Notice of Commencement vs. Preliminary Notice: What Construction Teams Confuse
Two of the most commonly confused documents in construction lien law are the Notice of Commencement and the Preliminary Notice. They sound alike, they both get filed near the start of a project, and both are tied to lien rights. The mistake is thinking they serve the same purpose. They don't — they serve opposite sides of the same transaction.
A Notice of Commencement is filed by the owner (or their agent, usually the GC on the owner's behalf) to announce that work is starting on a specific property. A Preliminary Notice — which in some states is called a Notice to Owner, a 20-Day Notice, or a Notice of Furnishing — is filed by a subcontractor, supplier, or other claimant to preserve their right to file a mechanic's lien if they don't get paid.
One is filed by the property side. The other is filed by the money-at-risk side. They are both notices, but the information, the audience, and the legal effect are different.
A Notice of Commencement, or NOC, is a recorded document filed with the county clerk (or recorder, or local land records office — the exact office depends on the state). It identifies the property, the owner, the general contractor, the lender if one is involved, and the start date of construction. It's the public declaration that a project is underway.
The NOC serves two main purposes. First, it gives prospective claimants — subs, suppliers, anyone who might later work on the project — a way to find the owner and the direct contractor so they can send their own preliminary notices. Second, in some states it starts or anchors statutory deadlines for claims. Florida and Georgia, for example, tie lien rights and enforcement periods to the NOC.
Not every state requires an NOC. Some states use a Notice of Project, a Notice to Commence Work, or no equivalent at all. In states with no NOC requirement, the preliminary notice system works without the anchor document — subs have to find the owner and contractor on their own.
A Preliminary Notice is sent by someone furnishing labor, services, or materials to the project. Its job is to notify the owner, the GC, and (sometimes) the lender that the sender is on the project and that they intend to be paid. Under most state lien statutes, the sender has to have sent this notice in order to file a mechanic's lien later if payment doesn't come through.
The deadline for sending a Preliminary Notice is usually measured from first furnishing — the first day the claimant delivered materials or started labor on the project. 20 days is the most common statutory window, but it varies: California is 20 days, Florida is 45 days for lower tiers, Arizona is 20 days, Texas uses a monthly notice system for retainage and a separate pre-lien notice, and so on.
If a preliminary notice is sent late, lien rights for work before the notice date are usually lost. Some states allow a late notice to preserve rights for the work going forward but not backward — a partial save. Missing the deadline entirely is one of the most common ways lien rights get lost.
A quick directional map to cut through the confusion:
Who files each notice, and who receives it
- Notice of Commencement — filed by the OWNER (often via the GC as agent), RECORDED with the county, and posted on the job site. Read by: anyone who might work on or supply the project.
- Preliminary Notice — sent by a SUB, SUPPLIER, or other claimant, DELIVERED to the owner, GC, and (sometimes) the lender. Read by: the parties whose payment flow the claimant is on.
- Notice of Nonpayment — a separate follow-up notice some states require if the claimant hasn't been paid; it's an escalation, not a substitute for the initial preliminary notice.
- Notice of Intent to Lien — a final warning sent shortly before filing the lien itself. Not the same as a preliminary notice; the preliminary notice is the baseline that preserves the right to escalate.
The rules are genuinely different in each state, and the terminology changes. A few examples to show the range:
How the same concept changes across state lines
- Florida — NOC required for most private projects; preliminary notice is called "Notice to Owner," due within 45 days of first furnishing for lower-tier claimants.
- California — No NOC required for private jobs; preliminary notice due within 20 days of first furnishing, sent to owner, direct contractor, and construction lender.
- Texas — No NOC; lien statute uses a monthly notice-to-owner system during the work and a pre-lien notice before filing, each with its own deadlines.
- New York — No NOC for private jobs; lien statute runs on time-since-last-furnishing, not on a preliminary notice.
- Arizona — No NOC required; preliminary notice due within 20 days of first furnishing; without it, lien rights are generally forfeited.
- Georgia — NOC required for private commercial projects; notice to contractor required if the claimant doesn't have a direct contract with the GC.
Multi-state contractors can't rely on a single playbook. The compliance team needs a per-state lookup that identifies whether an NOC is required, what the preliminary notice is called, when it's due, and to whom it has to be delivered.
Get AP insights in your inbox
A short monthly roundup of construction AP + accounting posts. No spam, ever.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
How the Two Notices Interact
When both exist on the same project, the NOC tells the claimant where to send their preliminary notice. The claimant finds the NOC in the county records (or posted on the job site), reads off the owner's address and the GC's address, and sends the preliminary notice to those addresses. Without the NOC, the claimant has to find those parties on their own — a slower and more error-prone path.
An invalid or inaccurate NOC can create problems for everyone. If the NOC has the wrong owner address, a preliminary notice sent in good faith to that address may not give valid notice to the actual owner. Some states require the owner to update the NOC when material information changes. When a claimant's lien is later challenged, the notices' delivery histories get scrutinized.
For the paying side — owners, developers, and GCs processing invoices — the relevant discipline is tracking which subs and suppliers have sent preliminary notices. On a lien-state project, every preliminary notice received should be logged against the relevant sub or supplier, and the claimant's expected total billing should be noted.
When it's time to release retention or cut a final payment, the AP team checks: did every party who sent a preliminary notice sign a final lien waiver for the amount they billed? Anyone who sent a preliminary notice and hasn't signed an unconditional waiver for their full billing has preserved the right to lien. Final payment should not go out on that sub's contract, and it's usually prudent to hold retention on any upstream sub that hired them.
The AP log for preliminary notices
- Sender name, address, and contact
- Date first received (and date postmarked, for timeliness evidence)
- Claimed first-furnishing date
- Estimated total claim amount (if stated on the notice)
- Tier — is this from a direct subcontractor, a sub-sub, or a supplier?
- Link to the vendor / subcontract record in the AP system
- Status of lien waivers against this claimant's work
If you're a sub or supplier filing preliminary notices, the discipline is internal: a first-furnishing tracker per project, calendared to the state's notice deadline, with a queue of notices to send out. Most specialty firms use a lien-rights service (National Lien & Bond, Levelset, and others) to automate the mechanics, which is how mid-market trades cover the 20-state or 50-state spread without dedicated in-house staff.
Tracking the NOC for each project helps you send the preliminary notice to the correct addresses. For new projects in an NOC state, pull the NOC from the county records at mobilization; for projects without an NOC, get the owner and GC information from the contract or the project's title work.
Notice of Commencement and Preliminary Notice are both lien-law documents, but they sit on opposite sides of the payment flow. The NOC is the owner's declaration that work has started, and it functions as the address book for the claimants. The Preliminary Notice is the claimant's announcement that they're on the project and intend to preserve lien rights. Confusing them leads to missed deadlines, invalid notices, and lost lien claims. Keeping them straight — and running the state-specific deadlines through the compliance tracker — is how trades and GCs protect themselves on the notice side.
Written by
Jordan Patel
Compliance & Legal
Former corporate counsel specializing in construction contracts and tax compliance. Writes about the documentation layer — COIs, W-8/W-9, certified payroll, notice-to-owner deadlines — and the legal backbone behind audit-ready AP.
View all posts