against progress payments, and final waivers against final payment, are common and generally effective for the amounts they cover, giving owners and lenders assurance that paid work will not later generate a lien.

The recurring exposure applies in Indiana: an unconditional waiver releases lien rights on its face, so signing one before the corresponding payment has cleared can discharge the lien with no money received. A claimant should exchange unconditional waivers only against cleared funds. Indiana's no-lien contract regime is a related but distinct issue — a no-lien contract eliminates lien rights at the contract stage rather than waiving them payment-by-payment — and a claimant should treat the two separately. Where a waiver's scope, or a pre-work waiver's or no-lien provision's enforceability, is unclear, confirm the position under current law before signing.

Practical Timing Strategy

For an Indiana contractor or subcontractor, the workable sequence depends first on identifying the project type:

The key insight is that two early questions decide most of the Indiana analysis: is this an owner-occupied dwelling, and is there a recorded no-lien contract. The first sets the recording deadline and the pre-lien notice; the second can determine whether a lien remedy exists at all. Both should be answered before the work starts.

Bottom Line

Indiana mechanics lien rights under Indiana Code Title 32, Article 28, Chapter 3 run on a split schedule and carry two distinctive hazards. The notice of intention to hold a lien must be recorded with the county recorder within 60 days of last furnishing on an owner-occupied single- or double-family dwelling, and within 90 days on all other projects. Owner-occupied residential work also requires a personal-residence pre-lien notice — to the owner and the recorder — as a condition of having any lien. Indiana still recognizes recorded no-lien contracts that can bar subcontractor lien rights altogether, and the one-year enforcement clock under § 32-28-3-6 can be compressed to roughly 30 days by an owner's notice to foreclose. Because the recording deadline, the pre-lien notice, the no-lien contract regime, and the shortenable enforcement clock all interact, verify the current Article 28, Chapter 3 requirements against the project's facts rather than applying another state's framework. For significant claims, the precision Indiana demands makes consulting experienced Indiana construction counsel a worthwhile investment.